Nadia: The biggest podcast advertiser in the U.S. last month... was Amazon.
Russ: [beat] Of course it was.
Nadia: I'm Nadia.
Russ: And I'm Russ.
Nadia: And this is The Feed for Thursday, August 27th. Coming up on the show:
Russ: We'll dig into who's really spending the big bucks on podcast ads right now.
Nadia: We'll explain why your favorite YouTube podcast is about to look way more popular.
Russ: And, Spotify. Are they sneaking unskippable ads past Premium subscribers? We had a lawyer check the fine print.
Nadia: So, let's start with that ad spending. Magellan AI just put out their monthly report for July.
Russ: Okay, let me guess. BetterHelp. It's always BetterHelp. I can't listen to a single episode of anything without hearing about it.
Nadia: That's the twist. For the first time in what feels like forever, it was not BetterHelp. They were number two.
Russ: No way. So who beat them? Was it another therapy app? A mattress company?
Nadia: Amazon. According to Magellan's report, they spent an estimated eight-point-one million dollars on podcast ads in the U.S. just in July.
Russ: Eight. Point. One. Million. [beat] In one month?
Nadia: In one month. And Magellan says the spend was mostly for Amazon Prime, their devices, and Audible.
Russ: So the everything store wants to be the everything advertiser, too. I'm not sure I like this.
Nadia: Well, it means big tech sees podcasting as a core marketing channel now. The money is getting serious.
Russ: And for listeners, it means get ready to hear 'Alexa, play my podcast' ads on every show you love until the end of time.
Nadia: Pretty much. It also pushes up ad rates, which is good for creators but makes it harder for smaller, independent advertisers to get in.
Russ: Great. So the rich get richer and the indies get squeezed. A classic. Let's move on.
Nadia: Alright, let's talk about YouTube. They've just changed how they count 'views' for podcasts.
Russ: Don't they just... count when someone watches the video?
Nadia: They did. But now, they're also counting audio-only downloads from RSS feeds connected to YouTube. Before, those listens didn't count as 'views.'
Russ: Wait. So the number of listeners isn't changing at all, but the 'view' count is going to shoot up? That sounds... like cheating.
Nadia: Well, they call it 'aligning metrics.' They're trying to count every listen that happens through their system, even if it's not a 'view' in the classic sense.
Russ: [sarcastic] 'Aligning metrics'. Right. So if a podcaster's YouTube numbers suddenly double next month, it's not because their show got twice as good.
Nadia: Exactly. For creators, this means your numbers will look better, but you have to explain to advertisers why. This isn't organic growth, it's a platform change.
Russ: And for listeners? Does this mean anything?
Nadia: For listeners, it means absolutely nothing. The show is the same. It's all just industry baseball on the backend.
Russ: My favorite kind of baseball. [beat] The boring kind.
Nadia: Okay, on to Spotify and the fear of unskippable ads. We saw the chatter, so we had a lawyer actually read their terms of service.
Russ: Okay, this I care about. If I pay for Premium, I expect no ads. If they're putting in ads I can't skip, I am going to be furious.
Nadia: And you've hit the nail on the head. Our lawyer confirmed it: yes, there is language in their terms that gives Spotify the right to serve ads you can't skip.
Russ: Aha! I knew it! That is bull—
Nadia: BUT—it's not that simple. That clause is very broad. It's most likely a legal shield to cover baked-in ads—the ones hosts read themselves.
Russ: So you're saying they won't use it to inject their own, new, unskippable ads into my shows?
Nadia: The language gives them the power to, but publicly, they say Premium removes their ads. That clause is a legal shield for content they don't control, like a host-read ad for Squarespace.
Russ: That's a weaselly distinction. An ad is an ad. If I pay to not have them, I don't want them. Period.
Nadia: I get it, but that's never been the promise for podcasts on Premium. So for listeners, you'll still hear ads, but they should only be the ones the creator put there themselves.
Russ: And if I start hearing new ones that I can't skip?
Nadia: Then we've got a whole different story. For now, it's business as usual—just with some very careful legal language protecting Spotify.
Nadia: Alright, let's recap. Amazon is the new king of podcast ad spending, at least for now.
Russ: YouTube podcast 'views' are about to go way up, without any more people actually listening.
Nadia: And Spotify's terms do allow for unskippable ads, but it's likely just to cover creator-read ads, not to screw over Premium users. [beat] We hope.
Nadia: Alright, before we go, what are you actually listening to this week, Russ?
Russ: I found this great little indie show called 'Beef and Dairy Network Podcast'. It's… surreal. It pretends to be a trade publication podcast for the beef industry, but it's just bizarre, hilarious fiction. No Amazon ads.
Nadia: [laughs] That sounds amazing. I've been deep into 'The Journal.' from the Wall Street Journal. Always sharp, always relevant. It's the opposite of surreal, but just as good.
Nadia: That's our show. We'll be back tomorrow with more from the world of podcasting.
Russ: Until then, try not to buy too much stuff from all those Amazon ads you're about to hear. I'm Russ.
Nadia: I'm Nadia. Talk to you tomorrow.
This show is made with AI: the hosts’ voices are synthetic and the scripts are AI-assisted. Every story links to its original source.