The podcast economy is about twice as large as previous estimates suggested, according to Owl & Co. Earlier this month, the media consultancy published a breakdown of global podcast revenue, including subscriptions and tips, as well as advertising, and calculated that it amounted to $7.3bn in 2024.
‘We’ve reached a point where there is no marketing objective podcasting can’t help accomplish, said Shashta Cafarelli, SVP of media investment at performance agency Tinuiti, in an article published on Acast’s website in December.
Cafarelli also said that ‘2025 will be a landmark year for podcasting and its role within the media buying ecosystem,’ in part because of the influential role the medium was believed to have played in the US presidential election in 2024, and also because of the increasing popularity of video podcasts.
Given all that, we thought it’d be useful to take stock of the various podcast platforms, and what they offer in terms of audiences, content and ad formats.
Acast
Owned by: Karl Rosander and Måns Ulvestam
Monthly active users: 45m in the EU
Ad formats: various options, including pre-recorded ads, sponsorship and branded content
Popular shows: Giggly Squad, FT News Briefing, Sh**ged Married Annoyed
Sweden’s Acast launched in 2014 and provides hosting and monetisation for podcasts, and ad solutions for brands and media agencies. It hosts over 140,000 podcasts with more than 1 billion listens each quarter.
In 2022, Acast acquired podcast database Podchaser and struck a deal with Amazon, in which the ecommerce company bought all the ad space across thousands of Acast’s podcasts, to give people listening on Amazon Music an ad-free experience.
Acast claims that ‘podcasting advertising reigns supreme in the attention economy’, and that it has full-funnel effectiveness, achieving ‘60% higher ROI than any other channel’.
Spotify
Owned by: Daniel Ek, Martin Lorentzon and various investors
Monthly active users: 42m in the US
Ad formats: various options, including audio only, audio with companion display ads, and interactive CTA cards
Popular shows: The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett, The Rest Is Politics, The Mel Robbins Podcast
Spotify introduced podcasts in 2018 and video podcasts in 2020, after which it experienced significant growth, going from 100,000 shows in 2023 to over 250,000 in 2024. Spotify claims that more than 170 million users have now watched a video podcast on the platform.
Last month The New York Times reported that, in order to take on its competitors, Spotify has paid more than $100m to podcasters since January, effectively giving ‘podcasters a raise as the war for creator talent heats up.’
And in April, after six months of testing with The Trade Desk, Spotify launched Spotify Ad Exchange (SAX); which is currently limited to inventory within music but will soon include podcast ads. SAX is likely aimed at appealing to SMEs, as the platform looks to move towards the lower funnel into performance.
YouTube Music
Owned by: Google
Monthly active users: over 1bn users of podcast content
Ad formats: various options, including skippable and non-skippable in-stream ads, in-feed ads and bumper ads
Popular shows: Stick To Football, 48 Hours, Rotten Mango
Google Podcasts launched in 2018 but was shut down in 2024 to make way for YouTube Music. According to Google, this was to enhance the podcast experience, but also in response to user preference for YouTube.
In February YouTube reported more than 400 million hours of podcast content a month was watched on its platform. In April, reflecting on the platform’s 20th anniversary, The Verge wrote: ‘By investing in podcasts and YouTube Music, YouTube turned itself into an audio-friendly service.’
SiriusXM
Owned by: Liberty Media are majority owners
Monthly active users: 160m in the US
Ad formats: various options, including audio, video and display ads
Popular US shows: Vibe Check, Call Her Daddy, Pod Save America
SiriusXM (SXM) is an American broadcaster formed in 2008, after the merger of two radio stations. SXM claims that ‘over 70% of in-car time’ is spent listening to news, comedy and sports content on its platform, and that SXM is ‘home to the largest ad-supported audience in the US’.
SXM hosts talk shows like Howard Stern and is an official partner of numerous sports organisations, including the MLB, NBA, NFL, PGA and Nascar. It offers a variety of ad opportunities, from brand spots to live reads and sponsorship — and has worked with advertisers like retailer Kroger, Coca-Cola, as well as insurance and health companies.
Audioboom
Owned by: Nick Candy, Mark Horrocks, and Michael Tobin
Monthly active users: 38m worldwide
Ad formats: various options, including dynamic ad insertion, and campaigns targeting genre, location, keyword and audience demographics
Popular shows: The Tim Dillon Show, Crime Weekly, Real Ghost Stories
Audioboom is the fifth-largest podcast publisher in the US, and it is also popular in the UK and Australia. In total, its podcasts are heard in 187 countries. It supports a network of over 8000 independent creators, and features a range of genres, including true crime, politics and comedy.
Audioboom podcasts are available on major platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora and Amazon Music, and the publisher has worked with advertisers including Bosch, Samsung, Sky, and 20th Century Fox.
