A listener once told me they hoped I'd quit teaching altogether. Another told me, in the nicest way possible, that the curmudgeon was showing up a little too early these days. Only one of those helped my show. This month's Question of the Month was all about feedback: what's the most constructive feedback you've ever received, and what's the most destructive? A few listeners sent in their answers, I share mine, and to prove how much feedback matters, I dig up some embarrassing basement recordings from a much younger Dave Jackson. Let's get into it.Why Aren't You Getting Feedback? It honestly boggles my mind how many podcasters never ask for feedback and then wonder why their show isn't growing. Think of it like making someone a sandwich. You can ask, "I've got baloney, smoked turkey, or salami. Which do you want?" and make something they'll actually eat. Or you can hand everyone salami and say "tell your friends," while half of them are quietly thinking, "I hate salami."Ralph Estep Jr.: "Go Hire a Speaking Coach" Ralph, the content creator's accountant, says the best feedback he ever got was to hire a speaking coach. People (me included) told him he sounded robotic on his show, nothing like the Ralph you meet on a Zoom call or in person. He found a coach, and it changed the way he does everything. On the other side, he's had people tell him they hope he gets hit by a bus or struck by lightning over his religious views. He's not taking that advice. His point: when you get feedback, consider who it's coming from and whether it makes sense to act on it.York Campbell: The Name Was the Problem York's show used to be called Poetic Earthlings, and people kept assuming it was about poetry. It's actually short sci-fi stories: time travel, alien worlds, hyperdimensional creatures, and a few conspiracy theories. A fellow podcaster suggested Welcome to Earth Stories, and once he made the change, the attention and downloads followed. As York put it, sometimes you fall in love with a clever name because of what it means to you, and never stop to ask whether anyone else will understand it.Timothy Kimo Brien: "You Called My Baby Ugly" Tim submitted his old show, KDOI Podcasting (Kimo's Den of Iniquity), to the Podcast Rodeo Show. I said it sounded like a radio station, and the full name sounded like... something else entirely. Tim was not a happy camper. Later, sitting at a podcast conference and hearing someone talk about making your show's title clear, he asked himself what his show actually does: it's about creating art. Hello, Create Art Podcast. He's gone from roughly 200–300 downloads a month to between 1,000 and 1,500. He says it's not necessarily because of the name change. I say probably. Either way, it helped him focus on what the show is really about.My Best Feedback: The Curmudgeon Is Showing Before Podfest even started, my buddy Steve Stewart asked me to lunch and asked if I was open to notes. I grew up professionally with "constant improvement" on the walls of my first job, so of course I was. He told me the curmudgeon was coming out a little quicker than it used to. That was gold, because it was something I could control and fix. And it came from someone whose opinion I value, someone who'll tell me when something's good and when it isn't. Knowledge is only power when you act on it.My First Bad Review (and What Good Feedback Looks Like) In 2010, five years into podcasting, I got my first negative review: basically "not good, not enough thought, it's a commercial for bad services." It knocked me back on my heels, but there was nothing I could fix, because it never said why. (This is why I now say you're not a real podcaster until you get a one-star review.) Compare that to a 2017 review from a listener who wanted to hear the show but said the mix had a hiss or too much treble. That's great feedback. It's specific, and I could have adjusted it (I was using the Electro-Voice RE320 back then and liked my S's and T's crisp). The only problem is he should have sent it to me directly. A few things to keep in mind:The person might be having a bad day. After decades in customer support, I've seen people apologize later once they calmed down.Ask yourself: do they have a point? If so, can you fix it?Make it easy for feedback to reach you. A review isn't a direct line.Save the nice messages. On days you don't feel like recording, they remind you people are listening.Reviews are social proof, but they don't help you get found. Apple has said so. When Feedback Goes Wrong: The Podcast Rodeo Show In 2017 I launched the Podcast Rodeo Show, where I'd grab a random podcast and give a real first impression. (Half of YouTube is reaction videos now. I'm taking credit for inventing it. I didn't.) One episode, a host opened by sharing a string of genuinely awful personal experiences, all within the first few minutes, and never said what the show was about, who it was for, or even that it was an interview. My feedback was all logic: what's in it for the listener? As Erik K. Johnson says, nobody gets on a bus if they don't know where it's going. Don't bury the lead. People don't care about you until you give them a reason to care. She emailed and attacked me personally, said I was cruel and should never call myself a teacher. It hit me hard enough that I worried the show was hurting my brand, and it's part of why the show eventually ended. Listening back now, I could have been more compassionate. But when I asked my audience whether they wanted a kinder, gentler version, they very loudly said no. So the show evolved (a little less "listen and react," a little more "what do we want them to learn") and got rebranded, first to Podcast Hot Seat (people said that sounded painful) and now to Fix My Podcast.Scott Orr: How to Take Hard Feedback Now compare that to Scott Orr, an award-winning journalist and host of Code 3 – The Firefighters Podcast. Before one review, I reached out and said, respectfully, "Scott, you sound like you're drunk." He replied that he didn't have a drinking problem. He has Parkinson's. Instead of getting angry, Scott took the feedback and now opens every episode by saying he won't let Parkinson's stop him. When Scott later came on the Podcast Review Show, Erik K. Johnson pointed out that addressing it up front is disarming. Listeners stop wondering what's going on and focus on what Scott's saying, not how he's saying it. Honest? Yes. Awkward? Yes. Helpful? Absolutely.You Can't See Your Own Typos My favorite example: I once had a typo in the School of Podcasting's own tagline ("plan, launch, grow, and monetize") and didn't catch it. Sometimes you just don't see it.Young Dave Jackson's Basement Tapes At School of Podcasting we hold listener parties, where members listen to an episode together and give feedback in real time. Some people cringe at the idea. So here's my confession: in my twenties I was basically Ross from Friends, recording angry '80s rock in my basement. Guitar, bass, keys, drum machine, and, unfortunately, all the vocals. I'd hit play and leave the room while friends listened. Their feedback? "Who's playing the piano?" Me. "Who's on bass?" Me. Nobody said a word about the music. Just recently, my brother found that CD and told me the songs and singing weren't that bad, but the mix was horrendous. Thirty years later. A little late. Here's the scary part: you're going to be judged anyway. Wouldn't it make more sense to be judged in a way where you can capture the feedback and make changes before you publish?The Sidewalk Lesson A few years ago on the Fourth of July, I fell on an uneven sidewalk while looking at my phone and still have the scars on my knees. That was feedback too, just the painful kind. If someone had warned me about that raised block of cement ahead of time, I'd have saved myself a lot of trouble. That's what good feedback does. Give me feedback on this show: head to schoolofpodcasting.com/survey and tell me how I can make it better. I'm doing this show for you. Want help growing your show? Go to schoolofpodcasting.com and use the coupon code LISTENER for a monthly, quarterly, or yearly subscription, backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. Next week: one thing I did in under five minutes that put me directly in front of my target audience. Follow at schoolofpodcasting.com/follow so you get it the minute it drops.Contributors & LinksRalph Estep Jr., the Content Creator's Accountant: https://ralphestepjr.comBecoming Financially Confident (live weekdays, 11:30 a.m. ET): https://becomingfinanciallyconfident.comYork Campbell, Welcome to Earth...

Fairing, the attribution platform that turns direct customer feedback into reliable marketing attribution data, today announced a partnership with Podscribe, the IAB-certified measurement standard powering attribution and verification across 25,000 podcast shows, to help brands identify the exact shows and formats driving podcast-attributed sales. Podcast attribution has a structural constraint: pixels can only track what platforms allow them to see. IP matching still works well on traditional RSS audio, but listening habits have shifted. More Americans now watch podcasts on YouTube than on any other service, where Google shares zero IP data. The new integration connects Podscribe's campaign data directly with Fairing's post-purchase surveys. Every active Podscribe campaign automatically populates as a response option in Fairing, refreshed daily and tagged with where it ran. When a customer identifies a show as influencing their purchase, that response is sent back to Podscribe as a verified conversion, giving brands show and format-level attribution rather than broad “YouTube” or “Podcast” responses. Matt Bahr, co-founder and CEO of Fairing, said: “Podcast advertising has scaled because IP matching worked well enough for years. But as more listening moves to platforms that don't share the necessary signals, layering in customer-reported attribution has become increasingly important. By connecting Podscribe's exposure data with what customers tell us directly, we can finally attribute the shows and formats that are driving revenue.” Patrick Schmidt, VP of Partnerships at Podscribe, said: “We track every show, host-read ad and simulcast that actually ran, but understanding the full customer journey requires knowing what influenced someone to convert. Our integration with Fairing helps advertisers connect what customers say influenced their purchase on a deeper level by allowing them to identify where they were exposed to an advertiser’s message. That gives brands a more complete picture of customer behavior and a clearer understanding of which podcasts contribute to conversion.” In an early rollout with personal care brand Mando, adding auto-suggest follow-ups to capture podcast and simulcast responses reduced unassigned survey responses by 3.12% and improved blended podcast CPA by 9.2% on the same spend, helping the brand identify and renew high-performing shows it had been at risk of cutting. “We only get so far with ‘podcast’ as a response. Auto-suggest has been huge – it gives us show-level insights we just couldn't get before,” said Tom Herer, Senior Manager of Offline Performance Marketing at Mando parent company Mammoth Brands. The integration is available now to all Fairing customers on the Advanced Attribution plan and can be connected in minutes without engineering support. Once connected, Podscribe campaign rosters sync with Fairing daily, and customer-reported conversions flow back to Podscribe automatically. Customer-reported conversions can also be pushed into more than 25 measurement platforms and data warehouses, allowing the data to complement existing MTA, incrementality and MMM approaches.

Show notes are where an episode comes together. It’s where you plan the questions, keep the links you promised to mention, and work out with your guest what you’ll cover. So when the people using show.fm every week told us the page felt busy, we listened. Today, on International Podcast Day, a calmer Show Notes ... Read more

We've got some nice updates for you from show.fm easier to find transcripts and some granular calendar booking controls.

Fairing, the attribution platform that turns direct customer feedback into reliable marketing attribution data, today announced a partnership with Podscribe, the IAB-certified measurement standard powering attribution and verification across 25,000 podcast shows, to help brands identify the exact shows and formats driving podcast-attributed sales. Podcast attribution has a structural constraint: pixels can only track what platforms allow them to see. IP matching still works well on traditional RSS audio, but listening habits have shifted. More Americans now watch podcasts on YouTube than on any other service, where Google shares zero IP data. The new integration connects Podscribe's campaign data directly with Fairing's post-purchase surveys. Every active Podscribe campaign automatically populates as a response option in Fairing, refreshed daily and tagged with where it ran. When a customer identifies a show as influencing their purchase, that response is sent back to Podscribe as a verified conversion, giving brands show and format-level attribution rather than broad “YouTube” or “Podcast” responses. Matt Bahr, co-founder and CEO of Fairing, said: “Podcast advertising has scaled because IP matching worked well enough for years. But as more listening moves to platforms that don't share the necessary signals, layering in customer-reported attribution has become increasingly important. By connecting Podscribe's exposure data with what customers tell us directly, we can finally attribute the shows and formats that are driving revenue.” Patrick Schmidt, VP of Partnerships at Podscribe, said: “We track every show, host-read ad and simulcast that actually ran, but understanding the full customer journey requires knowing what influenced someone to convert. Our integration with Fairing helps advertisers connect what customers say influenced their purchase on a deeper level by allowing them to identify where they were exposed to an advertiser’s message. That gives brands a more complete picture of customer behavior and a clearer understanding of which podcasts contribute to conversion.” In an early rollout with personal care brand Mando, adding auto-suggest follow-ups to capture podcast and simulcast responses reduced unassigned survey responses by 3.12% and improved blended podcast CPA by 9.2% on the same spend, helping the brand identify and renew high-performing shows it had been at risk of cutting. “We only get so far with ‘podcast’ as a response. Auto-suggest has been huge – it gives us show-level insights we just couldn't get before,” said Tom Herer, Senior Manager of Offline Performance Marketing at Mando parent company Mammoth Brands. The integration is available now to all Fairing customers on the Advanced Attribution plan and can be connected in minutes without engineering support. Once connected, Podscribe campaign rosters sync with Fairing daily, and customer-reported conversions flow back to Podscribe automatically. Customer-reported conversions can also be pushed into more than 25 measurement platforms and data warehouses, allowing the data to complement existing MTA, incrementality and MMM approaches.

