
3/4ths of top 100 podcasts have ads, but only 1/4th of top 25k podcasts have ads - cmrnh
https://medium.com/@magellanblog/3-4ths-77-0-of-top-100-podcasts-have-ads-but-only-1-4th-28-4-of-all-podcasts-have-ads-1ac8b83595b
======
jkchu
I find it cool that they are able to get reasonably accurate data with their
automated tool, but the overall conclusion of this data isn't very
interesting. Of course more popular podcasts are more likely to have ads -
there are way more advertisers vying to reach those larger audiences.

~~~
ghaff
I assume there's also a correlation of the form that more professionally
produced (and frequently released) podcasts tend to be more popular and tend
to be more likely to need ads to pay for them. (And go away absent being
popular and having ads.)

Simple interview or discussion-style podcasts are pretty easy and cheap to
produce. They're probably not as popular in general but they're often just
some sideline so it's often not even worth it to deal with advertising.

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goldcd
As has been mentioned (and I'm sure will be again) - that advertisers choosing
to advertise on popular podcasts isn't surprising.

But got me thinking:

I subscribe to a few excellent podcasts, nobody else hears about. Often they
use Patreon and I chip in something trivial, like a dollar a month. Seems more
prevalent than say on small youtube channels, but my assumption is that if the
podcast is being served from a creator owned RSS, then it's harder for
advertiser to know who downloaded it, if they actually did, if they listened
to it. The design of 'podcast' (here's my RSS feed of MP3s) was never designed
with advertising in mind.

But it's changing. Specialist aggregators like Stitcher, podcasts being added
as features (Plex & Spotify) and even some of the indies are using a service
that'll insert an advert relevant to when you downloaded and where (although
never fits in - and the random spanish one confused me)... but can't help feel
it's all becoming a bit of a mess as the big-boys wade in to try and make
something commercial out of it - when the listeners were quite happy to use
their favourite client (correct answer is Pocket Casts). More than a mess. I
pay on Patreon, but I still get the advert. Or I sign up for stitcher to lose
adverts on some, but not others. Or use the NPR app, or the BBC app - so they
can tell what I listened to etc etc.

Isn't this the sort of problem tech like blockchain could solve? Your
favourite player generates a universal ID, then on per-podcast basis you can
opt in to write-back whatever listening habits/personal details you feel
comfortable with (e.g. what else do I listen to?) "Please tick the box, so I
can prove you're listening?" "Please tick the box that proves you're a certain
demographic to them?" "Please give me your ID on Patreon, so your client can
get the ad-free feed"

I'm meandering now. I think my point was simply that this article reminded me
of my annoyance that a clear existing problem seems to be "being fixed wrong"

~~~
dewey
And why exactly do you need a blockchain for this?

~~~
goldcd
Wouldn't have to be blockchain, of course. What I was wanting would be
'somewhere' _all_ podcast players could write back what you've been doing with
them. Of course the "global podcast tracking organization" could spontaneously
form and expose a ReST service to correlate the same data. Then undoubtedly
would need some funding, so maybe charge advertisers for access. Just liked
the lighter weight initial idea of building the ledger and then leaving the
advertisers/public to decide what to do with it. Or to look at it another way
- open-source "Nielsen-like" data, created solely for consumption of digital
media. Although cost of implementation is far lower (don't have to install
boxes on TVs, or ask what adverts you saw in the paper) - but still we just
seem to have proprietary stuff and a bazillion cookies on every website.

------
theDoug
You didn't release any data to verify and this is clearly a product pitch in
the form of a Medium post, so I guess my response is "Oh. Okay"

Edit: Transcription[0] seems really poor, but I guess they're just checking
for mentions of the advertiser's name and not anything like sentiment or
actually matching ad copy (where there would be higher value to advertisers).

0: [https://podcast-
app.magellan.ai/advertisements/b8f65c87-4c66...](https://podcast-
app.magellan.ai/advertisements/b8f65c87-4c66-4ad3-9916-31de76a07176)

------
kencausey
One of my favorite podcasts Matt and Mattingly's Ice Cream Social (aka
Heyscoops) has, I think, a fairly unique situation of being entirely funded
directly from listeners via Patreon and some merchandise sales.

[https://heyscoops.com/](https://heyscoops.com/)

------
chaoticmass
The Best Podcast in the Universe[1] relies completely on listener donations.
Given the nature of the show, they could never use corporate ads.

[1] [http://www.noagendashow.com/](http://www.noagendashow.com/)

