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Let’s dive in on today’s newsletter. - Miguel Bada

• 🔥Acast Reports 24% Net Sales Growth in Q2 2024 Interim Results

• 🚨 Podcast Insight: Enhancing Holiday Experiences Through Strategic Audio Integration

• 🌏 Podcast Elsewhere: Magellan AI, an industry leader in audio intelligence, analytics, and measurement, has announced that new cookie-less identifiers have just been added for the measurement of campaigns across podcasts and streaming audio.

• 🛠️Hire a Podcast Producers : Lindsay Curtis

MARKETS

As of 2:10 am ET. Data is provided by MarketWatch

🔥Acast Reports 24% Net Sales Growth in Q2 2024 Interim Results

Acast, a leading podcaster and advertising platform, presented sustained growth and improved EBITDA profitability in Q2 2024.

The Interim reports :

The revelations that net sales increased by 24% in Q2 2024, driven by strong performances in the North American and European regions. Organic net sales growth came in even stronger at 22% from 15% in the comparable period. Gross margin stood at 39% versus 36%, while EBITDA came in at SEK –11.3 million (–41.7), which means a positive EBITDA in 2024.

On the other hand, both operating loss and cash flow from operating activities of the company dropped; an operating loss of SEK -32.3 m (-59.3) and cash flow at SEK -1.3 m (-57.5). Earnings per share increased from -0.08 to SEK 0.15 in the previous period. The number of listens decreased by 15% as compared to the corresponding period of last year due to Apple's iOS17 update.

However, the ARPL increased to SEK 0.43 from 0.30, which means it increased by 45% year over year. Acast celebrated its tenth consecutive year of innovation and market-leading performance in podcasting in April, having hosted more than 125,000 podcasts and delivered 37 billion ads globally.

This meant that the group increased its gross margin by three percentage points compared to last year and delivered an EBITDA result of SEK -11 m (-2%)—improving profitability in all reported segments.

About the Report :

Interim Report of Acast for the Period January 1, 2024-June 30, 2024. This report describes the Group's activities, results, and financial position for the period. It refers to the entire group unless otherwise indicated. Amounts in brackets refer to corresponding periods in 2023.

Why does this matter?

This is important in that it gives investors and stakeholders a view of Acast's performance and financial health for the period. Such results should be understood in order to help inform decisions on investment, partnerships, or other growth strategies later on.

Our Take

As podcast producers, our take is that this report could also offer valuable insights into the stability and potential growth of Acast as a platform for hosting and monetizing podcasts. On that note, it is quite important to know how the company is faring financially in order to make decisions on their partnership.

💥 Attention, podcasters!

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1. Effortless Collaboration: Connect with talented audio professionals who can elevate your podcast's production quality.

2. Comprehensive Services: From editing and sound design to marketing and monetization, find all the resources you need to thrive in one convenient place.

Join the thriving community of podcasters who trust Podworks.io to simplify their journey. Sign up today and unlock the full potential of your show!

🚨Enhancing Holiday Experiences Through Strategic Audio Integration

Audio helps remain aligned with trends and meet the challenges of changing consumer behavior in a time of growth and change. According to a new study by Sirius XM Media, as this industry continues its upward trajectory, it only becomes more important that brands create audio ads and experiences that really cut through, connecting consumers to the content and brands they love.

The Revelations :

Audio acts as the rocket fuel to the holiday experience-from the very first sip of that seasonal drink to the eventual teardown of decorations. Traditional media, in and of itself, might not be able to engage the modern consumer, while audio-three-quarters of which is music-continues to perform: 79% of all audio consumption happens while people are doing something else, when they cannot be reached by visual media. 63% of adults listen to holiday music, and 78% say streaming audio improves their mood. Holiday content closed out at more than 3 million spins on Pandora in Q4—further proving that music will continue to grow across platforms.

Why this matters?

Integrating audio into holiday marketing plans can help brands forge connections with consumers. Zeroing in on pre-season shopping habits and using sophisticated targeting, businesses can forge links before the holiday ad rush heats up in November and December.