Point-To-Point Marketing and Strategic Solutions Research have completed the first webinar in their series revealing findings from The Podcast Study 2026, with new data showing the significant role podcast hosts play in audience loyalty, discovery, and advertising effectiveness. The webinar, The Importance of the Host and the Power of Trust, was presented by Tim Bronsil, CEO of Point-To-Point Marketing, and Hal Rood, Partner at Strategic Solutions Research. The Podcast Study 2026 surveyed 1,205 U.S. podcast consumers, with the sample balanced according to the most recent U.S. Census. The study is sponsored by Crooked Media, NPR, and PRX. One of the clearest findings from the webinar was the importance of the relationship between listeners and the people hosting their favorite podcasts. Among respondents with a favorite podcast, eighty-two percent said the host is either a big part of, or the only reason for, their listening. That relationship also creates significant audience retention implications. Fifty-six percent said they would either definitely stop listening or seriously consider stopping if the host of their favorite podcast permanently left. At the same time, seventy-eight percent said they would continue listening often or sometimes if the host was simply away on vacation, suggesting that a strong host can build equity for the larger podcast brand. “The host kept showing up throughout the research,” said Bronsil. “It wasn’t just about why someone likes a show. The host impacts whether someone discovers the podcast, whether they stay with it, and how they respond to the advertising. For podcast companies, the host should be viewed as an audience development asset as well as a content asset.” The study also found a measurable advertising advantage for host endorsements. Fifty-seven percent said they are more likely to remember a brand after hearing it endorsed by a podcast host, while fifty-five percent said they are more likely to notice advertising from that brand again. When listeners were asked specifically about the ability of an ad to influence trial or purchase, forty percent said they were highly likely or likely to try or buy after hearing the host personally read and endorse the product, compared with twenty-seven percent for a prerecorded ad not read by the host. That represents a forty-eight percent relative increase in influence for the host-read execution. “The data gives us a much clearer picture of what trust can mean commercially,” said Rood. “The host relationship doesn’t stop when the content moves into an advertising break. In many cases, that existing trust appears to carry directly into how the listener receives the advertiser and remembers the brand.” The webinar also revealed several findings with implications for audience growth: 45% said recognizing or liking the host can influence them to try a new podcast, nearly matching the impact of seeing multiple social media clips. 54% said they grew to love their favorite podcast over time rather than immediately. 55% decide what they think about a new podcast within the first five minutes, including 14% who decide within the first minute. 38% said they are unlikely to give a disappointing podcast a second chance. 47% said they would be likely to listen for the opportunity to interact with a favorite host. The research also identified a potential new subscription model. Forty-five percent of podcast consumers said they would be at least somewhat likely to pay for a tier that removes all advertising except host-read ads. “That was one of the most interesting findings for me,” Rood said. “We tend to think about the choice as ads or no ads. Listeners appear to be telling us there may be a third option. Host-read advertising can feel different because it is delivered by someone they have already chosen to spend time with and trust.” The Podcast Study 2026 webinar series will continue October 6 with Turning Listeners Into Superfans and October 13 with Beyond the Pre-Roll. Registration and information from The Podcast Study 2026 are available at ThePodcastStudy.com.

The all-in-one podcast operations platform. Automate guest booking, show notes, social posting, and hosting so you can focus on content.

Crossed Wires has announced a landmark year, with this year's independent economic assessment confirming the 2026 festival generated £6.65 million in total economic impact, demonstrating the growing value of the event to Sheffield's visitor economy. After doubling footfall to 50,000 attendees in 2026, the festival has further cemented its position as one of the world’s fastest-growing cultural festivals. Alongside its strong local community roots, just over half (52%) of festivalgoers travelled from outside of South Yorkshire, with 40% outside the UK North and Midlands, and Londoners sitting within the top five domestic tourists. International tickets continued to sell in the festival’s third year too, bringing audiences from America, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, France, Canada and Australia to Sheffield as part of their UK summer plans. Catering to a broad appetite for live podcasts across ages, 2026 headliners ranged between Get A Grip with Vicky Pattison and Angela Scanlon to Elis James and John Robins. This was reflected in almost an even spread of ages spanning 25-65 years old: Over a quarter (28%) of attendees were aged 25-34, over a third (34%) aged 35-44 and another third (32%) aged 45-64. Founded just three years ago, Crossed Wires has rapidly evolved from an ambitious start-up festival into a nationally significant event, attracting audiences from across the UK and beyond. With visitors travelling from across the country, Crossed Wires now sits alongside major city events such as the World Snooker Championship and Tramlines Festival as one of Sheffield's most significant drivers of tourism, visitor spend and economic activity. The 2026 festival brought together some of the biggest names in podcasting, broadcasting, comedy, sport and entertainment, drawing visitors from across the country and transforming venues throughout Sheffield into a celebration of live audio, storytelling and culture. South Yorkshire's Mayor, Oliver Coppard said: "When we backed Crossed Wires in its early days, we knew South Yorkshire had the talent, creativity and ambition to make something truly special. What's happened since has been incredible. Tens of thousands of people have come to our region, filling venues, supporting local businesses and bringing millions of pounds into our economy. That's good news for Sheffield and for our communities right across South Yorkshire. Crossed Wires shows what's possible when you back creative people with big ideas. We've got world-class talent here in South Yorkshire and we’re building a reputation as a place where creators, producers and the wider industry, including the BBC, want to be. I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved together so far, and I’m excited about what comes next: making South Yorkshire the home of audio storytelling, creating new opportunities and building on the success we've already seen." Sheffield City Council’s City Executive, Kate Josephs said: “Crossed Wires has become one of Sheffield's standout cultural success stories. In just a few years it has grown into a festival with national reach, drawing audiences, talent and industry figures to our city while creating a fantastic experience for residents and visitors alike. What makes Crossed Wires so special is that it reflects the creativity and originality that Sheffield is known for. The festival brings people together, showcases our unique venues and strengthens our reputation as a city that champions culture and creative innovation in the podcasting space. The festival's ability to bring high profile national hosts, guests and programmes into our city for a wide range of audiences to enjoy is key to its success and we're very proud of everything that Crossed Wires has achieved and delivered so far. We are incredibly proud to support Crossed Wires and the team behind it. Their ambition, energy and commitment have delivered another exceptional festival this year, and we look forward to continuing our partnership as they build on that success in the years ahead.” Co-Founder Dino Sofos, said: “We’re delighted to see Crossed Wires become one of South Yorkshire’s biggest cultural events in just three years. There’s a real buzz around the festival, and reaching 50,000 attendees while generating over £6million for the local economy this year shows the scale of what we’ve created - and its potential to grow even further. We’re enormously grateful to the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and Sheffield City Council for backing our vision from the beginning. Their support has helped us turn an ambitious new creative venture into a groundbreaking event with genuine international significance. With continued investment, we can build a global success story here in Sheffield, bringing more visitors, opportunities and creative talent to the city.”

