Fighting the podcast wars

Spotify vs. Apple vs. SiriusXM: It's on. Pandemic advertising festivals + medieval Jolene + more: The Neal Ungerleider Newsletter

Jul 14, 2020

Greetings from the Great Lakes, where fireworks season (remember that?) is officially over.

So something big happened in the past year with podcasts: Podcasters figured out how to (kind of, sort of, maybeeeee….) make money from podcast advertising.

That’s one reason why SiriusXM, owners of both the satellite radio brand and of Pandora, just spent $325 million on Stitcher. Stitcher, the company, includes not only their popular podcast listening app but podcast production network Earwolf (Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend) and advertising firm Midroll Media.

SiriusXM’s acquisition follows Spotify spending a staggering $100 million plus for the rights to Joe Rogan’s popular podcast.

These hundreds of millions are being tossed around for a few different reasons:

Podcasts as a genre have reached market maturity. If you’re under 50, odds are you have a few podcasts in your regular rotation.
Podcasting offers something talk radio never could: Endless programming devoted to niche interest. Talk radio thrives on right-wing populist politics, religion and sports because those are easy to build regional listener bases around. By contrast, podcasts allow for shows with niche interests (serial killers, self-deprectating standup comedy, history) to become sustainable businesses based on worldwide listenership rather than local/regional.
Advertising on podcasts is maturing past the traditional and much-joked-about plugs for Mailchimp or Stamps.com to more sophisticated midroll and preroll content. Hell, there’s even an actual podcast upfront this year.

The IAB just put together an interesting guide to where podcast advertising is headed in 2020. Highlights include 15% growth despite the pandemic and podcast advertising revenues increasing by 48% in 2019 (!) reaching $708.1 million.

hearluminary

We don't believe in too much of a good thing. 😎 Listen only on Luminary.

July 13, 2020

Luminary, meanwhile, is opting for a subscription product where users pay a monthly fee. They’re part of a market mix that, apart from SiriusXM and Spotify, also includes Apple and a host of smaller players (I’m still team Pocket Casts for what it’s worth).

Monetization remains tricky for podcasts, which is both why the space is challenging and so damn potentially profitable. You’re able to target a ton of niche interests, podcasting has created a huge talent pool outside the radio industry funnel, and you have large audiences with brand loyalty. All that remains is the tricky business of actually building adtech products for podcasts, endless iterating of different variations on ads to see what works and what doesn’t, and finding ways to develop advertising that don’t lead to greed wars between platforms, networks, adtech firms, hosts and listeners.

Easy!

On the non-profit front, voting in the 2020 My LA2050 Grants Challenge is currently underway. Winners receive grants ranging from $10K to $100,000.

The Big Picture

Some amazing history: New DNA analysis indicates South Americans were early inhabitants of Polynesia. Just sailing from Colombia to the middle of the Pacific Ocean in the 1100s, no big deal.
Joe Biden gains a five point lead in Texas polls. Texas voters leaning Democrat in a Presidential election is pretty damn rare. Respondents in the Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll indicated dissatisfaction with how the Trump administration and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are handling the COVID crisis.
The Sqirl scandal is the gift that keeps on giving.
Meetings in the modern world. Let’s talk Zoom meeting etiquette and why one DC lobbyist is embracing walking meetings.
Even with the imperfect PPP loans and unemployment aid, COVID-19 is killing off American small businesses, Dr. Anthony Fauci warns that taking comfort in a lower COVID death rate is a false narrative, and it turns out strip clubs during COVID are the most depressing human experiences imaginable.

Marketing/Advertising/PR

That time Nestle hired a psychoanalyst to turn tea-loving 1970s Japanese into coffee drinkers.
amtrak
At #Amtrak, we are limiting bookings on most trains to allow for more physical distancing in seating areas. Individuals traveling alone may use the seat next to them for personal belongings, while friends and family members will easily find seats together. Learn more at Amtrak.com/coronavirus or visit the link in our bio.
July 8, 2020
Amtrak has a marketing advantage in private roomettes for the age of COVID. The downside, of course, is that it’s almost always faster to drive almost everywhere outside of the northeastern corridor. But, still, more space than airplanes.
How freelancers and agencies deal with client app fatigue when they’re constantly bouncing between Slack, Asana, Harvest, Trello, Microsoft Teams and all the rest.
Pandemic advertising festival!

Media

Longtime tech journalist (and former Gizmodo editor-in-chief) John Biggs is returning as Gizmodo’s EIC. Congrats!
Spies, lies and stonewalling: What it’s like to report on Facebook.
People are asking why it took so long for classic black sitcoms like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Living Single to appear on streaming services.
Near Future Laboratory put together the COVID ZINE and it’s awesome.

Tech

Go Microsoft, go Apple! The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern says Safari and Edge are now the best web browsers out there.
Customs and Border Protection says it’s ‘unrealistic’ for Americans to avoid their automated license plate surveillance.
The Wall Street Journal’s Geoffrey Fowler has the most detailed guide I’ve seen so far about whether or not TikTok is a security risk. Does TikTok put users at risk or is criticism of the app primarily around the fact that it’s China-based rather than US-based? You tell me.