Spotify (and Audioboom) post profit

• Spotify published its Q2 2024 results. As part of a record high $297mn quarterly profit, the company reported improved podcast profitability, “driven by growth in impressions sold across Original and Licensed podcasts and the Spotify Audience Network”. The company says it has more than 6 million podcasts.

  • Spotify’s monthly active users grew 14% year-on-year, but missed targets by 5mn.
  • A reminder that Spotify for Podcasters has a free masterclass on Thursday about how to use video.
  • More from Daniel Ek about the benefits of video podcasting below.

• Audioboom published its H1 2024 results. eCPM (revenue per 1,000 downloads) was up 38% in Q2. Revenue is up 7% in total, and adjusted EBITDA profit is $0.3mn.

  • CEO Stuart Last estimates that the changes in Apple’s iOS 17 update have cost them $9mn in revenue. Earlier in the year, Acast had put its iOS 17 costs at $7.2mn.

• More keynote speakers at the upcoming Podcast Movement in August. Ira Glass is the iconic voice behind This American Life, and will join NPR’s Wild Card host Rachel Martin on stage. Additionally, a new edition of The Podcast Landscape will be shared on stage. Use code PODNEWS to save on passes.

• YouTube Music added the ability to mark a podcast as played earlier in the month. We also notice that in Australia, we now get a “podcasts” chip at the top of the screen; you can now auto-download shows; and there are ways of filtering episode lists to only show, for example, unplayed or downloaded episodes.

• Magellan AI shared its list of top (US) podcast advertisers for June. BetterHelp remains at #1; AI voice provider AudioStack is the newest “mover and shaker”, spending $1.7mn. Magellan AI has a short webinar on Thursday to discuss the results.

• FeaturedUp, a Q&A platform for podcasters, is to close. “We have not achieved the necessary growth in the podcast community to sustain our operations,” said founder Gurneet Paul in an email to users.

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Daniel Ek on podcasts in Spotify

Question: Now that major podcasts are largely non-exclusive, how has podcasts engagement changed on Spotify as more of the industry shifts to video podcasts? How do you attract more creators and grow engagement versus a platform like YouTube?

Ek: First and foremost we are seeing very healthy engagement on podcasts. Where we have video podcasts, engagement is even higher than what we have seen when it’s audio only, which is a really positive testament. This is also what organically creates word of mouth with creators. So we’re seeing more and more creators now uploading video content too. We have about a quarter a million [video podcasts] already. Consumers of today don’t really care too much about formats. They’re actually moving in between of audio, video and even reading things very effortlessly, especially younger consumers. And so creators will obviously respond to that and should make their content available in as many formats as possible.

The way we attract more creators is a bucket of three things. So I think that the first bucket is things that are native to the Spotify platform. So things like podcasters already like musicians, those are sort of a prime bucket to convert and add more things because they’ll see higher engagement and thereby higher monetization. Then I think there’s a second bucket, which is if you’re already uploading video to other platforms today, you’ve taken most of your costs already. So it makes a lot of sense for you to try to amortize that cost against as many platforms as possible. And you see this already where a lot of people on the short side are uploading not just to one platform but are uploading to many platforms. And we’re starting to see some of that behavior happening on Spotify, too. And then I think lastly, there’s things that will perform a lot better on the Spotify platform than perhaps on other platforms. For instance, longer form content tends to do really well on Spotify on video because people go back and forth between backgrounding and foregrounding. And that is something that works really well on Spotify because of our lean back history as a platform. So overall it’s looking very nicely and with lots of improvement, of course, and more and more creators are coming to the platform each and every day.

People News

• Mark Kesman has been hired as SVP of Finance Strategy & Operations at Lemonada Media. He joins from Rooster Teeth.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• Some people are seeing some stats from YouTube Music in their podcast hosting stats dashboard. Here’s why they’re appearing.
• And, while we’re here, here’s why your podcast host probably doesn’t have YouTube stats.

Podcast News

Looking Forward: Opportunities for Job, Career, Business, and Investment Seekers has announced that it is to be aired on the Podcast Radio Network. The show focuses on global trends and opportunities, with tips from recognized experts on how people might capitalise on them.

In Canadaland’s COMMONS feed at the moment: an English translation of Radio France’s award-winning podcast Inside Kabul - the story of two young Afghan women, Raha and Marwa, whose lives are forever changed when the Taliban comes to power. Over the course of a year, Raha and Marwa exchange and record hundreds of voice notes with noted journalist Caroline Gillet. What emerges is a raw and incredibly intimate chronicle of two young women coming of age amidst the collapse of the world they had known. It’s the first show that Canadaland has licensed in this way.

The We Society returned for a new season earlier this month from the UK’s Academy of Social Science. Hosted by Will Hutton, the show features big ideas from the world of Social Science on issues such as education, drug reform and young carers. Perfect listening for a new Labour government, you’d think.

Compelled officially turns 6 years old today. The show has released 82 episodes spread across 1.7 million downloads and is focused on amazing true-life testimonies from Christians around the world. To celebrate, they launched Season 8 with the story of a survivor from the Rwandan Genocide (he was 5 years old when his family was murdered a few feet away from him).

Rock ’n Roll Birder launches today, attempting to prove that some people interested in birdwatching are cooler than you think. Hosted by Matt and Sarah Spracklen, the show goes out in the elements visiting beauty spots and nature reserves across the UK where the birds are always the stars of the show; with expert guests, too.

And from Spotify, a thrilling new episode of Spotify Earnings Call Replays was released. Hosted by Daniel and Ben, the episode focuses on a mysterious drop in expected MAUs in early 2024 - even as profits hit an all-time high. Who is to blame? Who is the man called Bryan who talks about a safe harbor? What even is a safe harbor? And what legendary beast is it keeping the ships safe from?