Podcast Movement 2026 Reflections + Lessons from Two People Who Run Podcast Events I just got back from Podcast Movement, and a lot of you have been asking whether it was still worth going now that it's under new ownership, in a new location, with a whole new format. Short answer: I'm definitely going back. In this episode I walk through what changed, what I loved, what I'd tweak, and what Tom Webster's data says about where podcasting really stands. Then I sit down with two guys who have actually done it, Marc Ronick of Empowered Podcasting and Dr. Brad Miller of Pod Indy, to get the behind-the-scenes story of running a podcast event. If you've ever had that little voice in your head saying "maybe I should start my own meetup or conference," this one is for you.Podcast Movement 2026: Was It Worth It? I went down the list, old Podcast Movement versus new. The hotel and the cost. It used to be at Gaylord hotels, which run $1,000 a night, where the burgers are $30 apiece and you never leave the building. This year was BYOH: bring your own hotel. I stayed two nights at a Holiday Inn Express for $400 a night. Still pricey, but nowhere near the Gaylord. Tickets were also much cheaper because they weren't paying for that hotel arrangement. Point to the new Podcast Movement. The venue. Picture a small theater (think House of Blues) that had a baby with a cruise ship: three floors, and you can look down at the main stage from the top. The rooms were narrower, so the back row was farther from the stage than I was used to. I also learned I need new glasses, because the giant screen was split in two and I couldn't read the slides. Sessions ran with silent-disco-style headphones: turn the dial to yellow or green and you hear that stage. The strange part is that people talk while someone is presenting a few feet away. It went against everything in my body, but it works, and I could network the whole time. My one suggestion: turn on the house lights during networking breaks. When you have 40 minutes to meet people and can't see who's in the room, it's a problem (unless it's Rob Greenley, who is six foot six inches). Networking and the parties. PodPage hosted a small meetup, and I walked over to the Buzzsprout meetup too. Both were places where you could actually talk, with no blaring music. I've talked to Dan Franks, who helps plan Podcast Movement, and he says they tell every sponsor that people want to talk, not have their ears bleed. Nice to see it work. New York City. I'll miss Dallas and Chicago, but it's supposedly staying in New York to make it easier for international attendees. The food was a win, and I never felt unsafe walking around Hell's Kitchen. I ate at Cubbies and at McGee's, which I didn't realize until halfway through is tied to How I Met Your Mother. A smarter schedule. Monday and Tuesday were geared toward the business and advertising side, and Thursday and Friday were for indie podcasters. That means indie folks can save on the hotel bill. The talks are going online. They're putting the presentations on the Podcast Movement YouTube channel for free. I'm looking forward to catching the ones I missed, including Lou Mangiello and Rob Walch's talk about video.What I Learned from Tom Webster If you only see one talk at a conference, make it Tom Webster's. Here's what stuck with me:Podcasting has gone flat. It used to grow at least 3 to 5% a year, occasionally 7%. This past year it barely moved. It's still growing, but by a very small amount.Where people listen. In a survey of roughly 5,000 podcast consumers, the top three places were YouTube, Spotify, and Netflix. Not Apple, Pocket Casts, or Overcast.Where I disagree. YouTube and Spotify are open to anyone, so I get why people call them podcasts. Netflix isn't open. They have to choose you, and there's no RSS feed. For me, a podcast is an RSS feed with audio or video in it.Tom's Walmart analogy. Look at the CD section: a tiny collection of only the biggest hits (Back in Black, Rumors), nothing like a dedicated record store. His suggestion was that we should promote podcast-specific apps. My favorite is Pocket Casts: it plays audio and video, it has bookmarks (that's how I grab the clips I play on the show), and it has a web version. Podcast Standards Project: PodRoll Is Coming I sat in on my first Podcast Standards Project meeting. PodRoll, from the Podcasting 2.0 spec, is the modern version of a blogroll: a list of shows you personally recommend, living in your feed. Because feeds are public, anyone can see who's recommended most. That's human recommendations, not an algorithm you try to trick. Ask your media host if they support it (if not move ton one that does). The group is also looking at adding location, so you could find podcasts in your area.Video: Do You Have To? Some people insist you have to do video. Others said not only do you not have to, but the shows that added it didn't see much benefit beyond more work, cost, and time. In Apple's video spotlight, the shows featured were already big. I'm looking forward to Rob Walch's full presentation, because that's exactly the kind of "what's working and what's not" you go to a conference to learn.Small Events vs. Big Ones Podcast Movement had probably over 1,000 people. Empowered Podcasting had a little over 100 (about 150 this year), and Pod Indy will land somewhere between 50 and 100. Podfest usually draws a couple thousand. My favorite kind of event is single-track: everyone hears the same content, so when you step into the hallway you all have something to talk about.Interview: Running a Podcast Event with Marc Ronick and Dr. Brad Miller Why they started. Brad spent 43 years as a pastor and was a Christian concert promoter, so he'd seen the power of live events. After connecting with his local podcasting group in Indianapolis, he launched Pod Indy in 2023 (I keynoted the first one), and the fourth is coming up. Mark had been podcasting as long as I have, and didn't step into a conference until about five years ago. He felt a little out of place at the big ones, so he built a place where he'd feel comfortable. Small is a feature. Mark went in wanting Empowered Podcasting to become the next Podcast Movement. After the first one (2024, under 100 people) he noticed magic in a smaller, more intimate room, where people were learning from each other outside the sessions. He'd cap it around 200. Brad goes deep on one track, one day. The biggest surprises:You can't do it alone. Mark thought he could run it almost by himself. He carried the financial and emotional load, burned out after year two, and nearly canceled three times. Jason and Rich stepped in to save it, and he made them business partners.Ticket sales come late. In Mark's second year, only about 20 tickets sold before the final month. Brad says two-thirds of tickets arrive in the last month. This year's sales were smoother for both, and both say credibility builds over time.Bring enough lead time. Brad's first event had only three months, and he bit off more than he could chew. He also lost money using a business center, so he moved it to his church, where he has a studio, and kept it to one day with no hotel block.Hotel blocks. If you don't fill the rooms, you pay anyway. Mark's went fine this year because speakers and a good share of attendees needed rooms. Money, honestly. Brad started by deciding what he could afford to lose (he did lose some the first year, and calls it an investment). Mark admits he wasn't careful with money in the first two years and took on some debt. Both credit their wives, Debbie and Amy, for keeping them grounded and for believing in the vision. Advice if you're thinking about it:Mark: Be okay with however many people show up. Start with a few who believe in your message. If they have a good experience, they come back and become your advocates.Brad: Build transformative relationships one on one, then a few together. Have coffee or lunch with someone, or start online, before deciding whether to do a formal event.Both: Virtual is great, but nothing replaces being around like-minded people in person. Choosing speakers. Mark's pet peeve is speaker submissions that are obviously written entirely by AI: "I love using AI, but that's a lazy move, and I don't know that I want a lazy speaker on one of my stages." (My favorite line on this: if you can't take the time to write it, produce it, or record it, why should I take the time to consume it?) Brad recruits speakers through personal relationships instead of an application process. Themes so far: podcasting as a business, AI, and this year taking your podcast (and your life) to the next level with keynote speaker Cliff Ravenscraft.Pod Indy: November 7, 2026When and where: November 7, 2026, in Whiteland, Indiana (suburban Indianapolis), 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.Tickets: $37 in person, $27 live stream.Discount: use code SOP for $5 off.On the lineup: Cliff Ravenscraft (keynote), John Lee Dumas (video), Craig on AI, and me. My Takeaway If you try to start with 1,000 people, you'll burn...

Historically, the media industry treated audio, video, and social as competing silos. Acast’s annual Podcast Pulse 2026 report, released today, reveals that audience behavior has shattered those boundaries - proving that in podcasting, what people consume is no longer a format choice but a context choice, driven by daily routines. For podcasters, this means multi-format distribution is about flexible audience reach - not a mandatory shift to video production. For advertisers, it means the potential audience is bigger than any single format can reach. The study reveals that 78% of fans globally consume podcasts across two or more formats, moving fluidly between long-form audio, video feeds, and podcast clips on social media based on where they are and what they’re doing. Multi-format consumption expands core audio rather than replacing it: 88% of fans actively consume both audio and video (up ten points from last year), while 10% remain dedicated audio-only listeners (and pure video sits at just 2%). Demonstrating this real-world fluidity, 63% of listeners start an episode in one format and finish it in another, with three-quarters switching apps mid-story to do so. "The industry spent years arguing over formats, but audiences moved on long ago," said Greg Glenday, CEO at Acast. "A podcast fan’s decision isn’t driven by format loyalty; it’s driven by whether they’re driving at 7 AM or on the couch at 9 PM. Once you see that, the audio-versus-video debate stops being interesting, and a much better commercial opportunity takes its place." Trust is moving in the same direction. 42% of fans now trust brand and product recommendations from podcasters, up nine points from 2025 - the only creator source to gain ground over the year. Journalists (31%), YouTubers (29%), celebrities (25%) and social media influencers (25%) all held flat or declined. Multiple Moments, One Connected Audience Drawing from 4,300 respondents across 13 markets, Podcast Pulse 2026 maps how daily context dictates what audiences listen to, watch, and buy across four of the moments where the data was loudest: Companion (screen-free reach): Audio dominates screenless moments, with 64% confirming podcasts are a daily companion. Conversion is exceptionally high, with 80% of audio listeners taking direct action post-episode. Settled (co-viewing at scale): 55% of fans co-view video podcasts on a Connected TV, making it podcasting’s primary screen moment where an advertiser reaches a room. Delivering results, 48% say video podcast ads increase brand recall. Scroll (the discovery engine): Social video clips are the main audience growth driver, with 63% of clip viewers converting into full-episode podcast consumers. Live (commercial advocacy at scale): Live event attendance has surged 80% since 2024 (1 in 3 fans), driving high-intent commerce: 28% buy from event sponsors, and 34% post user-generated content. What This Means for Advertisers In a multi-format environment, context solves the industry's biggest media buying challenge: ad decay. Fans don't stay in one place, so a brand doesn't have to repeat itself constantly in one place to be remembered. When people meet a brand across both audio and social clips, 1 in 3 pay it maximum attention - more than they give a message repeated inside a single show. "Meet a fan in one moment, and you’ve met part of their day," added Glenday. "Meet them across several, and you’ve met the whole person. That’s the cross-format strategy we’ve built Acast to deliver." The findings reflect Acast’s global position, connecting 140,000+ creators with advertisers across audio, video, and social feeds. Through an open approach - from partnering with Apple Podcasts to targeted network expansions like Backyard Ventures - Acast provides brands with seamless reach across every consumption moment. To read the full Podcast Pulse 2026 report, visit acast.com/pulse Methodology Podcast Pulse 2026 is based on a survey of 4,300 respondents aged 16 to 64 across 13 markets, conducted by independent research firm Differentology, in August 2026. Figures describing all fans are based on the full sample. Figures describing format consumers are based on that format’s own audience base.

Oxford Road, the world’s largest podcasting agency, and podcast growth agency Bumper announce a marketing partnership to bring the revolutionary Bumper Score to market as a shared, comparable read on the quality of a podcast’s audience. Inspired by a 2025 Oxford Road report that found that better data could potentially unlock another $1B for the industry, Bumper created the Bumper Score to represent how well a show delivers ads to a real, verified audience. Every participating podcast receives a score from 0 to 200, which is calculated based on three metrics: 1) podcast delivery data; 2) verified audiences from major podcast apps and platforms; 3) how much of each episode (including ads) listeners actually hear. By spanning both audio and YouTube engagement, the Bumper Score addresses the longstanding challenge of podcast measurement, while assuring advertisers that their ads are reaching real people. In partnering with Bumper, Oxford Road aims to bring the Bumper Score into planning and buying conversations with clients and partners, in the hopes of driving adoption across the industry. Improving measurement and attribution is a core mission for Oxford Road, which co-created the AMP Accords, a proposed set of standards and definitions that could result in more accurate data for creators, publishers, and networks alike. The agency sees the Bumper Score as a practical tool a buyer can use today, while the AMP Accords await industry-wide adoption. “Confusion is bad for business,” notes Oxford Road founder and CEO Dan Granger. “Right now, we make advertisers become CSI detectives just to understand whether their ads are working, and too often they decide it’s easier to take their money elsewhere. Bumper has developed a deeply thoughtful approach to making the quality of an impression more legible. The Bumper Score isn’t the finish line, but it’s a meaningful step forward.” Bumper co-founder Dan Misener adds: “Better data means greater trust–and greater trust leads to more investment. That's what the Bumper Score is all about, and we're proud to partner with Oxford Road to improve the podcast ad market for everyone.”

Today, Amazon Music announced new partnerships with several leading podcast hosting providers and publishers to grow its catalog of video podcasts. Amazon Music customers can now access shows hosted on ART19, Triton Digital’s Omny Studio and Flightcast, with additional hosting providers SiriusXM (inclusive of SiriusXM Media, AdsWizz and Simplecast), Megaphone, and Libsyn expected in the following months. These new partnerships will give Amazon Music customers access to podcasts available on video and audio from publishers iHeartMedia, SiriusXM, Spotify, NBC Sports, and Headgum, including popular shows such as Hey Jonas!, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb, Pro Football Talk Live with Mike Florio, and Solved with Mark Manson. Amazon Music is also expanding video podcasts beyond the US to customers in Canada, the UK, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Amazon Music now supports monetization for video podcasts as well, allowing creators to dynamically insert video ads into their shows while maintaining their existing brand sponsorships and baked-in ads. Publishers and creators will retain full control over their hosting, ad inventory, and audience targeting. "Industry data confirms what our customers have been telling us — they want the flexibility to watch their favorite podcasts, in addition to listening. As video consumption continues to grow, we're constantly looking for ways to expand our offerings for customers to engage across formats. By working with leading podcast publishers, we're bringing the top video podcast shows to customers across the US, Canada, UK, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan — spanning true crime, breaking news, celebrity interviews, and more. Just as importantly, we've built this in a way that lets creators keep full ownership of their hosting, ad inventory, and audience monetization,” said Shea Simpson, Head of Spoken Word for Amazon Music. "Our strategy is simple: make the world's best creators and content available wherever consumers choose to listen, watch and engage. As podcasting continues to evolve, video has become a complementary extension of the audio experience. As the industry's leading audio platform, iHeart is focused on creating new opportunities for our talent and helping them build deeper connections with fans. This collaboration with Amazon Music expands the reach of our creators and programming, helps grow the podcast ecosystem, and creates new ways for audiences to discover and engage with the content they love," said Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. “Video is fundamentally changing how podcasts are created, distributed, and discovered, and our job at Flightcast is to give creators and publishers the infrastructure they need to take advantage of that shift. When Amazon Music reached out about the upcoming video capabilities, we knew our creators would want to be there on day one. And now, hundreds of them will be. Amazon Music’s commitment to giving creators greater control over their ad inventory and brand relationships, while helping them reach new audiences around the world, aligns closely with how we’ve built Flightcast. This partnership gives the creators and networks using our platform another powerful way to expand their reach, grow their businesses and meet audiences wherever they choose to watch or listen,” said Rox Codes, Co-Founder and CEO at Flightcast. With an expanded slate of video podcasts now available on Amazon Music, customers can now download episodes for offline viewing, giving them the flexibility to watch their favorite podcasts anytime, anywhere. Customers can discover featured video podcast recommendations, search for “video podcasts” or browse shows to find video podcasts, and seamlessly toggle between video and audio formats directly in the app. Video podcasts are available on iOS and Android to Amazon Music customers across all subscription tiers. For more information, please visit https://music.amazon.com.