It can help businesses tell their best contextual story with audio toolkits, while powerful voices, ad-free listening through sponsored audio, keep consumers in a better mood and increase brand attention. Fluency: This is an internal cultural practice that focuses on tightening relationships between brands and individuals living within the community.

By including culturally relevant events within the same campaign, a brand builds trust by including culturally relevant foods, recipes, voices, songs and sounds. Use SiriusXM Media, streaming, podcasts and satellite radio to reach consumers early and often during the holiday season.

Our Take

Being podcaster Producers, we feel that the use of varied platforms to spread brand messaging in these jam-packed holiday seasons can make the experience more engaging and interesting for customers.

1. 🗽 New York : Journalist Ashley Carman blogged that audio analytics and measurement company Veritonic has hired an investment bank and is in acquisition talks. Podwires reached out to Veritonic VP of Marketing Kristin Charron, who stated that she had no comment on the report.

2. 🇺🇸 United States : Magellan AI, an industry leader in audio intelligence, analytics, and measurement, has announced that new cookie-less identifiers have just been added for the measurement of campaigns across podcasts and streaming audio.

3. 🇬🇧 United Kingdom : The British Podcast Awards 2024 has just announced its nominees, with big and small podcasts alike competing for the most coveted awards in the podcasting industry.

4. 🇸🇪 Sweden : Spotify announces a partnership with Ingram Content Group, one of the largest distributors of independent publishers and authors worldwide.SUBMIT YOUR NEWS

NEWS UPDATES

• A study by Edison Research and audiochuck, the True Crime Consumer Report, explores the appeal and changes related to true crime podcasts. The study will have its world premiere in a keynote address at Podcast Movement in Washington, D.C. on August 20, 2024 at 9am EDT.

• Podcast Movement is proud to present the second keynote session and our third round of PM24 speakers and panelists!

• Podcast Movement is thrilled to announce an extraordinary keynote session at Podcast Movement 2024 featuring two legendary public media hosts: Ira Glass and Rachel Martin!

• Podcast Movement is proud to release that this year's version of The Podcast Landscape, the largest public podcast usage study in America, will be presented by none other than Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster.

• An expert panel on "Building Podcast Franchises" includes former Navy SEAL John Allen, CEO Nick Witters, and creator Luke Lamana. Content creation in the area of audio will be discussed along with consumer product licensing, fan engagement, and general expansion of podcast brands. Panel lists meet Thursday, August 22.

• Tori Dunlap and Hala Taha are podcasters who have ripped the blueprint on scaling an enormous audience within a skeptical media environment. They explore ways to build a loyal audience, trust between creators and listeners, and advertisers. At no point in history has podcasting been more relevant in this media era. They'll hit the stage on Wednesday, August 21.

👉 Would like to be featured in our newsletter?. Come along with the growing number of podcast creators who rely on PODWIRES Marketplace to make their journey easier. Register right away

🎧 The Power of Brand Podcasting : Lesson with Lower Street Media

In this episode of That Podcast Exchange host Miko Santos interviews Harry Morton, the founder and CEO of Lower Street, an award-winning global podcast agency for brands. Harry shares valuable insights on creating successful branded podcasts, understanding target audiences, and measuring podcast ROI.

In this episode, we cover:

• Success in podcasting industry.

• Standing out in crowded market.

• Understanding brand identity and audience.

• Focusing on specific target audience.

• Having a clear point of view.

• Understanding uniqueness in podcast ideas.

• Engagement rate and completion rate.

• Building a successful podcast.

• NOVA Entertainment is hiring a Social Media and Video Producer (Podcasts)

• Spotify seeks a Production Manager to join its team in London.

• NPR is hiring a Chief Desk Editor in their Washington office.

• July 28 : Black Podcasters Association Summer Social - Brooklyn, NY

• August 19-22: Podcast Movement 2024 - Washington, D.C.

