Podcasting’s all-stars are here to stay

Podcasting’s all-stars are here to stay

2024-02-03 06:04:17

Breakouts are hard to come by these days.

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After all the boom and bust, we’re still here talking about Joe Rogan and SmartLess.

By Ariel Shapiro, lead reporter of Hot Pod, a newsletter covering podcasting and the audio industry. She previously worked at Forbes, where she covered media and entertainment.

Illustration of an audio sound wave

Image: The Verge

It’s been a big week for podcast deals! I look forward to sleeping it off this weekend.

Why did SiriusXM give SmartLess a $100 million deal? Look at its subscriber losses.

It’s been a massive week for podcast deals, including SiriusXM signing SmartLess away from Amazon’s Wondery for more than $100 million. The news broke soon before SiriusXM released its annual earnings for 2023 in which the company reported a drop of 430,000 subscribers over the course of 2023 (despite how allegedly difficult it is to cancel a subscription). 

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