2025 Prediction Time! What Our Audio Experts & The Industry Believe is In Store for the New Year; Taylor Swift’s Future Sister-In-Law (?)’s Podcast.

The Media Roundtable is back! This week we’ve dusted off our trusty crystal ball for a look into 2025. What trends will shape the audio industry next year and beyond? Stay tuned…

Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road) hosts fellow audio prognosticators:

Steven Goldstein (Founder & CEO, Amplifi Media)

Tom Webster (Partner, Sounds Profitable)

Peter Birsinger (CEO & Founder, Podscribe)

The team is talking: Spotify’s YouTube Envy, Revenue Predictions, The Future of Attribution, and more. Let’s leap in.

“ If this is an existential threat for open RSS, it’s going to be because the podcast clients innovated for creators, but did not innovate enough for the user and the user experience. And that’s what YouTube is nailing.”

Tom Webster (Partner, Sounds Profitable)

YouTube Envy – One big question of 2025: Can Spotify become YouTube? Yes, video’s engaging, but YouTube’s other advantages are discovery, ease of use, and potential connection. Video is just one part of that, and Spotify will have a lot of ground to cover to change their podcast experience. (As for the video & podcast debate, Tom considers it settled: “ It comes from the Podcast region of France–anything else is just sparkling audio.” )

Triangulation – As Pete puts it: “ Triangulation is the hot word, and I think it’s going to be getting even hotter.” With the current state of podcast, video, radio, and streaming, CAOs need multiple ways of measurement to unlock investment with confidence (pixels, surveys, incrementality). In a video-forward 2025, that’ll only become more necessary (but we’re watching to see if Spotify’s video approach will represent a measurement improvement over YouTube’s black box.)

2025’s Numbers – Big predictions: Listenership will be up (by a skosh/iota/smidgen depending on who’s predicting), with CPMs roughly flat (except in radio, predicted to go down), and revenue should go up as well. Radio might be a value buy in 2025, with the right measurement. In Dan’s words: “ It’s amazing how many people could still be successful on radio today if only they’d take the time to survey.”

To get a head start on 2025, tune into the full episode below.

Watch Here

Listen Here: Spotify

Listen Here: Apple

The Classifieds

She’s Strong. She’s Invincible. She’s a Kelce.

Network: Wave Sports / Monthly Downloads: 1m

As Q4 fades into the new year, we look toward the future. What new deals will be closed? Who will launch a brand new show unexpectedly? In that spirit, let’s look at two new shows that will continue to rise in popularity. Our first is hosted by Kylie Kelce: super mom, wife to footballer Jason Kelce, and former collegiate athlete herself. Though often seen as the quieter, more subdued member of the Kelce tribe, Kylie bravely takes the mic for the first time, crushing the podcast charts into mere dust. With just her first episode, Kylie unseated powerhouse Joe Rogan from his throne, already selling out sponsorships left and right. Whether you’re looking for big opps, female-focused hosts, or a huge reach play, you can’t go wrong with this new top performer. If you wanna fly like an Eagle, soar on over to the link below.

Get The Deal

A Good American Makes a Bad Bch Podcast**

Network: Dear Media / Monthly Downloads: 1m

When this opportunity was initially announced in early December, we had questions on how it would shake out. While video continues to dominate the conversation between sellers and buyers planning out 2025 media, Khloe Kardashian announced a show that would first drop on X, ad-less, easily available to her 305m followers. We wondered where the RSS would factor into the picture, and now we have our answer. Dear Media will be selling the audio the day after the live drop for sponsorship in the new year. Many larger brands already in the OTT space will undoubtedly dip their toes into testing, but DR powerhouses will likely easily find success as well. This show is also highly recommended for those already testing female influencer pods that have seen initial success. Don’t take pictures of yourself while your sister is going to jail, simply unleash the link below for more.

Get The Deal

In Case You Missed It

Digital Audio Up in 2025, Radio Down

Magna forecasts a 4.2% growth in U.S. digital audio ad spending in 2025, continuing the momentum seen in 2024. Overall, U.S. advertising is expected to grow by 4.9%, driven by a robust economic environment and reduced inflation. While traditional audio ad spending may decline by 3.2%, digital audio’s growth reflects the increasing popularity of platforms like podcasts. Global ad revenues are predicted to grow by 6.1%, nearing $1 trillion. Magna highlights that digital and non-linear formats are attracting more marketing dollars, with particular strength in personal care, beauty, and tech advertising. Digital will drive audio growth in 2025, though it may lag behind overall media spend growth. Meanwhile, declining spend presents CAOs with potential deal opportunities.

AI Makes Podcasting Personal in 2025?

Google NotebookLM and Spotify have partnered to create AI-generated personalized podcasts for Spotify 2024 Wrapped, leveraging Google’s NotebookLM technology. This development offers advertisers a new way to deliver targeted messaging within a highly personalized and captive listening experience. The collaboration also highlights the growing potential of AI to transform consumer and advertiser experiences in audio streaming. With this partnership, will 2025 be the year AI has a big impact on podcasting from personalized podcasts to personalized ads and more? Stay tuned to find out.

YouTube’s Podcast Plans for 2025

YouTube is experiencing significant growth in podcast consumption, driven by efforts to enhance audio content and user experiences across its main platform and YouTube Music. Plans for 2025 include improved discovery features, better in-car listening, and expanded integrations with Google services like Search and Assistant. For 2025, expect YouTube to continue as a dominant platform for podcast discovery and consumption. Although YouTube doesn’t have big ambitions in podcasting, it’s interesting to read that the platform is working to improve its ‘audio forward’ experience. Also, spoiler alert, still no plans for YouTube to allow creators to upload video via RSS.

The Biggest Hidden Cost in Business

The Focused podcast, hosted by David Sparks and Mike Schmitz, explores strategies and tools to help individuals improve productivity while staying true to their values and long-term goals. It’s no question that a show like this would be perfectly aligned with an advertiser “focused” on hiring the right candidates. In a recent ad for Indeed, the show highlighted the hiring platform’s ability to help save time and deliver quality candidates, addressing the “biggest hidden cost” of hiring the wrong person. By combining compelling statistics with their own personal experience, this read is a perfect example of executing Audiolytics™ Key Component #5: Substantiation while flawlessly aligning with the podcast’s productivity-focused theme. This advertiser/podcast connection is a match made in heaven. If you’re trying to find similar connections between your brand and the shows you sponsor, email us, we can help.

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If you’ve read this far, thank you!

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