Podscribe, the leading independent attribution, measurement, and verification platform for podcast, audio, and creator advertising, today announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with RUM Group’s Rumble, the video and media platform built for creators and audiences who value free expression, giving human creativity a voice to bring enhanced measurement and attribution to host-read advertising within creator content on Rumble. Through a direct integration between Podscribe and Rumble, advertisers can better understand how exposure to their Rumble campaigns drives website visits, conversions, purchases, and other outcomes. The integration enables direct attribution for host-read, baked-in ads within creator content and podcasts on Rumble — inventory that cannot be directly attributed in the same way on comparable video platforms such as YouTube and Spotify Video. The integration brings the level of measurement advertisers have come to expect from podcast and digital audio campaigns to Rumble’s growing video ecosystem. Rumble is the first video platform to fully provide the signals required for attribution under the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP) attribution specification. “This Rumble partnership is an amazing first-of-its-kind example of a platform leaning into the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP) attribution spec to give the most accurate podcast attribution yet known. It indicates the growing momentum in the industry to give advertisers the strongest possible measurement & transparency” said Pete Birsinger, CEO and Founder of Podscribe. "Campaign success is essential to our clients and our growth as a video advertising platform," said Greg Sherrill, President Ad Sales of Rumble. “Our integration with Podscribe’s direct attribution solution and their adherence to AMP’s specifications helps us further delight advertisers, increase renewals, and deliver more compelling ads for our viewers. As we already have many of Podscribe’s top shows on Rumble, this should increase the opportunity to work with more advertisers." Nearly 10% of the top 100 shows measured by Podscribe are already publishing content on Rumble, demonstrating the platform’s growing role within the broader podcast and creator ecosystem. More Precise Attribution for Video Host-Reads Previously, Podscribe incorporated Rumble consumption into campaign reporting using modeled attribution. Through the new direct integration, Podscribe can use privacy-compliant signals provided by Rumble to deterministically match eligible ad exposure to advertiser outcomes, eliminating the need to rely on modeled attribution for these Rumble campaigns. Rumble provides signals such as mobile advertising IDs and hashed emails, allowing Podscribe to attribute outcomes even in situations where noisy IP addresses could otherwise require modeling. Podscribe also receives consumption data from Rumble, allowing attribution to focus on viewers who actually reached and were exposed to the ad rather than broadly attributing exposure to anyone who downloaded or played any portion of an episode. The integration is fully privacy-compliant, with consent obtained directly through the Rumble platform. For advertisers, this provides greater visibility into the impact of their Rumble investment, including conversions that traditional methods such as promo codes and click-through attribution may miss. For example, a viewer could be exposed to a host-read ad on Rumble, never click an ad or use the advertised promo code, and later visit the advertiser’s website directly to make a purchase. With Podscribe attribution and the advertiser’s conversion pixel in place, that advertiser can better understand the role the Rumble exposure played in driving the outcome. Giving Advertisers Greater Transparency The partnership reflects a shared commitment from Rumble and Podscribe to make creator advertising more transparent, measurable, and accountable. Stronger measurement also gives Rumble creators and advertising partners a new way to demonstrate the value and performance of audiences consuming their content on the platform. Building Momentum for AMP Attribution The signals provided through the Rumble integration meet the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP) attribution specification, making Rumble a leading example of how video and creator platforms can support transparent, privacy-compliant attribution. By opting into the specification, Rumble establishes a precedent for platforms to provide advertisers with the signals necessary to independently measure campaign outcomes while maintaining consumer privacy. The partnership also represents growing momentum behind AMP’s effort to establish common standards for attribution across the podcast and creator advertising ecosystem. Seamlessly Integrated Into Podscribe For existing Podscribe customers, measuring eligible Rumble campaigns is designed to be seamless. Podscribe already matches Rumble content and campaigns within its platform for reporting including airchecks and view counts. Through the direct integration, campaigns running with Rumble creators can automatically use the appropriate Rumble identifiers for attribution within Podscribe, without requiring additional Rumble-specific measurement setup from publishers or advertisers. Getting Started Advertisers already running campaigns on Rumble can measure eligible campaigns through Podscribe to gain greater visibility into performance alongside their other podcast, audio, video, and creator media. Creators and publishers interested in distributing their content on Rumble can learn more about Rumble’s upload process at rumble.support/help/upload-process. Advertisers interested in running host-read sponsorships with Rumble creators can contact sales@rumble.com. To learn more about measuring Rumble campaigns with Podscribe, contact partnerships@podscribe.com.

Hal Rood, Partner at Strategic Solutions Research, and Tim Bronsil, Owner and CEO of Point-To-Point Marketing, have just left the stage at the Sounds Profitable Business Summit after presenting the first public findings from The Podcast Study 2026. In just ten minutes, Rood and Bronsil shared a series of findings pointing to one central idea: podcasting has achieved scale, but trust may be its most important differentiator. The relationship between a host, or a familiar and trusted voice, and the audience influences where listeners spend their time, how they react to advertising, what they remember, and even what they may be willing to pay for. The Podcast Study 2026 surveyed 1,205 podcast consumers in a nationally representative study designed to examine podcast consumption, advertising effectiveness, monetization, discovery, loyalty, and the evolving relationship between hosts and audiences. Crooked Media, NPR, and PRX are co-sponsors of the research. Among the findings revealed at the Summit: 82% say the host is a big part of, or the only reason for, listening to their favorite podcast. 88% spend at least half of their podcast listening time with one favorite podcast. Host endorsements have a measurable impact beyond the original ad exposure. 57% say they are more likely to remember the brand, 55% are more likely to notice the ad again, 44% are more likely to trust the ad, and 41% are more likely to consider buying the product. 45% are at least somewhat likely to pay for a subscription tier that removes all advertising except host-read ads. About half of the audience would pay $3 to $5 per month for that type of offering, presenting an intriguing new revenue opportunity built around advertising delivered by the voices that listeners value. 75% would welcome or accept interest-targeted advertising in exchange for keeping podcasts free. Even as 45% perceive more advertising than a year ago, 46% say the current ad load is acceptable or that they could tolerate more. Email remains a largely untapped extension of the relationship. Among podcast listeners who do not currently receive podcast emails, 64% say they would sign up or that it would depend on the offer. The findings presented on stage reinforced the theme of this year’s presentation, “The Podcast Study 2026: Buying Trust, Not Just Reach.” Rather than viewing the podcast opportunity simply as another way to accumulate impressions, the data suggests that brands, publishers, and creators have opportunities to build around a relationship that audiences have already chosen to establish. Rood explained, “Every podcaster is asking how to turn audience into revenue. This study tracks the entire engagement funnel: discovery, loyalty, and the point where a follower becomes a Superfan, so producers can stop guessing. The findings we shared today are only the beginning, and I’m excited that The Podcast Study will again provide a unique look at how to move the industry forward.” “We had ten minutes today to share some of the headlines, but there is far too much in this research to stop there,” added Bronsil. “The relationship with the host, or a familiar and trusted voice like NPR utilizes, shows up again and again in listening, advertising effectiveness, willingness to pay, and opportunities beyond the episode. There are actionable ideas here for publishers, advertisers, and creators, and now we want to take the time to explore what the data really means.” To take the findings deeper and make the research available to the broader industry, Strategic Solutions Research and Point-To-Point Marketing will host four free webinars in the coming weeks: September 22, 2026: The Host and the Power of Trust October 6, 2026: Advertising Without Breaking the Relationship October 13, 2026: Beyond the Pre-Roll October 20, 2026: What Radio Can Learn from The Podcast Study 2026 Each session will move beyond the initial Summit headlines to explore additional findings, implications, and actionable opportunities from the research. The first three webinars will focus on the podcast industry, while the October 20 presentation will bring together the findings most relevant to broadcasters, personalities, programmers, sellers, and advertisers. Registration for all four free webinars is available now. The webinar series continues the commitment from Strategic Solutions Research and Point-To-Point Marketing to make the findings, insights, and actionable takeaways from The Podcast Study 2026 available to the industry. Strategic Solutions Research and Point-To-Point Marketing also thank Crooked Media, NPR, and PRX for their support as co-sponsors of The Podcast Study 2026 and for helping make this important national research possible.

BBC Studios today announced that BBC.com subscribers in the United States and Canada can now enjoy early access to select BBC podcasts, giving members the opportunity to listen to episodes before their wider release. Beginning today, episodes from several popular BBC podcasts will start rolling out to subscribers ahead of their general availability, including Good Bad Billionaire, History's Secret Heroes, In Our Time, Intrigue, You're Dead To Me and World of Secrets, with additional titles expected over time. Tara Maitra, President, Commercial News at BBC Studios, said: "The BBC.com subscription offering continues to evolve as we bring more of the BBC together in one place. The addition of early access podcasts is another step in creating a richer, more engaging experience for subscribers, giving audiences greater access and more ways to connect with BBC's trusted journalism and distinctive storytelling.” BBC.com will also debut a video podcast edition of In Our Time, one of the BBC's longest-running and most celebrated audio franchises, for subscribers. Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time brings together host Misha Glenny and leading experts for in-depth conversations exploring the people, events and discoveries that have shaped our world. The first video podcast edition of In Our Time premieres Thursday, September 17 on BBC.com and BBC Select, BBC Studios' ad-free premium documentary streaming service in the U.S. and Canada. New video episodes will premiere each Thursday first on BBC.com and BBC Select before later becoming available ex-UK on the BBC Podcasts YouTube channel. Upcoming episodes include Thomas More's Utopia, the influential and ambiguous 1516 work that has been interpreted as both an ideal society and a timeless warning; the world of particle accelerators and their far-reaching applications in science, medicine and archaeology; and the film Casablanca and its enduring emotional power. These additions build on a growing suite of subscriber features available through BBC.com, including unlimited access to BBC global news and reporting, the BBC News livestream in the U.S., ad-free documentaries and podcasts, exclusive newsletters, and other premium experiences designed to provide deeper context and insight beyond the headlines. The BBC.com annual subscription is available for US$49.99 in the United States and CAN$69.99 in Canada. For more information, visit www.bbc.com/subscribe.