• September 3: Podcast Day Asia - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

• September 2 - 4 : Radiodays Asia 2024 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

• September 18 : Radio Academy Festival 2024 - London, UK

Visit podworks.io to post your upcoming events or job openings for free.

• Steve Goldstein blogged about why subscriptions don't work for most podcasters.

• An interesting article titled “ What do Podcast Do for your Brain?” written by Lindsay Jarris Friel

• What is Podcasting 2.0? And why should I care? Matthew McLean explained it to us.

• Do we, as podcasters, do enough to bring new listeners into the medium? Katie Paterson explained this in her article this week.

• Roni Gosch wrote in the latest Podbean blog about Best Tips for Video Podcasting

• Check out Morgan Swift's blog post "How to identify an ideal cross-promotional partner" if you're trying to grow your podcast audience.

• Managing People to Managing Productions: A How to Guide for Editors and Producers with Mia Lobel $335 Class Starts: Sep 9 

• How to Pitch Podcast Executives and Get Your Show Made with TJ Raphael $335 Class Starts: Sep 9

• From Idea to Launch: How to Create a Sustainable Podcast with Laurel Morales $335 Class Starts: Sep 17

• Telling Vulnerable Stories with Ronald Young Jr. $370 Class Starts: Oct 2

• Turning Dense Information Into Great Stories with Lewis Wallace $335 Class Starts: Oct 3

• From Topic to Story: How to Find Characters and Narrative Arcs to Draw in Listeners with Sarah Esocoff $370 Class Starts: Oct 7

• Body-Ody-Audio: How to Make Sensorial, Visceral Audio with Kristina Loring $370 Class Starts: Oct 8

• Be So For Real: Interview Training for Producers, Hosts and Editors with Dom French $370 Class Starts: Oct 30

• Fact Checking 101 with Jeanette Beebe  $370 Class Starts: Nov 4

• Mind Your Business: Podcast Monetization with Annalise Nielsen $335 Class Starts: Nov 5

• Introduction to Story Editing with Willow Belden $335 Class Starts: Dec 2

Welcome to the Podcaster Toolbox, a crowd-sourced resource for independent, DIY, and/or beginning home-based podcasters.

The Kangaroofern Media Lab team will review the resources submitted here and add them as soon as possible to the Podcaster Toolbox.

• 🏜️ Transistor.fm - is a powerful and simple podcasting platform. The ability to host multiple podcasts on one account makes it ideal for podcasters with multiple shows.

• 📢 Zencastr is an all-in-one podcast production suite that gives you studio quality audio and video without needing all the technical know-how.

• 🎙️ Acast - is a podcast hosting service that enables you to publish, share, and earn money from your podcasts.

• 🎧 Epidemic Sound - is a company that provides content producers with access to a sizable library of royalty-free music.

• 🔊 Soundstripe is a platform that offers thousands of royalty free music, sound effects, and video for your projects.

• 📼 Tubebuddy - is a complete tool for YouTube channel management and growth.

• 📹 VidIQ - is a website for learning that focuses on offering video tutorials and analytics to aid users in expanding their YouTube channels.

• 🪀 Swell AI turns podcasts or videos into transcripts, clips, show notes, articles, summaries, titles, newsletters, social posts, and more.

• 📬 SparkLoop is the fastest way to get a newsletter referral program — like TheSkimm and Morning Brew — up and running.

• 🎚️ Riverside is your online studio for high-quality podcast and video recording and editing.

The complete Toolbox can be seen at https://marketplace.podwires.com/toolbox

👀 Employing? or trying to find a new job?

Do you need to hire for your podcast? Here's where you can post a job (for free). Come hang out with us at podworks.io if you are a professional podcast producer!

From The Team

📖 I appreciate you taking the time to read! See you in the next issue. Got a question or criticism? Just click on Reply. We can talk while we are here.

🎧 Check out our podcast, the one and only "That Podcast Exchange” - This podcast is an insightful conversation with people at the top of their game and deconstructs them to find the tools, tactics, and tricks to help you achieve your dream goal as Podcast Manager.

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