A Look Forward to 2025 - Trends That Will Shape Audio

The Media Roundtable is back! This week we’ve dusted off our trusty crystal ball for a look into 2025. What trends will shape the audio industry next year and beyond? Stay tuned…

Dan Granger (CEO, Oxford Road & Veritone One) hosts fellow audio prognosticators:

🌟 Steven Goldstein (Founder & CEO, Amplifi Media)

🌟 Tom Webster (Partner, Sounds Profitable)

🌟 Peter Birsinger (CEO & Founder, Podscribe)

The team is talking: Spotify’s YouTube Envy, Revenue Predictions, The Future of Attribution, and more. Let’s leap in.

“ If this is an existential threat for open RSS, it's going to be because the podcast clients innovated for creators, but did not innovate enough for the user and the user experience. And that's what YouTube is nailing.”


YouTube Envy 👀 - One big question of 2025: Can Spotify become YouTube? Yes, video’s engaging, but YouTube’s other advantages are discovery, ease of use, and potential connection. Video is just one part of that, and Spotify will have a lot of ground to cover to change their podcast experience. (As for the video & podcast debate, Tom considers it settled: “ It comes from the Podcast region of France–anything else is just sparkling audio.” 👏)

Triangulation 📡 - As Pete puts it: “ Triangulation is the hot word, and I think it’s going to be getting even hotter.” With the current state of podcast, video, radio, and streaming, CAOs need multiple ways of measurement to unlock investment with confidence (pixels, surveys, incrementality). In a video-forward 2025, that’ll only become more necessary (but we’re watching to see if Spotify’s video approach will represent a measurement improvement over YouTube’s black box.)

2025’s Numbers 📈 - Big predictions: Listenership will be up (by a skosh/iota/smidgen depending on who’s predicting), with CPMs roughly flat (except in radio, predicted to go down), and revenue should go up as well. Radio might be a value buy in 2025, with the right measurement. In Dan’s words: “ It's amazing how many people could still be successful on radio today if only they'd take the time to survey.”

To get a head start on 2025, tune into the full episode below.

Bianca Gorodinsky