For years, streaming has built an economy around one deceptively simple number: the play. Someone clicks. A stream starts. A podcast downloads. A view gets counted. But did anyone actually listen? Did they stay? Did they engage? And should a creator whose audience stays for 45 minutes be valued the same as one whose audience disappears after 45 seconds? Disctopia believes the answer is no — and now it has a U.S. patent behind that position. Disctopia, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 12,738,272, covering technology for analyzing content engagement, measuring audience presence, and connecting verified engagement to creator compensation. Founder and CEO Patrick A. Hill is the named inventor. The patent issued with 28 claims and claims priority to June 28, 2023. “The internet learned how to monetize the click. We built a system around what happens after the click,” said Patrick Hill, Founder and CEO of Disctopia. “A play tells you somebody started something. It does not tell you they cared. It does not tell you they stayed. And it definitely should not automatically tell you what a creator is worth.” The play count has a problem Consider two creators. Both generate 10,000 plays. The first holds its audience through nearly the entire program. The second loses most of it within the opening minutes. On a traditional dashboard, both walk into an advertising conversation holding the same headline number. Both shows report the same headline number. Only one of them has an audience. Those audiences are not the same. Their value to an advertiser is not the same. And Disctopia argues their economic value should not automatically be treated as the same. What it changes for advertisers Today the same rate buys both shows, because 10,000 is the only number either one can produce. When completion is verified, price can follow attention instead of volume — and the advertiser comes out ahead: paying a premium for the show that holds its audience still lowers the cost per genuinely engaged impression. Inventory inflated by clickbait, or by content looped on a rack of devices, stops competing on equal footing with inventory that has real people behind it. Fraud can inflate a play count. It cannot manufacture an audience that stayed. What it changes for creator payouts This is the part the patent actually claims. Every independent claim ends the same way — payment transferred to the content owner as a share determined by the verified presence metric. Engagement is not merely reported back to the creator; it is what sets what the creator is paid. A show with 800 listeners who finish everything can be worth more than one with 30,000 who leave in the opening minutes, and that creator finally has a number to prove it instead of an argument to make. Put simply: Disctopia is not counting whether somebody pressed play. It is building technology around whether somebody actually showed up. What the patent covers Measuring presence during a stream. Rather than assuming that starting content equals consuming it, the system evaluates activity during streaming and builds a presence metric as consumption continues. Measuring engagement. The technology can generate content-aware prompts, evaluate audience responses, and develop an engagement score from those interactions. Connecting engagement to compensation. The claims cover transferring resources to content owners with compensation determined in relation to measured engagement. Understanding the actual content. Speech recognition converts audio into text and identifies keywords, so the system knows what is being consumed rather than treating every file as an anonymous stream — which further claims extend to supplemental content, purchase attribution, and transfers between advertisers and content owners. A download is distribution. It is not proof someone listened. The distinction matters most in podcasting, where an episode can be downloaded to a device automatically without anyone consuming it. Disctopia’s position is straightforward: a download should be reported as a download. It is legitimate distribution data, and Disctopia records it and reports it to creators. But distribution and attention are not the same thing — and neither is moving a playback position forward the same as listening to everything in between. “Attention should be worth something. Completion should be worth something. Real audiences should be worth something,” Hill said. “And creators should not have to compete against inflated numbers to prove their value.” Patent details: U.S. Patent No. 12,738,272, “System for Distribution of Content and Analysis of Content Engagement,” issued September 15, 2026 with 28 claims. Application Serial No. 18/758,925, filed June 28, 2024, claiming priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/523,865 filed June 28, 2023; published January 2, 2025 as US 2025/0006191 A1. Inventor: Patrick A. Hill. Assignee: Disctopia, Inc.

From script to screen! Create stunning videos with our all-in-one AI toolkit.

Podeo.ai has launched. It takes the audio of a podcast episode and returns one finished long-form video of that whole episode, with nothing filmed. A 60 minute episode is built in about 20 minutes. The input is audio rather than existing footage, so a show that has never been on camera can publish to YouTube using the episodes it already has. “Podcast hosts have been told for three years that they should be on YouTube,” said Shaik Sadath Basha, Chief Engineer at Podeo.ai. “The advice was never the hard part. Finding a second edit every week was. We wanted to know whether the audio already carried enough to build the video from, and it turns out it mostly does.” Why audio-first shows stall on video YouTube is one of the largest places people go looking for podcasts, and most audio shows are not on it. A video version normally means a camera, a room that looks presentable, lights, and a weekly edit that takes as long as the recording. The two workarounds both have a catch. A waveform over a still image is cheap and nobody watches it. Short clips travel well, but they have to be cut from a video that already exists, which the audio-only show does not have. Podeo.ai removes that prerequisite: if there is an episode, there is a video. How Podeo.ai works Upload an audio file, or connect the show’s RSS feed and pick an episode. Set the show profile once: brand colours, fonts, logo, and the shape the episode should take. Podeo Director listens to the episode, writes the visual plan beat by beat, and fetches photographs, footage and generated motion graphics to match it. The finished video opens in a timeline editor. Move or replace any clip by hand, or tell Podeo Copilot in plain English: “punchier intro, more b-roll in the middle.” Connect a YouTube channel and publish, with the title, description, chapters and thumbnail already written. Podeo.ai publishes finished video directly to YouTube. Episodes run up to 120 minutes and export at 1080p. Podeo.ai is available today at podeo.ai with a free trial and no card required. Paid plans start at $49 a month.

Developed exclusively for digital audio advertisers, ADSTEM is proprietary intelligent planning technology from audioadpro, providing media planners with the most precise geo-mapping tools and enriched audience data available. Working with world-leading data management partners and harnessing AI and machine learning technologies, ADSTEM’s audience intelligence delivers breakthrough comprehensive targeting capabilities built specifically for digital audio activations. ADSTEM’s deeper, more informed and faster briefing aligns audio activations with desired campaign outcomes from the outset, extending through to detailed attribution and consolidated measurement - integral to audioadpro’s unique performance stack. Following his appointment as Chief Technology Officer earlier this year, Liam Bateman led the development of ADSTEM, shaping audioadpro’s technology roadmap. “ADSTEM marks a major step forward in our ambition to make digital audio a more precise, accountable and effective advertising channel. By combining our audio expertise with advanced audience intelligence, we’re giving brands and agencies greater confidence in who they reach, where they invest and how they measure success. This launch is an important milestone in audioadpro’s technology roadmap, with much more to come.” With unparalleled audience intelligence at its core, ADSTEM is now live across all audioadpro activations and available to client partners from September 2026.

Mission Media, a leader in media monetization and advertising, today announced the launch of the Mission Media Quality Score, a methodology within its proprietary Content Hub designed to give advertisers and agencies a clearer, more comprehensive way to curate podcast inventory. The Mission Media Quality Score evaluates each show across a range of signals over time, including but not limited to: Total audience size Including downloads Total ad slots Total avails Total requested ad impressions Apple listener ratings Total listener reviews Publishing and content recency Each show is also subject to Mission Media’s ongoing IVT verification process, confirming that it is legitimate and reaching real listeners. Together with the Quality Score methodology, these signals classify inventory as Premium, Long-Tail, or Unverified. “For too long, terms like ‘premium’ and ‘long tail’ have been defined by perception, scale or who owns the inventory,” said David Krulewich, CEO of Mission Media. “What’s been missing is an objective measure of how audiences actually engage and how publishers protect those trusted relationships through finite ad allotments. The Mission Media Quality Score changes that by applying a consistent, mathematical equation to classify inventory as Premium, Long-tail, or Unverified. Premium shouldn’t be a designation reserved for large media conglomerates. Great content and highly engaged audiences exist across the podcast ecosystem, and our Quality Score gives buyers an objective lens to identify them. By bringing the signals that matter together into one actionable framework, we’re giving advertisers a clearer understanding of the inventory they’re evaluating and greater confidence in where they invest.” The Mission Media Quality Score builds on Content Hub’s existing curation layer, which gives advertisers and agencies visibility into podcast inventory, audiences, pricing, contextual relevance and campaign performance across more than 500,000 podcast feeds, 400 audience segments and 600 content categories. For advertisers and agencies, this adds another dimension to Content Hub’s discovery and evaluation capabilities, helping buyers more quickly assess available inventory, compare opportunities and make informed campaign decisions. “Buyers should feel confident that their advertising is reaching audiences through credible shows in the listening environments they expect,” said Alex Ham, Director of Ad Operations and Applied AI at Mission Media. “We verify the inventory and evaluate the signals that tell us whether a show is active, legitimate and demonstrating meaningful audience engagement. The Mission Media Quality Score brings that work together into a clear, consistent measure that gives buyers greater confidence in every impression they purchase through Mission Media.” “With so many media options available to advertisers, we need greater confidence in where we’re putting our dollars,” said David Feman, SVP of Global Media and Transformation at B&H Photo. “A quality score that combines multiple signals and verifies the inventory gives us a clearer way to evaluate podcasting as a channel and make informed and confident decisions about including the format in my investment.” The Mission Media Quality Score is available now within the Mission Media Content Hub. To learn more, reach out to contact@missionmedia.ai.

IPVanish, a premium virtual private network (VPN) provider owned by Ziff Davis, and Blue Wire, a network of more than 250 independent sports podcasts, announced today results from a podcast advertising campaign finding that ads generated by AI replicas of podcast hosts’ voices outperformed human announcer read-ads by 26%. To measure performance using net-new paid subscriptions as the key metric, the campaign tested a single IPVanish VPN offer using an identical script across three distinct ad formats: traditional human host-reads, outsourced announcer-reads, and AI host-reads. Powered by AdBridge’s Trusted Voices technology and activated via Audiohook, the results further found that only a 9% gap existed between creator-approved AI replicas of Blue Wire podcast hosts, and the human host-read ads. The results point to a potential new role for AI-generated host-read advertising in podcast media plans: giving advertisers access to host-read-style performance across larger volumes of podcast inventory without the same operational requirements and price premium associated with traditional host-read campaigns. Traditional host-read advertising carries a premium and requires coordination among advertisers, networks and hosts, including approvals, airchecks, copy changes and longer lead times. As a result, direct host-read campaigns tend to concentrate on larger shows, while advertisers seeking broader run-of-network scale often turn to lower-cost announcer-read or programmatic formats. AdBridge’s Trusted Voices technology enables participating creators to license and approve AI replicas of their voices for commercial advertising. Each participating Blue Wire creator opted in to the program and reviewed the final audio before it aired. For publishers and podcast networks, the model is intended to extend host-read-style demand to mid- and long-tail inventory that may not attract traditional direct host-read campaigns. The campaign was offered as a packaged media solution alongside, rather than as a replacement for, traditional host-read advertising. The campaign also tested the listener response to AI-generated host-read advertising. Across participating shows and millions of downloads, there were no listener complaints or negative feedback reported during the campaign. The campaign followed the IAB’s Transparency and Disclosure Framework for AI in advertising. Podnews readers can download the case study here “Host-read performance no longer has to be reserved for the biggest shows or the biggest budgets. The campaign showed a meaningful performance gap between announcer reads and host-read advertising, and that AI can substantially close that gap while operating at scale.” - James O’Connor, Founder and CEO of AdBridge.ai “We measure audio on real business outcomes, and the signal here was clear. Putting the same approved message in a trusted host’s voice, even an AI-generated one, meaningfully outperformed standard announcer reads on subscriptions. For us, that represents a more efficient way to get more out of the same budget.” - Jordan Bentley, Founder and CEO of Audiohook “Our creators opted in because this gives them control and new earning potential. The performance proved out, the approval process was simple, and listeners didn’t miss a beat.” - Andrew Rotondi, Chief Operating Officer of Blue Wire “When I first heard about AI ads, I went into the campaign with some reservations about how everything would work. I came away surprised at how seamless the process was and impressed with the overall outcome. Blue Wire and AdBridge made the process incredibly easy, and approving ads was as simple as you could possibly imagine.” - Andy Herman, Host of Pack-A-Day: Your Daily Packers Podcast Listen here for side by side examples of hosts and their voice replicas performing AI generated ad reads → Podnews readers can download the case study here

