Blog: Podcasts

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

The power of audio: Reflections on the Radio Academy Festival

Laura Fisher

24 Sep 2025

Business Strategy Podcasts Radio

On September 17, 2025, I had the pleasure of attending the Radio Academy Festival: World of Sound. Held in the splendid Royal College of Physicians in Regent’s Park, it felt apt to discuss the future of sound in such a hallowed hall of learning.

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The late-night dilemma: Balancing tradition and disruption

Laura Fisher

31 Jul 2025

Business Strategy Video Podcasts

Two competing opinions landed in my inbox recently, both signalling a shift in late-night entertainment, but from entirely different perspectives. The first, from RainNews , argued that podcasts were replacing traditional late-night TV.

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Why podcasts triumph in real-life settings: a lesson in scene alignment

Laura Fisher

10 Jul 2025

Fandom Podcasts Audio

Podcasts are well and truly getting the in-real-life treatment. What began as a digitally native on-demand medium is now commanding physical spaces with remarkable success. This isn’t from the live recordings in and of themselves, but from mastering scene alignment .

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The rise of video podcasts: people-watching reimagined or a necessary evolution?

Laura Fisher

2 Jul 2025

Cultural trends Podcasts Video podcasts

Human nature and human nosiness seem to go hand in hand. There is something undeniably compelling about getting a view into someone else’s world. Historically, this would be in the form of a coy walk past a living-room window’s undrawn curtains in the street.

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The evolving podcast landscape: Key insights from The Podcast Show 2025

Laura Fisher

29 May 2025

Business Strategy Podcasts Audio

The 2025 Podcast Show revealed an industry in a stage of transformative growth. From the series of excellent talks, several key trends emerged, from legacy media, audio platforms, and creators adapting to new consumption patterns.

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The ARIA Awards 2025: Why can’t we all just get along?

Laura Fisher

20 May 2025

Cultural trends Audio Podcasts

As someone with both a professional and personal obsession with all things audio, since the ceremony on the 14th of May, my LinkedIn feed has been unsurprisingly saturated with content about the ARIAs.

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The soft power of podcasting: how long-form audio is reshaping discourse

Laura Fisher

14 May 2025

Marketing Strategy Podcasts Audio

In an era where attention spans are dwindling and media fragmentation is at an all-time high, podcasting has emerged as an unlikely but formidable force in shaping geopolitical narratives. Unlike traditional news radio or adversarial TV interviews, podcasts offer a unique blend of intimacy, depth, a...

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A case against video podcasting

Laura Fisher

16 Apr 2025

Product Strategy Podcasts Radio

Key takeaways from this blog: While video is at the forefront of entertainment, audio-only formats can be equally important for engagement Prioritising video-first podcasting risks dilution – favouring style, celebrity, and algorithms over knowledge and authenticity MIDiA argue that audio-only pod...

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The medium is no longer the message – the messenger is now, too

Rutger Rosenborg

4 Apr 2025

Podcasts Audio Spotify

Key takeaways from this blog: Podcasts now rival traditional media in influence, especially around current events, thanks to their strong personalities, flexibility, and direct audience engagement The success of top podcasts is driven by hosts, not media networks — charisma, connection, and commen...

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Is it too soon to be talking about podcast superfans?

Rutger Rosenborg

28 Mar 2025

Fandom Business Strategy Social media

Key insights from this blog: Podcasting faces challenges on its way to becoming a mainstream format on the level of radio, music, and TV While the medium excels at creating a sense of community and personal connection, discovery and accessibility hurdles have so far held podcasts back Supported by o...

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Audio creators are the creator economy's unsung heroes

Rutger Rosenborg

14 Mar 2025

Business Strategy Audio Podcasts

Key insights from this blog: MIDiA's latest audio report, ' The audio creator opportunity ' , argues that brands and platforms can no longer afford to neglect audio creators Audio creators are a fast-growing force in the creator economy, driving demand for better tools and marketing They are more li...

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Podcasting has finally become profitable, but question marks remain

Rutger Rosenborg

5 Mar 2025

Product Strategy Spotify YouTube

Throughout 2023 and into 2024, you might have thought the sky was falling for podcasting. Layoffs and show cancellations had many in the industry wondering if there would be any financial future for the format.

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How streaming platforms are adapting in the race for affordable content

Rutger Rosenborg

19 Feb 2025

Business Strategy Spotify YouTube

Music is expensive – not for consumers, but for companies who have to license music copyrights from rightsholders. It is a large reason Spotify did not have a full year of profitability until 2024 . What helped the company get there? Podcasting.

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The audio listener is too valuable for the music industry to ignore

Rutger Rosenborg

13 Feb 2025

Fandom Spotify US

On the heels of positive Q4 2024 financials for Spotify , the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has not lost a step in holding the company accountable for what it sees as unauthorised music usage.

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Meta-podcasts are coming for the news, not the podcast industry

Rutger Rosenborg

5 Feb 2025

Business Strategy YouTube Google

Although Google has arguably cornered the podcast market through YouTube already, by employing AI, the company may be making it even harder for competitors to catch up.In October 2024, MIDiA covered the development of NotebookLM and its ability to disrupt the informational and educational podcast sp...

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The podcast attention game: How algorithmic discovery may remake podcasting

Rutger Rosenborg

29 Jan 2025

Audience Insight Spotify YouTube

Open the YouTube app on your TV and the first category you will see below “Home” is “Podcasts”. According to the YouTube blog , viewers watched more than 400 million hours of podcasts every month in 2024, just on living room devices alone.

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The podcast listener journey reveals a desire for human connection

Rutger Rosenborg

21 Jan 2025

Audience Insight YouTube TikTok

As the global podcast industry zeros in on video – especially social video – one overlooked discovery source has never really gone away: word of mouth. Despite a format that was born to be digital, podcasting still relies on the most analog of recommendation systems for discovery in the US, UK, ...

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What got you here won’t get you there: how Spotify built a new business

Mark Mulligan

17 Jan 2025

Business Strategy Spotify Streaming

Since its inception, Spotify has been, and continues to be, the streaming music market’s lightning rod. This is due to its continued ability to maintain leading market share and the fact it is the only leading global DSP that is independent and therefore has to focus place more focus on commercial...

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The future is podcast scenes: What podcasters can learn from history podcast success

Rutger Rosenborg

15 Jan 2025

Cultural trends Audio Podcasts

Whether the result of eschatological anxiety caused by shifting global political alignments or the decline in humanities students in academic institutions, the business of history – especially in audio – is booming.

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Will audio have a seat at the creator economy table?

Rutger Rosenborg

18 Dec 2024

Amazon Music Spotify Podcasts

As 2024 comes to a close, it is worth reflecting on this year’s audio trends and where we expect things to head in 2025. Per our recent report, ‘ MIDiA’s 2025 predictions: It’s social’s stage now ’, social platforms will continue to take centre stage on the heels of the creator economy r...

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