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Today's reading time is 5 minutes. - Miko Santos (31 October 2025)
đď¸Today, we've got the inside scoop on:
The Billion Dollar Measurement Problem
Acastâs 41% Growth Shows Whatâs Possible When You Actually Execute
The Slow Death of Free Streaming Music
The $10-49 Sweet Spot: What Free Podcasts Tell Us About the Industry
Bonus: TV/Film Podcasts: The Gateway Drug Weâre Not Using Enough
Elsewhere: Audacy announces strategic partnership with NBA superstar Draymond Green.
Podwires Job Board : Spotify - Associate Manager, Creative Operations
The Billion Dollar Measurement Problem
The Podwires Rundown : Hereâs a fun fact: the podcasting industry is leaving a billion dollars on the table. Not because brands donât want to spend it. Not because the content isnât there. But because we canât measure things consistently.
Oxford Road just dropped their âWhat Brands Want 2025â report, and itâs a wake-up call. They surveyed the people who actually write the checks â including six of the top 10 podcast advertisers, representing roughly 15% of total U.S. podcast ad spend. And what did these brands say? Fix measurement, and weâll spend more. A lot more.
The kicker: 76% of brands would increase podcast investment if YouTube podcast attribution matched whatâs available for audio. Nearly a quarter would boost spending by 50% or more. Do the math. Thatâs roughly a billion dollars in additional spend just sitting there, waiting for the industry to get its act together. Dan Granger, CEO of Oxford Road, put it plainly: âIf the industry can deliver on measurement, advertisers have signaled they are ready to scale their investment.â
The Key Points:
Measurement is the #1 barrier to growth â 50% of respondents cite limitations in performance data as the main constraint on podcast ad spend
YouTube attribution gap costs the industry dearly â 76% of brands would increase investment if YouTube podcast attribution matched audio podcast attribution
Potential billion-dollar unlock â Nearly 25% of advertisers willing to grow spend by 50%+ suggests up to $1B in additional revenue available with standardized video attribution
AI host reads face trust issues â Brands remain skeptical without stronger disclosure and industry standards
Rising ad clutter concerns â Respondents increasingly worried about oversaturation threatening ad effectiveness
Why It Matters: This isnât about technology limitations or creative differences. Itâs about money walking away because we canât agree on how to count things. When a brand runs a campaign across audio podcasts and YouTube podcasts, they want apples-to-apples comparison. Right now, theyâre getting apples and oranges. That confusion creates friction. Friction creates hesitation. And hesitation means budgets go elsewhere â to platforms that have their measurement story straight. The industry has the content, the audiences, and the advertiser interest. What weâre missing is the measurement infrastructure to capture the opportunity.
The Big Picture: For podcasters and producers, this report should be required reading. The good news: brands want to spend more money in podcasting. The bad news: you canât access that money until the industry solves attribution. Practically, this means a few things. First, if youâre creating video podcasts on YouTube, understand that advertisers see that inventory differently than your RSS feed â and not in a good way. They canât measure it consistently, so they discount it or skip it entirely.
Second, the rise of programmatic is accelerating. That means more automated buying, which requires better measurement standards. Get ahead of this by ensuring your shows work with measurement partners and attribution tools. Third, the report confirms brands are nervous about AI-generated host reads without proper disclosure. If youâre experimenting with AI, transparency isnât optional â itâs essential for maintaining advertiser trust. The industry isnât short on content or creativity. Weâre short on trust, transparency, and accountability in measurement. Fix that, and the money follows. The Oxford Road report proves brands are ready. The question is whether podcasting can deliver the measurement infrastructure fast enough to capture it.
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Acastâs 41% Growth Shows Whatâs Possible When You Actually Execute
The Podwires Rundown: While the podcasting industry spends a lot of time wringing its hands about measurement problems and platform fragmentation, Acast just quietly posted 41% organic growth in Q3 2025. Not total growth â organic growth. The kind that comes from actually running a business well.
Hereâs what matters: their Average Revenue Per Listen jumped 33% to SEK 0.58 (about $0.06 USD). Thatâs not audience growth driving revenue. Thatâs monetization improvement. CEO Greg Glenday and team arenât just adding listens â theyâre making each listen worth more. North America led the charge with 58% net sales growth, while Europe added 27%. And theyâre not burning cash to get there. EBITDA margin hit 6%, up from 3% last year.
But the real story is their updated financial targets. Acast is now publicly committing to 10% EBIT margin by 2028, with organic sales growth exceeding 15% annually through that period. Glendayâs framing it as âa milestone, not the final destination.â Translation: weâre just getting started. Theyâre also bringing on Anders Hägg as CFO in January 2026 to help execute this next phase. This is what confidence looks like.