Relying on artificial intelligence to summarize competitor transcripts and rewrite them into your own scripts is quietly draining the originality out of podcasting. This so-called "outlier strategy" saves time, sure — but when you outsource your thinking, you strip away the gut instinct, the personal perspective, and the delivery that makes people trust you as someone worth listening to. And that's the whole game. Key Takeaways The podcasting "outlier strategy" tempts creators to copy a competitor's best-performing topic using automated AI rewriting tools. Handing your content creation to AI eliminates the 20% of your show that's actually you — the part nobody else can replicate. Copying off the smart kid gets the assignment turned in, but it doesn't teach you a thing, and it shows the moment someone asks you a follow-up question. Consuming the source material yourself — watching the videos, doing the research firsthand — is what keeps your gut instincts sharp. Real thought leadership means processing ideas yourself, not repackaging someone else's breakthrough as your own. The Trap of the Outlier Strategy in Audio I'm always looking for leverage, same as every other podcaster. And in the YouTube and podcasting world, there's a tactic going around called the outlier strategy. If you share an audience with a competitor, you watch their catalog for the one episode that blows past their usual numbers, and then you cover that same topic yourself. On paper, that's smart. It works for some people. The audience has already told you they care about the subject. But here's where the shortcut wrecks the strategy: instead of taking that proven topic and running it through their own experience, their own opinions, their own take on it, people are pulling the transcript, dropping it into an AI tool, and asking it to spit out a script "in their voice." And you can hear it. You end up with a sea of shows that all sound the same. It reminds me of the music industry's long history of bands copying bands — Kingdom Come chasing Led Zeppelin, Girl School echoing Cinderella. The copy is never as good as the original, and eventually your audience notices the drop-off in authenticity. What really gets me is that a lot of the people doing this want to be seen as a thought leader — using somebody else's thoughts. Why Outsourcing Your Thinking Kills Your Intuition I came across a video from creator April Lynn Alter that stuck with me — she talks about protecting your intuition as one of the most important things you can do for a long-term media brand. When you let an AI model do all the heavy lifting — synthesizing the ideas, organizing the argument, finding the words — you skip the actual thinking that lets you understand the material. And skipping that step costs you later. This reminds me of a programming class I took in college. Students were trading finished lab assignments back and forth like a stock exchange instead of doing the work themselves. Nobody actually learned anything — the same solutions just got copied forward, semester after semester. It got people a grade. It didn't get them an education, and it definitely didn't prepare anyone to explain what they'd supposedly just built. Podcasting works the same way. If you don't genuinely internalize what you're talking about, your delivery falls flat. You become a parrot instead of a practitioner. When I was putting together my tribute episode on Dolly Parton, I could have fed a dozen video links into an AI summarizer and had a script back in minutes. I didn't. I watched the source material myself — because I wanted those stories, that emotion, those small details living in my own head before I ever opened my mouth about them. That's what gives you something worth saying, instead of something worth skimming. The Missing Twenty Percent That Makes You Unique AI can probably nail 80% of a topic. It organizes the bullet points, keeps the grammar clean, even fakes a casual tone convincingly enough. But that last 20% — your specific background, the tangent you didn't plan, the failure you're still a little embarrassed about, the instinct that only shows up because you've actually lived it — AI doesn't have access to any of that. It's not in the transcript it's working from. Your audience isn't subscribing for a clean summary of data points. They're tuning in for a person. If all you're offering is a well-organized version of someone else's idea, you're not really offering anything they couldn't get by just watching the original. How to Use AI Ethically Without Losing Your Voice None of this means I think you should ban AI from your process. There's a real difference between using it as a structural assistant and using it as a ghostwriter. If I dump a messy voice memo or a pile of scattered notes into an AI tool and ask it to organize that into a clean outline, my ideas are still mine — the tool is just acting like a whiteboard, tidying up what I already brought to the table. That's a legitimate time-saver. But the second I ask an algorithm to write my argument, craft my opening hook, or turn a competitor's transcript into finished talking points, I've handed over editorial control of my own show. Protecting a podcast's long-term value means staying hands-on during research and ideation — the parts where your actual thinking happens. Keep your hands on the wheel, trust your gut, and let your own personality come through in every minute of audio you put out. Conclusion Building a show worth remembering means putting human connection and original thought ahead of shortcuts. If you want the fuller story — including how a live creator conference reshaped how I think about all this — listen to the full episode for more from the Empowered Podcasting Conference. Frequently Asked Questions What is the outlier strategy in podcasting and content creation? It's the practice of digging through a competitor's catalog to find the one episode or video that dramatically outperforms their average numbers, then making your own piece on that same proven topic. How does using AI to write podcast scripts hurt show growth? It strips out your personal perspective, your emotional nuance, and your lived experience, leaving you with generic content that has nothing distinct to offer an audience — and nothing that builds real loyalty. What's the right way for podcasters to use artificial intelligence? Use it for the administrative and structural work — organizing your own raw notes into an outline, for instance — not for generating your narrative, your arguments, or your voice. Why does intuition matter for a podcast host? Because it's what tells you what your specific audience actually cares about, lets you speak with real confidence instead of borrowed confidence, and keeps your show sounding like you instead of like everyone else's AI output.

Triton Digital, the global technology and services provider to the digital audio, podcast and broadcast radio industries, today launched Demos+ Demographic Targeting, a new content targeting capability built on Demos+, the company’s survey-based podcast audience measurement product, and available now in the Triton Ad Platform (TAP). Demos+ Targeting classifies podcast content by the audience most likely to consume it, then makes those classifications available as targeting criteria inside TAP. Rather than building a plan from show genre alone, advertisers can buy the podcast shows and episodes that over-index with a defined audience profile spanning demographic, sociographic, media behavior and purchase-intent characteristics. Because the signal is attached to the content rather than to an individual listener, buyers can apply it consistently across podcast inventory and at full campaign scale, without depending on cookies or device identifiers that are increasingly restricted across the digital advertising ecosystem. Publishers, in turn, retain control of their listener data. “Advertisers have been able to see who a show reaches for some time, but they haven’t been able to act on it in the same place they buy,” said John Rosso, President and CEO, Triton Digital. “Now, we’re taking strides to close that loop. Buyers plan against an audience profile rather than download counts alone, and publishers get credit for the audiences they deliver.” Publishers can apply the new targeting options within existing campaign setup, forecasting, reporting and programmatic buying workflows, without adopting a separate tool. Demos+ Targeting replaces traditional station- or content-level tagging with richer, data-selected audience segments, giving publishers and programmatic buyers a shared way to bundle and evaluate premium audience segments across podcast inventory. Demos+ Targeting pairs Triton's established audience measurement business with new activation capabilities in a single solution, extending data advertisers already use for planning into the platform where campaigns are executed. This gives advertisers more sophisticated targeting to improve campaign efficiency and gives publishers new ways to monetize their inventory, including premium audience segments across their catalogs. Demos+ Demographic Targeting is now available to publishers with audiences in the United States, Australia, and the Netherlands. Publishers outside those markets can access content targeting today through Sounder, Triton’s AI-powered audio intelligence platform, which analyzes podcast content at the episode level across multiple languages to support contextual targeting, brand safety and brand suitability. To learn more about Demos+ Targeting and TAP, visit www.tritondigital.com.

The New York Festivals® 2027 Radio Awards®,celebrating 70 years of creative excellence in audio storytelling, is now open for entries. New York Festivals® Radio Awards provides a global platform celebrating creative excellence and innovation in audio storytelling. Since 1957, NYF has honored exceptional work across genres and platforms, evolving alongside the ever-changing audio landscape to recognize the ideas, talent, and storytelling shaping the future of the medium. The 2027 Radio Awards features 14 category groups, offering recognition across a wide range of disciplines, from News Programs, Documentaries, and Talk Programs to On-Air Talent, Craft, and Entertainment. Specialized category groups spotlight groundbreaking work in Digital, Podcast, and Audio Book content, while Programming Formats and Promotion/Open & ID recognize the creative standards and imaging innovation driving radio forward. This year, NYF’s Radio Awards continues to expand its recognition of the growing audio landscape with two new categories: Crime Drama Podcast and Kids & Family Podcast and two updated categories Kids & Family Audio Book and Kids & Family Program. “Here’s to Radio – the original social media. Awards do more than keep score: they honor creative excellence, mastery of craft, they can change your life, and they offer an opportunity to take your place in industry history!”—Rose Anderson, Executive Vice President, New York Festivals View the 2027 NYF Radio Awards categories: HERE. New York Festivals Radio Awards celebrated excellence in audio storytelling in 2026, honoring three Grand Tower Award winners: Sea of Lies, CBC / What’s the Story Sounds, Narrative/Documentary Podcast; Uncuffed Season 4, KALW Public Media, Social Issues Documentary; and Wolf Valley, Almost Tangible, Entertainment: Drama Program. These world-class award-winning programs raised the bar for global audio storytelling. The 2026 New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award honored distinguished news leader Stephen Capus, President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and former President of NBC News. The annual award recognizes prominent industry leaders whose accomplishments and contributions have advanced their field and left a lasting impact on the media landscape. Through its partnership with the National Press Club, New York Festivals honors audio journalists and reporters who use their talents to tell the stories that matter and keep listeners informed. Since its inception in 2023, the National Press Club Award has recognized the top-scoring news program across the Breaking News Story Coverage, Continuing News Story Coverage, Nonfiction Series, and News Podcast categories. In 2026, Dear Rachelle (News Corp Australia/True Crime Australia) received the 2026 National Press Club Award for Investigative Journalism Podcast. New York Festivals announced the 2026 Radio Awards winning entries at theStorytellers Gala, held May 21 at 6 p.m. EDT. The virtual event was anchored from iconic Central Park in New York City. Over 150 teams sent their acceptances from around the world and industry leaders shared behind-the-scenes commentary along with their insights into the future of storytelling. Explore the 2026 Storytellers Gala. Celebrating the spirit of global audio in NYF Radio’s Spotlight on Radio, a short video that honors the storytellers, award-winning work, and 70-year legacy of New York Festivals. Each year, the New York Festivals® Radio Awards welcomes entries from radio stations, networks, independent producers, publishers, and podcast creators in over 30 countries, honoring the world’s most innovative audio storytellers. New York Festivals welcomes accomplished award-winning leaders from the world of audio content creation across six continents to join its esteemed 2027 Radio Awards Grand Jury. Invitations for this year’s jury will be sent in the coming weeks. Entries are evaluated on creativity, production quality, writing, direction, content presentation, effectiveness, and audience relevance. “New York Festivals Radio Awards® honors the exceptional and innovative content being created today on all continents and seen across all platforms. We respect the achievements of the many talented men and women who make up the worldwide creative community. You take your work seriously, and so do we.”—Rose Anderson, Executive Vice President, New York Festivals All award-winning entries from the 2027 competition will be proudly featured in the Radio Awards Winners’ Showcase. Visit the 2026 Radio Awards Winners’ Showcase. The entry deadline for the 2027 Radio Awards competition is January 31, 2027. To enter the 2027 Radio Awards, visit: HERE. For additional information on the 2027 competition, visit: Rules and Regulations. To be eligible for the 2027 competition, entries must have been produced, released, screened, aired, published, issued, or streamed between January 1, 2026, until the deadline of January 31, 2027, and were not awarded a trophy in the same category for the same episode in the 2026 Radio Awards.

