![A Spotify logo with swirly colours](https://i.podnews.network/r/a/840/podnews240724.jpeg)
Spotify (and Audioboom) post profit
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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![Spotify Earnings Call Replays](https://i.podnews.network/r/t/75/461349-7e9d67fa.jpeg)
Companies mentioned above:Acast
Audioboom
Audiohook
Canadaland
Magellan AI
Spotify
YouTube
YouTube Music
Podcast data for Jul 24
#1 in Apple Podcasts Hysterical (Wondery | Pineapple Street Studios)
Du dør hvis du græder (JFM)
#1 in Spotify The Joe Rogan Experience (Joe Rogan)
Pretty Lonesome with Madeline Argy (Unwell)
Over the last week, 181,873 podcasts published at least one new episode (down 1.6%). source
Events - with Podcast Movement 2024: Aug 19-22
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