The Key Points:
Explosive organic growth continues â 41% organic net sales growth and 35% total revenue growth in Q3 2025, reaching SEK 642.1m (USD 67.4m)
Monetization improving faster than audience â Average Revenue Per Listen increased 33% to SEK 0.58 while listens grew only 1%, showing pricing power and efficiency gains
North American expansion accelerating â 58% net sales increase in North America led regional growth, with Europe contributing 27%
Profitability targets raised â New financial framework targets 10% EBIT margin by 2028 and organic sales CAGR exceeding 15% through 2025-2028
Strategic partnerships expanding reach â New collaboration with Magnite brings Acastâs 1 billion quarterly listens to wider programmatic demand sources
Why It Matters : Most podcast companies talk about growth. Acast is demonstrating it with receipts. The 33% increase in revenue per listen shows theyâre solving the monetization puzzle that plagues the industry â getting more value from existing audiences rather than just chasing raw download numbers. Their ability to grow revenue faster than their audience while improving margins proves the podcast advertising market isnât saturated; itâs undermonetized. When a major player can publicly commit to 10% EBIT margins by 2028, it sends a signal to the entire industry and potential investors: podcasting isnât just a content play anymore. Itâs a real business with real margins.
The Big Picture : For podcasters, Acastâs performance demonstrates that premium monetization is achievable at scale. If youâre working with networks or platforms, these numbers should inform your conversations about revenue share and performance expectations. The 33% jump in ARPL suggests thereâs real money available for quality inventory â but you need to be working with partners who have the sales infrastructure and advertiser relationships to capture it.
For producers, the operational story matters more than the revenue headline. Acast improved EBITDA margin by 3 percentage points while growing operating expenses only 19% against 35% revenue growth. Thatâs operational leverage, and it comes from disciplined resource allocation â theyâre investing in sales and marketing, not just content production costs. Learn from this: growth without operational discipline is just expensive. Their partnership with Magnite also signals where the puck is going â programmatic podcast advertising is accelerating, and producers need to ensure their shows are technically capable of serving programmatically sold ads.
For the industry, Acastâs trajectory proves that global scale matters in podcasting. Their strength in UK and Nordics combined with growth potential in US and Continental Europe creates geographic diversification that smaller players canât match. The updated financial targets arenât just corporate goals â theyâre a benchmark for where the industry needs to head. If Acast can hit 10% EBIT margins, other major players have no excuse for continued unprofitability. The market is there. The question is execution.
Full report available at: https://investors.acast.com/investors/reports
The Slow Death of Free Streaming Music
The Podwires Rundown : Remember when âfreeâ was the killer feature? When Spotifyâs whole value proposition was that you could listen to anything without paying, you just had to tolerate some ads?
Those days are over.
Edison Researchâs Share of Ear data tells a story that snuck up on the industry. In 2015, 78% of streaming music time was spent on free platforms. Americans tolerated the ads because, well, it was free. But something changed. Starting in 2017, that percentage started sliding. By 2020, paid streaming music time surpassed free for the first time. And now, in 2025, the split is 66% paid to 34% free.
Thatâs not a marginal shift. Thatâs a complete reversal in how Americans consume streaming music. Two-thirds of streaming music listening now happens on paid platforms. The free-with-ads model isnât dead, but itâs been relegated to minority status in just a decade.
Why does this matter for podcasting? Because weâre walking the same path, just a few years behind. YouTube is training podcast audiences to expect visual content. Spotify is training them to expect seamless cross-platform experiences. And both are demonstrating that consumers will pay for premium experiences if the value is there. The question isnât whether podcasting will follow musicâs trajectory from free-to-paid. The question is how fast, and whether open podcasting can compete when it happens.
The Key Points:
Free streaming dominance has reversed â In 2015, 78% of streaming music time was free; by 2025, 66% is now paid subscription services
Tipping point occurred in 2020 â First year paid streaming music time surpassed free, marking a fundamental shift in consumer behavior
Consistent trend across platforms â All major providers (Spotify, iHeart, YouTube Music, Amazon, Pandora) now offer both tiers, with paid gaining share
Ad tolerance declining â Americans increasingly unwilling to tolerate advertisements in audio listening experiences
Subscription services normalized â Competitive pricing and prevalence of subscriptions in other media made paid audio mainstream
Why It Matters: This isnât just about music. Itâs about audio consumption habits. When consumers demonstrate theyâll pay for ad-free audio experiences at scale, it changes the economics for every audio platform â including podcasting. The shift from 78% free to 66% paid over ten years shows that âfree with adsâ isnât the inevitable end state for digital audio. Consumers have proven they value their listening experience enough to pay for it. This creates both opportunity and risk for podcasting: opportunity for premium subscription models, risk for ad-supported shows if listener patience for advertising continues to erode.