The Independent Podcast Awards has today announced that YouTube are the Headline Partners for this year’s event. As part of the partnership, a representative from the company will reveal the overall Independent Podcast of the Year on the night. The Independent Podcast Awards (IPAs) were launched in 2023 to champion exceptional creators and provide a dedicated platform for independent talent to thrive. These are for the backroom creators that aren’t funded by big brands, and make up around 75% of the UK podcast market. YouTube has established itself as a premier destination for video podcasting, helping creators reach global audiences and build deep, lasting fandoms - making it a natural partner for the IPAs. Globally, over 100 million hours of podcast content are watched on YouTube every day by over 1 billion monthly active podcast users. Many of the people building media and entertainment careers in Britain today got their start on YouTube. Podcast creators now run next-generation media and production companies, with editors, producers, studios and commercial partners behind them. YouTube is the platform that makes this ecosystem possible by allowing podcasts to build new audiences & revenue streams. By providing tools for video podcasting - from AI-powered Shorts suggestions and podcast discovery to multi-language dubbing- YouTube is helping independent podcast creators to streamline production and focus on what matters most: authentic storytelling. Alison Lomax, Managing Director of YouTube UKI said: "We are thrilled to celebrate the innovation and creativity of the UK’s independent podcasting sector at this year’s awards. Podcast creators are a key part of the UK’s creator ecosystem, and YouTube has become a home where they are now building sustainable businesses. We’ve always believed that great stories should have no format boundaries, and we’re honoured to spotlight these incredible voices.” Emma Turner, co-founder of the IPA’s said: “We’re delighted to have YouTube as our Headline Partner for this year’s event. To have such an esteemed brand supporting the awards shows just how important indie creators are in the podcasting world. We’re looking forward to working with the team to help showcase the incredible talent the awards find every year.” This is the fourth edition of the awards, which were co-founded by Verbal Diorama and whynow in 2023. Since then the awards have attracted more than 1400 entries, shortlisted 500+ podcasts, and celebrated 75 winners. This year was a bumper year for entries, with over 540 submitted. Judging for this year’s awards is already underway, with the shortlist set to be revealed in mid-September. The event will be taking place at Kings Place in Kings Cross in London on Wednesday 4th November. You can find out more about the awards at: independentpodcastawards.com

Flightcast, the video-first podcast hosting and distribution platform, today announced expanded video advertising capabilities that allow publishers to deliver video ads across Spotify, Apple Podcasts and RSS-based video distribution. Publishers can now upload a video creative to a campaign within Flightcast and deliver it across Spotify Video, Apple Podcasts video and RSS video feeds distributed to compatible podcast platforms. Crucially, the launch gives publishers a more unified way to monetize video podcast audiences across platforms without building and managing separate advertising workflows for each destination. As video becomes an increasingly important part of podcast consumption, monetization has not always kept pace. Different platforms have different requirements for how video content and advertising are delivered, creating the potential for publishers to grow video audiences without being able to monetize those audiences consistently. “Publishers shouldn't need a different monetization system for every platform their audience uses,” said Rox Codes, CEO and Co-Founder of Flightcast.“Flightcast is built to remove that complexity. A publisher can create a campaign, add their creative and trust that it will run correctly everywhere. Publishers get to do what they do best: create great content. They don’t need to know what HLS is. That’s our job.” Flightcast's integration with Spotify's advertising systems is a key component of that approach. Spotify's video ecosystem differentiates between premium subscribers and free users, with dynamic advertising opportunities only showing for non-premium users. Flightcast's infrastructure coordinates campaign delivery with Spotify's advertising systems so eligible video consumption by free users can remain monetizable rather than becoming a blind spot for publishers distributing video to the platform. The capability builds on Flightcast's existing support for advertising within video podcasts. Publishers can continue to run traditional audio advertising against video content, with audio creative accompanied by a static visual, while video-enabled campaigns can now use video creative across supported destinations. Flightcast has also previously enabled programmatic advertising within video podcast content, with the latest expansion representing another step toward creating a unified advertising infrastructure for podcasts regardless of how or where audiences choose to consume them. “Every impression matters.” Codes added. “Our creators rely on us to work behind the scenes to maximize the impressions available to them everywhere their content is consumed.” The expanded video advertising capabilities are available now for all users through Flightcast's campaign tools. Networks interested in additional details can reach sales@flightcast.com, or book a call at https://meet.flightcast.com/demo for more info.

Audiencelift, the podcast and YouTube audience growth platform from Amaze Media Labs, today announced the launch of Preferred Apps & Players, a new audience-growth solution designed to give podcast networks, publishers, brands and creators greater control over where their audiences grow. With Preferred Apps & Players, potential listeners discover podcasts across Audiencelift’s network of more than 50,000 premium digital publishers and can then choose where they want to listen, including Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Overcast and other leading podcast apps and players. The launch reflects a major shift in podcast audience development. For years, podcast growth has largely been measured by aggregate download numbers. Today, networks, brands and creators increasingly want to understand not only how many people they are reaching, but where listeners are discovering their shows, which platforms they choose and how individual growth campaigns are performing. Preferred Apps & Players was built around that changing need and capturing the complete listener journey. Unlike incentivized traffic or indiscriminate click campaigns, Audiencelift reaches real people based on content relevance, audience signals and premium digital media environments. The listener decides whether to engage and selects the app or player where they want to continue listening. Through Audiencelift Verified Growth™, clients gain greater visibility into the listener journey from initial discovery through supported listening destinations, including campaign-driven downloads and the apps and players audiences select. “Podcast growth shouldn’t just be about generating a larger number. It should be about building the right audience in the places that matter most,” said Robert Tuchman, co-founder of Amaze Media Labs. “Preferred Apps & Players gives podcasters more control over where their audience grows while providing a level of transparency into discovery and listener behavior that has traditionally been very difficult to see.” Preferred Apps & Players expands Audiencelift’s suite of audience growth technology, which includes: Preferred Apps & Players — audience growth across major podcast apps and listening platforms Audio Web Player Campaigns — scalable, cost-efficient podcast listening Precision Business Targeting — campaigns targeting audiences by industry, job title, demographics and other professional characteristics YouTube Growth — campaigns designed to increase video views, watch time and subscribers Clients can use each solution independently or combine them based on specific audience objectives — whether that means maximizing overall listening, reaching a highly targeted professional audience, expanding a YouTube presence or driving audiences toward selected podcast platforms. “There is no longer one definition of podcast growth,” said Brett Sklar, co-founder of Amaze Media Labs. “Different publishers, networks and brands have different objectives. Some want maximum scale, some want a specific professional audience, some want YouTube growth and others want to build audiences on particular listening platforms. Preferred Apps & Players gives them another level of choice and control.” The launch follows continued growth for Audiencelift. Last month, the company was ranked No. 616 on the 2026 Inc. 5000, recognizing it as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies. Audiencelift was also the highest-ranked podcast-focused company on the 2026 list and is an official YouTube podcast growth testing partner.

Caloroga Media, the leading audio company at the forefront of AI and podcast integration since its 2023 launch, is reshaping the future of content creation with Linnet (pronounced LIN-it). Linnet is an AI-powered media production platform, born out of Caloroga Media’s own production workflow, that provides tools for every step of audio and video creation, all in a single web browser with a single subscription. "Linnet exists because we could not find a tool worthy of the work," says Mark Francis, co-founder of Caloroga Media and Linnet. "When the first AI production tools arrived, the idea was right, but the craft was missing. I’d generate an episode, then pull it apart and rebuild every element by hand in a real production workstation just to get it to broadcast quality. Well-funded engineers built those tools without ever spending a minute in a studio. So we built the opposite. A real studio, with an AI partner built to learn how you work rather than making you work its way.” Instead of juggling separate accounts for scripting, voice, music, editing, and distribution, Linnet unifies the entire workflow in one space. She serves as an AI creative partner, providing support at the right moment while keeping creative decisions with the person making the work. Where most AI assistants generate ideas and leave the user to execute them, Linnet works hands-on with the same tools the creator uses. She proposes an action, shows exactly what she's about to do, and waits for approval before making any changes. Linnet is built to learn how each creator works while keeping them firmly in control. "AI shouldn't replace the person doing the work. It should help them get better at it," adds John McDermott, co-founder of Caloroga Media and Linnet. "We built Linnet to work alongside creators. She handles the tools and the technology while the creative calls stay in their hands, which gives them back the hours to spend on the rest of the business." Creators can now request early access at linnetmedia.com and start shaping how Linnet fits into their workflow. From a single browser, users can: Write scripts or transcribe existing recordings; Record, edit, and mix in a professional 24-track studio with a full plugin suite; Add music, images, video, and artwork; Cut video podcasts in a genuine multi-track editor; Master, transcribe, enrich, and publish to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube through the user’s podcast host. In an industry flooded with AI-generated content designed to be ignored, Linnet puts creators back in control of what gets made and how it sounds. One of the system’s signature capabilities is God Mode, which turns a single prompt into a complete first draft of an episode, including script, narration, music, artwork, and video. The creator can then review, refine, make it their own, and publish it all inside the workstation. With God Mode, a rough cut is a starting line to elevate, not a finished thing to publish. Linnet also consolidates what most creators currently pay for across multiple subscriptions. For those already committed to other providers, Bring Your Own Key lets users connect their existing accounts and keep working without platform usage caps, with the vendor handling billing directly. Additionally, Linnet is built on the principle that “your work stays yours.” She does not sell user data, share voice profiles with advertisers, or train AI models with creator content. What Linnet learns about a user’s preferences stays in their account. Generated content stays available to the user for as long as their account is active, and is permanently deleted within 30 days of account closure. Projects are automatically saved locally with portable sessions, making it easy to move work between computers. Linnet is now available for early access, giving creators an opportunity to test the platform and shape its development. Visit linnetmedia.com to sign up and learn more.