Wondery
Owned by: Amazon
Monthly active users: 24m in the US
Ad formats: bespoke segments, standalone episodes, experiential activations
Popular shows: American Scandal, The Spy Who, Even The Rich
Wondery is an American podcast network known for character-driven stories including Dr Death, British Scandal and Business Wars. A number of Wondery podcasts have been adapted for TV, including The Shrink Next Door and WeCrashed.
Wondery launched in 2016, and within three years had become a top-five podcast publisher with 40 million downloads. In 2020, Amazon Music acquired the network in a deal valued at $300m. In 2023, Variety reported on Wondery’s growth, attributing much of its success down to bringing ‘the TV experience to podcasting’, with ‘Hollywood-style storytelling’.
The platform offers custom executions to fit brand objectives, and has worked with a telco to increase foot traffic in physical stores, a coffee brand to drive awareness, and a travel brand to boost purchase intent during travel season, to name a few.
Amazon Music
Owned by: Amazon
Monthly active users: 80m worldwide
Ad formats: various options, including non-skippable and interactive ads
Popular shows: RedHanded, Political Currency, Help I Sexted My Boss
Amazon Music launched in 2007 and introduced podcasts in 2020. It had its most significant increase in subscribers from 2018-2019, going from 16 million to 32 million, and now has 80 million worldwide, with over 50 million in the US.
With podcasts, advertisers can programmatically access podcast inventory through Wondery, and Wondery partners.
Audacy
Owned by: private owners and investors
Monthly active users: 40m
Ad formats: various options, including sponsorship, endorsements, host read pre-roll and mid-roll ads, and branded podcast content
Popular shows: Fly On The Wall With Dana Carvey and David Spade, The Jim Rome Podcast, You Better You Bet
Audacy is an American broadcasting company that was founded in 1968 and is the second-largest radio company in the US. Its podcasts get 44 million podcast listens a month, and Audacity hosts over 40,000 micro podcasts (short-form podcasts which typically last under ten minutes). Audacy’s content spans lifestyle, entertainment, sports, comedy and true crime.
With advertising, Audacy has worked with a confectionary brand on audio ads across radio, streaming and podcasts, for example, to get the brand noticed and drive sales lift during the Super Bowl. It has also worked with brands such as HBO, Netflix, Amazon, Roc Nation and the WNBA.
Podbean
Owned by: founders David Xu and Henry Zhang
Monthly active users: over 1m
Ad formats: various options, including programmatic and host read ads
Popular shows: The Rest Is History, The Tucker Carlson Show, and Freakonomics Radio
Podbean is a free podcast hosting and monetising platform that was founded in 2006. While Podbean has over 1 million monthly active users on its app, this doesn’t necessarily reflect the overall number of people that listen to podcasts on the platform.
Podbean states it has listeners in over 20 countries, and hosts more than 30,000 podcasts. It has an Ads Marketplace set up for brands and agencies, and offers AI tools to help advertisers create audio ads. It provides IAB compliant results and supports most third-party ad tracking systems, such as Podsights, Doubleclick and Claritas.
iHeartMedia
Owned by: various investors
Monthly active listeners: over 250m
Ad formats: options tailored to each advertiser
Popular shows: Stuff You Should Know, Therapy Gecko, Atlanta Monster
iHeartMedia claims it is the number-one audio company in the US, reaching 9 in 10 Americans every month, and with ‘greater reach than any other media company in the US.’ iHeart is the home to the popular podcast Stuff You Should Know, which has been downloaded over 3 billion times to date.
The platform is able to include brand sponsors at local, regional and national level, and encourages businesses to contact its representatives for ad options.
Libsyn
Owned by: privately owned
Monthly active listeners: 35m
Ad formats: various options, including host read and dynamic ads
Popular shows: Lore, Darknet Diaries, Girls Gone Bible
Libsyn offers ad inventory for over 1200 podcasts and has worked with over 2000 advertisers, including brands such as Disney, Shopify and Squarespace.
The platform has a monthly reach of over 35 million listeners, and offers a variety of ad options, from host read mid-roll and pre-roll ads to dynamically inserted ads, which can be capped or uncapped on impressions.
Ads can be targeted on geographics, psychographics, demographics and time frame. Libsyn also has measurement metrics around download counts, and tracking leads and conversions.
AudioGo
Owned by: AdsWizz Inc (parent, SiriusXM)
Monthly active listeners: over 150m
Ad formats: pre, mid, and/or post-roll inventory
Popular shows: Conan O’Brian Needs A Friend, Crime Junkie, 99% Invisible
AudioGo is not a podcast hosting service but a platform that connects podcasts to listeners through its network of publishers, such as Barstool Sports, NBC and Team Coco. It is currently only available for businesses in the US and Canada.
Advertisers can target based on location, demographics, behaviour, genre, gender, age and language. The platform uses a product called AudioGo Pixel to track and measure conversions.
Featured image: Cory Vincent / Unsplash