The Big Picture : For podcasters, the Share of Ear data suggests your audienceâs relationship with ads is changing underneath you. Theyâre increasingly willing to pay for ad-free experiences in other audio contexts. If youâre building a podcast solely on the ad-supported model, understand that youâre swimming against a tide thatâs been shifting for nearly a decade. This doesnât mean ads are dead in podcasting â far from it. But it does mean diversification matters. Consider what premium, subscriber-only content might look like for your show.
For producers, the music industryâs migration to paid streaming offers a blueprint. Competitive pricing worked â consumers didnât need to pay $15/month for every service. They picked one or two and paid reasonable rates. The podcast industry needs to learn from this. If youâre building subscription offerings, pricing discipline matters. Donât overprice your way out of the market before it develops. Also, note that all major platforms maintained both free and paid tiers. The answer wasnât abandoning one model for another â it was serving both audiences while making the paid experience compelling enough to convert free users over time.
For the industry, this data should inform strategic planning around monetization. We spend enormous energy optimizing ad loads, fighting about dynamic ad insertion, and debating programmatic versus host-read ads. Meanwhile, the audio audience is demonstrating that theyâll increasingly pay to avoid ads altogether. The podcasting industry needs to develop robust, user-friendly subscription infrastructure before platform giants build it for us. Because if musicâs trajectory is any indication, the audience is ready. The question is whether podcastingâs infrastructure will be.
The $10-49 Sweet Spot: What Free Podcasts Tell Us About the Industry
The Podwires Rundown:The Podcast Host just released survey data that should make the industry uncomfortable. 17% of independent podcasters run their shows on exactly zero dollars per month. Theyâre not spending money â just time.
Thatâs not a small number. Nearly one in five indie podcasters has figured out how to produce content without spending anything. And hereâs the kicker: 71% of them say theyâre achieving at least some of their podcast goals. Before you start thinking this proves podcasting doesnât need investment, letâs look at what those goals actually are and what âsuccessâ means when youâre not spending money.
The data from Katie Paterson and The Podcast Host team reveals something we all suspected but rarely say out loud: you can run a podcast on no budget, but only a specific kind of podcast. Itâs likely a solo show (53% of free podcasts are). Itâs probably driven by altruistic goals like âsupporting othersâ or âpersonal enjoymentâ rather than revenue. And critically, 68% of these shows get under 50 downloads per episode in the first week. Thereâs nothing wrong with that number â but itâs also not building a business or reaching meaningful scale.
The Key Points:
17% of indie podcasters spend zero dollars monthly â They invest time rather than money, with 65% getting no help running their shows
Free podcasts face growth limitations â 68% of zero-budget shows get under 50 downloads per episode in first week, compared to just 24% of shows spending $100+
Goals differ by spending level â Free podcasters prioritize support, enjoyment, and awareness; revenue-focused creators spend more monthly on production
Financial investment correlates with sustainability â 44% of free podcasts are less than a year old; only 22% of shows spending $50+ are that new
The $10-49 bracket is most popular â 40% of survey respondents spend in this range, representing a âsweet spotâ for accountability without breaking the bank
Why It Matters: This data exposes podcastingâs fundamental tension: the barrier to entry is incredibly low, but the barrier to growth is high. You can absolutely start a podcast for free, but scaling it requires investment. The survey shows that only 5% of free podcasters make any money from their shows, compared to 26% of those spending $100+ monthly. This creates a trap for new creators who think podcastingâs accessibility means itâs easy. Starting is easy. Growing is expensive. The industry celebrates the low barrier to entry while quietly acknowledging that most shows never escape hobbyist status â and the data suggests financial investment is a key differentiator.
The Big Picture: For podcasters, this survey is a reality check. If youâre running a free show and wondering why growth is slow, the answer is in the data. Free shows are harder to grow, harder to sustain, and less likely to generate revenue. That doesnât mean you need to immediately start spending money, but it does mean you should be honest about your goals. If you want a hobby that reaches a few dozen people, free podcasting works. If you want to build an audience at scale or generate revenue, you need to invest. The sweet spot appears to be $10-49 monthly â enough to access better tools and hold yourself accountable without breaking the bank.