Goalhanger has wrapped the inaugural The Rest Is Fest, following three days of live podcasting at London’s Southbank Centre which saw 26,000 tickets sold across 22 shows. Taking over the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room from 4-6 September, the festival brought much of the Goalhanger network together in one place for the first time, with live shows, special collaborations and one-off formats spanning politics, history, football, entertainment, science, money, literature, espionage and drama. Headline moments included Gary Lineker in conversation with Stanley Tucci; the first live editions of The Rest Is Football, The Rest Is Money, The Book Club and The Rest Is Science; two performances from The Rest Is History; live editions of The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is Politics US; and The Rest Is Quiz, a one-night-only battle of the brains featuring some of Goalhanger’s brightest minds, hosted by Richard Osman and Marina Hyde. The programme also featured The Rest Is Entertainment, Empire, The Book Club, Sherlock & Co., We Have Ways of Making You Talk and Football Clichés, alongside festival exclusives including Scaramucci vs The Rest Is Classified: Team America, Tom Holland and Marina Hyde’s The Real Housewives of Regency England, and The Special Relationship, a special collaboration bringing together The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is Politics US. Guests appearing across the weekend included Stanley Tucci, Mary Beard, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Joe Marler, Josephine Quinn, Ali Ansari Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon, among others. Tony Pastor, Co-Founder at Goalhanger, said: “It’s been an incredible weekend: 22 shows and 26,000 tickets sold. More importantly, the response from audiences has been extraordinary. Around 85% of people came specifically to see one particular show, which says so much about the passion people have for these shows and the communities that have grown around them. Bringing all of those different audiences together under one roof - from The Rest Is Politics and Empire to We Have Ways, The Rest Is Entertainment and so many more - has been really special. We’re incredibly proud of what the whole Goalhanger team, our talent and everyone at the Southbank Centre created this weekend.” The festival formed part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme, drawing inspiration from the spirit of the 1951 Festival of Britain and bringing three days of ideas, curiosity, conversation and storytelling back to the South Bank. Anthony Scaramucci vs The Rest is Classified Rory Stewart and Alastair Campell, with Katty Kay and Anthony Scaramucci Richard Osman and Marina Hyde from The Rest is Entertainment The Goalhanger Quiz Sherlock and Co perform live The Book Club The Rest is History plays out to a packed theatre Empire, live The Rest is Politics US: Katty Kay and Anthony Scaramucci The Rest is Classified The Rest is Football Pictures: Goalhanger / Victor Frankowski / James Robinson

What I Learned (and Relearned) at Empowered Podcasting Conference I got triggered at a podcasting conference last week, and honestly? I almost jumped out of my chair. Someone in the room said something that stopped me cold, and it's become one of the biggest lessons I'm bringing back to you this week — along with a story about a $230 million quarterback who won't take feedback, why "cheating off the smart kid" with AI is quietly ruining your podcast, and the subscription I found on my own bank statement that I'd been paying for and not even using. This episode is a mashup of my talk at Empowered Podcasting Conference 3 in Charlotte and everything I picked up just from being in the room. Let's get into it.It's Your Show. Own It. This is the one that made me want to stand up. Someone in a session said, "Well, I can't ask my guest to keep their answers short." Yes, you can. It's your show. If you're doing interviews, you're the goalie — it's your job to keep anything that doesn't serve your audience out of the episode. And if a guest rambles, that's usually on the host, not the guest. Give your guest a target before you hit record: who you're talking to, and whether you want short, medium, or long answers. A guest who doesn't get a target from the host should ask for one. Own your show. Set the boundaries. Your audience is who you're protecting.What Actually Makes Content Remarkable My talk was about what makes a podcast good, and I focused on what makes any content remarkable. I walked through a few movies to prove it: Saving Private Ryan — that D-Day opening wasn't new information (we all knew WWII was brutal), it was a new way of presenting it. People talked about it because nobody had seen it shown like that. The Sixth Sense — a tiny budget that beat big blockbusters like The Lone Ranger because of one twist: we don't find out Bruce Willis's character is dead until the end. People walked out of the theater and called a friend to say "you have to see this." That's the goal — content remarkable enough that it spreads on word of mouth alone. Gone with the Wind — a 1939 movie with an actual intermission, and people still talk about the burning of Atlanta (a real fire on the studio backlot, no CGI) and that last line — "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" — which had audiences clutching their pearls. Again, something people had not seen before. Star Wars — I saw it eleven times as a kid, and even when half the theater had already seen it multiple times, everybody still cheered when the Death Star blew up. That's not just about the special effects. That's about how it made people feel. A podcast episode is content plus delivery — and delivery is you: your attitude, your confidence, your life skills. My rule of thumb for what makes a good episode: laugh, cry, think, groan, educate, or entertain. Save them time or save them money. Try to hit more than one of those in every episode.The Most Underrated Skill in Podcasting: Listening Everyone assumes the top skill is a great voice or being funny. It's not. It's your ability to listen — to your audience, and to feedback. Case in point: The Cleveland Brown's quarterback, the one we paid $230 million despite a stack of off-field allegations. He's not good at his job. When fans booed him, his response was basically "you guys don't like me" — not "I need to get better," not "tell me more." He made it personal instead of taking it as information. I hear the same thing constantly from podcasters. I'll offer to help someone grow their show, ask which episode they want me to listen to, and they'll say "oh, it's not the content." If you're not willing to actually hear feedback, don't be surprised when your show doesn't grow.The AI Shortcut That's Quietly Killing Your Voice This is the one I need you to sit with. There's a real strategy going around called the outlier strategy: if you and a competitor share an audience, and one of their episodes way outperforms their normal numbers, you make your own version of that topic. Legitimate strategy. Here's where it goes sideways — people are grabbing the transcript of that outlier video, feeding it to AI, and saying "rewrite this in my voice." And the whole reason they're doing a podcast in the first place is to be seen as a thought leader — using someone else's thoughts. It might work about 80% of the time (I'm making that number up), and that missing 20% is the part that's actually, uniquely you. Mark Maron said it best: "You're not thinking your own thoughts. You're a hack with an excuse for why you're failing." I'm not anti-AI — I use it to organize my own brain dumps into an outline. But when you let it write the content, you get exactly what everyone else already sounds like. Led Zeppelin became Kingdom Come became Greta Van Fleet. Cinderella became Girl School. The copy is never as good as the original, and eventually the audience notices. Which brings me to a phrase I have to credit to YouTuber Aprillynne Alter, because she said it better than I could: protect your intuition. When you let AI do all your thinking, you never actually process the information — and you lose your gut instinct for what your audience needs. That's exactly why I watched every single Dolly Parton video myself for last week's episode instead of asking AI to summarize them. I wanted that information in my head, not just in the output. Cheating off the smart kid might get you the grade. It won't get you the understanding.Own Your Audience — Don't Rent It From a Platform I had a great conversation with email marketing expert Paul Gouder about this. I moved my main marketing list from Kit (formerly ConvertKit) over to Substack, and while my subscriber count is actually growing there, I can see in my stats that it's not driving nearly as much traffic to my website. Paul's question stopped me: " What do platforms do once they get popular enough? They change the rules." TikTok, Facebook, YouTube — every one of them eventually limits your reach to your own audience unless you pay up. Email doesn't have an algorithm. Those are people who raised their hand and said "I want more." I'd rather have a 40% open rate on my newsletter than a meaningless "view" on YouTube. And I export my list every single month just in case, because platforms can turn on you fast — there was a parenting podcast that got pulled off YouTube with zero warning, appealed to an AI system, got denied by that same AI, and only got reinstated after Podnews' James Cridland made it a public story. You don't want your show's survival to depend on someone shaming a platform into doing the right thing.Audit Your Subscriptions — You're Probably Bleeding Money My buddy Ralph Eastep Jr. — "the content creator's accountant" — gave the keynote, and his advice was simple: go look at your podcast's checkbook. So I did. In five minutes I found I'd been paying $57 a month for an SEO mastermind I hadn't attended in ages, plus $10 a month for an email address I don't even use anymore. Close to $100 a month, gone, just from things I forgot to cancel. This is exactly why you want a separate bank account for your podcast — every charge in there is tied to something you're using for the show, and it makes the leaks obvious. If you need a separate account I use both Sofi and Acorns.Don't Copy the Gear. Be You. One more story from my talk. We all think if we buy the same mic or use the same host as someone successful, we'll get their results. It's not the gear. The band Extreme had guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, who idolized Eddie Van Halen his whole career — and finally got to play Eddie's actual rig, in front of Eddie. He was sure he'd finally sound like his hero. Instead, he said it was "so horrible," because he just sounded like himself. Same thing happened in early podcasting — we all bought the same expensive mic because we wanted to sound like a famous podcaster. Lean into being you. You're already very good at it.Bonus: Sometimes "Remarkable" Means Remarkably Bad A tiny, ultra-low-budget Chinese film (reportedly made for around $200 by a mother and son on an iPhone) got pulled from theaters and mocked online as one of the worst movies ever. The memes were brutal. And because everyone was talking about it, curiosity took over — it ended up making an estimated $9.3 million. Remarkable works both ways.Quick Update on Episode 1049 In episode 1049, I told you Spotify and YouTube signed onto a shared industry...

Kids Podcasts (kidspodcasts.com), the parent-built discovery site for children’s podcasts, has launched its iPhone app: a podcast player where the child’s listening library is locked to the shows and playlists a parent or guardian approves. No open search, no algorithmic recommendations, no chat - a child sees only what a grown-up approves, and nothing else. The app is available now on the App Store. Mainstream podcast apps treat children as an afterthought: a search for “otters” or “volcanoes” returns adult shows alongside kids’ content. Other apps, although kid-oriented, allow children to access everything in the kid’s catalog. Kids Podcasts starts from the opposite premise - the parent curates first, the child listens second. In the app, parents can: Approve once, or every time - when a podcast is added to the library, future episodes can be automatically approved, or first reviewed and approved before reaching the child’s library. Set listening rules - daily limits, quiet hours, and show-by-time-of-day schedules (energetic shows for the drive, calm ones at bedtime). Build playlists that keep up - pick the shows once and new episodes appear automatically. Hand over a locked kid mode - the child’s view holds only approved audio, behind a grown-up PIN. Listen beyond the app - send any playlist to a Yoto player in one tap, export an RSS feed for any podcast app, or download MP3s for offline car rides or other audio players. “I built this first to find episodes about my son’s latest obsessions without digging through hundreds of search results. As other parents found it useful, it’s kept growing. The idea has stayed the same the whole way: parents should be able to control what podcasts they want their family to hear, when their children can listen, and how they listen.” - Kelly Morrill, founder, Kids Podcasts The app is built to a strict privacy posture: it shows no ads, embeds no third-party analytics or tracking SDKs, and keeps children’s data to a minimum, with automatic data deletion. Behind the catalog is a human editorial process: every one of the 200+ shows has been vetted and hand-tagged by age and topic before being added. The Kids Podcasts app is free to download on the App Store for iPhone. The full catalog and curated playlists - from road trips and bedtime to milestones like a new sibling or the first day of school - are also available on the web at kidspodcasts.com. About Kids Podcasts Kids Podcasts (kidspodcasts.com) is a parent-built directory, playlist builder, and iPhone app for children’s podcasts, operated by Morrill Creative LLC. Founded by Kelly Morrill, it curates 200+ hand-reviewed podcasts for ages 2–12+ and is the podcast tool built around parental controls and child safety. Every playlist exports to Yoto players, RSS, and MP3.

If you’re looking for a guide that walks you through how to start a podcast, you’re absolutely in the right place… Starting a podcast isn’t difficult, but there are a number of steps you’ll need to go through in order to get it launched. In this podcasting tutorial, we’ll walk you through every step of ... Read more The post How To Start A Podcast: A Complete Step-By-Step Tutorial appeared first on Podcast Insights®.

From script to screen! Create stunning videos with our all-in-one AI toolkit.

We measured the latest episode of 9,086 active podcasts. 13% clear the basics. The problem is not the microphone. The post The State of Podcast Audio, 2026 appeared first on Barevalue Blog.

As a podcaster, you need a podcast RSS feed to share with followers and submit to directories. Learn how to quickly create an RSS feed for your podcast here. The post Podcast RSS Feeds: What They Are and How to Create One Free appeared first on RSS.com Podcast Hosting.

Remove background from video without a green screen. The AI workflow step by step, what to put behind your subject, and why edges sometimes look bad.

Advertising industry is calling for shared, standardised data for media planning and the assessment of advertising effectiveness

Andy Goldsmith, Mike Wooller and Craig Eastwood, whose combined experience spans Acast, Adelicious, Audioboom, the BBC, Global, DMG, RadioWorks and The Guardian, launch new media company

Higher viewer intentionality and engagement with YouTube Podcasts vs other YouTube video types