Ira Glass joins us at Advertising Week NY – The Short Stack
Friends,
Hopefully, many of you saw the hysterical article in The Hollywood Reporter from a few weeks ago that surveyed how famous podcasters feel about 1.5x listening speed. Reactions ran the gamut from “you do you” (Dax Shepard), to “it’s for sociopaths” (Bill Simmons), to “what the &*!$%?!* is that?” (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
While the technology in question is on the fairly basic side, the piece spawned a lot of conversation about hosts’ perceptions of podcast tools overall. Particularly, how do creatives (and others) – everyone who doesn't live and breathe ad tech, hosting tech, or myriad other tech on a daily basis – look at the innovations that are continually being built to make podcasting more effective for everyone involved?
Our sector (that is, platforms like SoundStack and others) can sometimes be a migraine-inducing acronym soup – DSP, SSP, DAI, RSS, ROAS… (could easily run over my newsletter character limit). Ever start talking about things like this to your non-industry lunch date? It’s when many start calling for the check.
But we know that most of that innovation – from delivery to ads to analytics – is what keeps podcasting (and other formats) entertaining and informing the world. Listeners need seamless listening experiences wherever they are. Podcasters need to earn revenue to keep serving those listeners. Advertisers need opportunities to reach those listeners with relevant messages. Other platforms need to empower their clients and keep their own business healthy.
Everyone, including hosts, wants that. But how actively do they dig in?
The fine folks at Advertising Week liked this idea so much that they offered it as a main-stage panel at their NYC show. And we’re proud to say that we got some all stars to be a part of it:
Ira Glass, host of celebrated This American Life (among other things!)
Scott Davis, SVP, NPR Sponsorship
The panel, “A Podcast Host and a Sales Manager Walk into a Bar…,” is on Tuesday, October 8th at 1:50pm ET. I’m moderating. Session page coming shortly!
If you’re in NYC, please come to what is sure to be one of the best sessions of the week!
Best,
Rockie Thomas , CSO 
The answers were more mixed than we expected, with just over half of respondents endorsing the practice, most of the rest passionately rejecting it, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus hilariously baffled by what we meant by the question.
Angel N Livas, a trailblazer in the field, recognized the potential of podcasting to bridge the gaps in the black content creation space. Her initiative in establishing the Alive podcast network is a beacon of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs.
We’re always building out our products to bring more value to our customers and the market overall. Our partnership with Barometer is clearly no exception. The deal allows buy-side partners to leverage curated “supply packs” in SoundStack Marketplace, ensuring their advertisers buy shows that are most relevant to them, and connect to millions of their most desired consumers.
As mentioned above, AdvertisingWeek New York is October 7-10, and we’ve got an all-star panel lined up for Tuesday, October 8th at 1:50pm. Ira Glass, Scott Davis, and our own Rockie Thomas go deep on the confluence between creativity and business in this can’t-miss session.