For producers, this data should inform how you talk to clients about budgets. When someone says they want to âstart a podcast,â the conversation needs to immediately shift to goals. Are they building a brand? Supporting a business? Creating a revenue stream? Each requires different investment levels. The survey shows that 79% of new creators prefer investing time over money, but the data also shows that time-only investment produces limited results. Your job is helping clients understand that trade-off upfront rather than letting them discover it six months in when theyâre frustrated by lack of growth.
For the industry, these numbers reveal our biggest weakness: weâve made podcasting too easy to start and too hard to succeed at. 85% of survey respondents donât make money from their podcasts. Thatâs not a sustainable ecosystem. The $10-49 sweet spot suggests thereâs a middle path â affordable investment that increases likelihood of success without requiring professional production budgets. The industry should focus on building tools and services at this price point rather than continuing to celebrate how âanyone can podcastâ without acknowledging that âanyone can succeedâ requires more than a microphone and an idea.
Full Independent Podcaster Survey report available soon at: https://www.thepodcasthost.com
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Bonus : TV/Film Podcasts: The Gateway Drug Weâre Not Using Enough
The Podwires Rundown: Sounds Profitable just released research on TV and Film podcasts that should change how we think about audience development. Not because it reveals some shocking new behavior, but because it proves something we suspected but rarely act on: companion content works.
Here are the numbers that matter. Among TV/Film podcast consumers, 44% have talked to friends about a TV show after consuming a podcast about it. 43% rewatched the show. 16% purchased a streaming subscription to watch the show. Thatâs not passive consumption. Thatâs evangelism. And weâre leaving it on the table.
The study, conducted with Signal Hill Insights and sponsored by True Companions, surveyed 5,034 Americans 18+ in June 2025 â the largest public study of podcasting in America. While TV/Film podcasts currently reach 19% of monthly podcast consumers, the potential audience is dramatically larger. Over 50% of Americans 18+ say theyâd be interested in this kind of content. That gap between current and potential audience? Thatâs opportunity.
The Key Points:
TV/Film podcasts reach 19% of monthly podcast consumers â But 53% of Americans say theyâd be likely to listen to a podcast about a favorite TV show or movie
Audience skews male and young â 56% male (vs 49% general population) and 43% ages 18-34 (vs 29% general population), revealing untapped potential among women and older demographics
Audio expectations remain strong â TV/Film podcast consumers expect podcasts to be audio or usually audio at the same rate as general podcast consumers; video isnât required to reach this audience
High propensity for action â 16% purchased streaming subscriptions to watch shows after consuming related podcasts; 44% talked to friends about the show
Evangelists for podcasting â 79% of TV/Film podcast consumers recommend podcasts to their social circle (vs 68% of general podcast consumers)
Why It Matters: This research proves that podcasts can drive behavior beyond just listening. When 16% of TV/Film podcast consumers purchase streaming subscriptions after hearing about a show, thatâs measurable ROI for streaming platforms. When 44% talk to friends about the show, thatâs organic marketing that money canât buy. The industry spends enormous resources on paid acquisition while ignoring companion content as a growth lever. TV/Film podcasts arenât just content â theyâre conversion tools. And right now, most streaming platforms arenât using them strategically.
The Big Picture: For podcasters, this data suggests TV/Film content is one of the few guaranteed ways to reach people who donât currently consume podcasts. Over 50% of Americans express interest in this genre, but only 19% of monthly podcast consumers actually listen to it. Thatâs a massive addressable audience. If youâre trying to grow a show, companion content to existing TV/Film franchises provides built-in audience interest. The research also shows this audience is significantly more likely to consume limited series and look for more shows when those series finish â creating a natural pipeline for podcasters who can deliver quality episodic content tied to streaming releases.
For producers, the strategic opportunity is clear: TV/Film podcasts are gateway content. The audience they attract becomes evangelists (79% recommend podcasts to their social circle). Theyâre also more likely to watch premium streaming content, both with and without ads. If youâre working with streaming platforms or entertainment brands, this research should be your pitch deck. The data proves companion podcasts drive subscription purchases, increase engagement with original content, and create word-of-mouth marketing. The production workflow is also more defined than traditional podcasts â you have natural episode breaks, built-in talking points from source material, and existing fan communities to tap into.
For the industry, thereâs a glaring demographic opportunity. The current TV/Film podcast audience skews heavily male (56%) and young (43% are 18-34). But women are the majority of moviegoers in the US, and people 55+ are overwhelmingly the audience for network and cable TV. Weâre making content for the wrong audience while ignoring the people who actually consume the most TV and film. The research also debunks the assumption that TV/Film content requires video â this audience expects audio at the same rate as general podcast consumers. Stop using video as an excuse for not creating companion content.
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