99% Invisible bought by SiriusXM

Vanity URLs and promo codes often fall short, says Sounds Profitable’s Bryan Barletta. Even if a listener hears a lot about an advertiser on your podcast, they might just Google the company’s name - leaving you without any credit. Pixel-based attribution fixes that, he says. You should subscribe.

Sep 3 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• SiriusXM has bought 99% Invisible Inc. The company, owned by Roman Mars, makes 99% Invisible and What Trump Can Teach Us About Constitutional Law. The podcast will remain free to everyone, according to the New York Times.

  • No terms were given, but Roman Mars is to give $1m from the sale to support Radiotopia shows, says PRX. 99% Invisible started in 2010, initially crowd-funded on Kickstarter.
  • Matt Deegan comments that building scale is essential to podcast success.

• Facebook is to add a podcast player in its app, powered by Spotify. It’s being rolled out to 27 markets, none in Europe.

• First look: Acast has launched “Sponsored Stories”, longer ad spots that can last up to four minutes.

• First look: Today, Magellan AI launches its Q1/21 podcast advertising report. Of their findings:

  
  Sep 3 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.
  • Podcast ad spending in March was higher than the Q4/20 monthly average.
  • 50% of podcast ad revenue went to the 500 most popular podcasts
  • 21% of podcast episodes have just one advertiser.

• Acast claims the future of podcasting is Dynamic RSS, according to a post by Matt MacDonald. dRSS is the company’s brand for custom feeds, which, the company says, allows personalisation for audiences.

  • Most podcast hosts write static RSS feeds; though as we highlighted yesterday, Podnews serves dynamic RSS feeds to allow us to better identify the apps that listen to us.)

• WeArePodcast is running a new virtual event on 20-21 May, called “Make Money From Your Podcast”. Promo code PODNEWS will get you a discount.

• MorganStanley issued a client note saying mostly positive things about Spotify, calling them “overweight”, and predicting they’ll hit $350/share in the next twelve months (they’re $298 currently). Spotify releases their earnings results for Q1/21 tomorrow (and possibly, with it, their plans for podcast subscriptions); they’re currently increasing prices in the US and UK.

• Eric Nuzum writes about why subscriptions matter: suggesting that podcast creators shouldn’t rely on one source of revenue; but to examine who owns the relationship.

• Buzzsprout now integrates with Canva to make artwork easier. Find it in your podcast settings.

Tips and tricks - with Podcast Day 24

• The Basics to Monetize a Podcast include ads, sponsorships and products, say Blubrry.

• How to write compelling show notes includes the suggestion to “use Google’s Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest to find keywords relating to your topic”.

Podcast News

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