Podcast Consumption in Japan, Podcasts on beehiiv, & More

This is the Download Recap from Sounds Profitable, the most important news from this week.

Why it matters to people in the business of podcasting.

I'm Gavin Gattis.

The Download Recap is brought to you by PodScribe, you can find out more at PodScribe.com.

With that, let's get into this week's news.

Just a podcast launch on Beehive, newsletter and blogging platform Beehive has rolled

out audio podcast hosting and monetization services.

In an interview with Sounds Profitable partner, Brian Barletta, Beehive CEO Tyler Denk says

podcasts are natural fit.

As podcasts and newsletters have a lot in common, here's a quote from the interview, quote,

our roadmap is always heavily driven by customers and podcasting was the missing piece.

They came up consistently across customers of all sizes.

Growth is one of the biggest challenges in podcasting.

Newsletters drive podcast downloads podcast drive newsletter signups.

We see huge opportunity there in both directions and quote.

Denk positions adding podcasts as a core pillar of Beehive, allowing Beehive publishers

with podcasts hosted elsewhere to bring all of their publications into one service.

Beehive's hosting has been designed to be IAB compliant with Denk saying the company

is about to begin the formal certification process.

The center cannot hold from Tom Webster.

Sounds Profitable's latest research, The Last Quarter, looks at the 25% of Americans

who have never consumed a podcast.

In this week, Sounds Profitable article Tom Webster focuses on the political affiliations

of The Last Quarter, as there's a group being left behind.

Podcasts holdouts aren't politically neutral, as data from The Last Quarter studies shows

a linear gradient running from one end of the political spectrum to the other.

Among conservatives who identify as very liberal 17% have never consumed a podcast,

for very conservative the numbers 27%.

Webster cautions against the easy conclusion conservatism and podcast don't make for a good

cultural fit.

The top charts of podcasting have plenty of conservative leaning podcasts, if there

wasn't inherent disconnect between conservative Americans and podcasting, those shows wouldn't

be able to exist at scale.

The Last Quarter's data shows the media diet of conservative Americans is largely dominated

by four platforms, Facebook at 84%, YouTube at 74%, AMFM broadcast radio at 69%, and

network cable TV at 56%.

Here's a quote from the article.

These are not fringe or disconnected people.

They are active media consumers, but these four platforms share a critical property.

They surface content to you.

Facebook's algorithm decides what appears in your feed.

YouTube's recommendation engine decides what to auto play next.

Broadcast radio and cable TV are programmed by somebody else entirely.

In none of these environments does the user need to go looking for something new.

And quote, conversely podcasting requires audience initiative.

The current system largely relies on audiences knowing a show exists, seeking it out directly

and subscribing.

There's a gulf between how podcasts are designed to be engaged with and how the conservative

holdout engages with their media.

Those on either end of the political spectrum have established media architecture driving

them to podcasts.

Public media like NPR brought liberal audiences into the medium as it grew, while algorithmically

tailored conservative content does the same for the other side.

There is no institutional infrastructure designed to promote moderate content.

Podcasting doesn't have an institutional editorial layer, acting as a curator that can give

moderate takes equal footing among algorithmically tuned takes in either direction.

A big problem facing podcasting's holdouts isn't a content one its discovery architecture

problem.

Which leads to the operative question, how does the podcast industry build discovery

pathways that don't rely on algorithmic amplification to function?

Otonal and the Asai Shimbun Company jointly release results of their survey on podcast

usage in Japan.

Conducted from December 5th to December 6th, 2025, this new survey targeted 10,000 respondents

age 15 to 69 in Japan.

Here's a quote from the article quote, in 2020, when the survey began, the podcast usage

rate in Japan users who listened to podcasts at least once a month was 14.2%.

The usage rate has been trending upward reaching 18.2% in the 2025 survey.

In looking at specific demographics, 15 to 19 year olds reach a 40.5% usage rate,

a 6.4% percentage point increase year over year.

In addition, 20 to 29 year olds reach 28.8% usage, a 1.5% percentage point year over year

increase.

In comparison to respondents who don't consume podcasts, those who partake have a higher

ratio of corporate decision makers by comparison to seven forms of media, podcasting's ratio

of corporate decision makers ranks second place behind only newspaper readers.

Audio has the winning hand, the industry refuses to play it.

Sound insights bent Robbins biggest takeaway from advertising week Europe is the notion

that podcasting is data rich, but insight poor across 12 sessions compelling data abounded,

but emotional narratives explaining podcasting success were scarce.

Robbins attributes this largely to companies closely guarding proprietary data on podcast

impact, citing competitive advantage, legal concerns, non-disposure agreements, and more

as reasons as to why they're keeping quiet.

Here's a quote from the article quote, the companies with the most to share and the

most resources to do it keep their learnings close to their chest hoarding the very evidence

that could grow the market for everyone.

The cards are already in our hands, someone just has to play it and quote in a fragmented

media landscape connection is valuable podcast excel at connection, but articulating it requires

a cohesive narrative linking data points.

There is a story coming though.

This May Robbins and Sounds Profitables Tom Webster will debut the findings of the

2026 UK advertising landscape study at the podcast show London.

This new report represents the largest study of advertising effectiveness conducted across

the UK media surveying 5,000 adults over more than 20 platforms.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

For the rest of the news, these are quick hits that are articles I covered throughout

the week that didn't quite make it into top story today, but are still worth including

in your weekend reading.

First up, video recordings of presentations from this year's podcast movement evolutions

hosted at South by Southwest are now available on the official podcast movement YouTube channel.

The playlist features 25 videos spanning from 10 minute discovery track sessions to full

50 minute panels.

Transitioned podcast agency jar podcast solutions launched jar replay a new audience activation

product.

Jar replay lets brands and publishers identify recent podcast listeners and reengage them

with premium sound on visual audio ads in a brand safe mobile environment.

Inside radio covers the launch of SG creative a new audio advertising service created from

a partnership between stream guys and wave a network SG creative will be demoed publicly

at the NAB show April 19th through 22nd in Las Vegas NBC studios has chosen Triton Digital

as the provider of key components in its digital audio and podcasting infrastructure, including

hosting monetization audience measurement and audience insights.

And finally spotify is announced new carousel ads in now playing brand takeovers of popular

playlists and other new features in their ads manager platform.

That was the download recap brought to you by sounds profitable.

I know I go through the stories fast.

So remember in your show notes, there is a link that will take you to today's episode

post on soundsprofitable.com where you can find every single link I just talked about.

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your inbox.

I'm Gavin Gattas our producers are myself Brian Barletta Molly D'Millier and Tom Webster.

And as always a special thanks to you for sticking with me as I brought you some of

the top news from this week in the business of podcasting robot.