Spotify Debuts Carousel Ads, Podcasting April Fools' Jokes, & More

0:00This is the Download from Sounds Profitable, your daily source for the essential news in the business of podcasting. I'm Gavin Gabbas. Here's what you need to know for today Wednesday, April 1st. And yes, I will address April Fool's Day, we'll get to that in a bit. But first, audio has the winning hand, the industry refuses to play it. One of Ben Robbins' biggest takeaways 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. He attributes this largely to companies closely guarded proprietary data on podcast impact, citing competitive advantage, legal concerns, non-disclosure agreements, and more. In a fragmented media landscape connection is valuable, podcasts excel at connection,

1:01but articulating that requires a cohesive narrative linking data points. There is a story coming though. This May Robbins and Sounds Profitable's 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 UK media, surveying 5,000 adults over more than 20 platforms. Stay tuned for more details. Next up, exclusive Spotify debuts Kerasel ads and branded playlist takeovers. This Tuesday, Spotify announced interactive Kerasel ads with swipeable tiles that let brands spotlight up to six products per ad. The ads will appear in the now-playing view of the Spotify app while users are actively consuming content. Spotify is also introducing branded takeovers of select playlists, including flagships like Rab caviar, today's top hits, and new music Friday.

2:02During a takeover, the brand's name will appear prominently on the main page for the playlist, and only its ads will run on that playlist for the duration. Listeners will also hear fewer ad breaks in sponsored playlists. Behind the scenes, the company is also added AB testing and automatic bidding to the ads manager platform. Next up, citing first amendment federal judge Block's Trump order to end funding for NPR and PBS, US district judge Randolph Moss has issued an injunction blocking the executive order that stripped NPR and PBS of federal funding. Moss's ruling argues that the executive order was unlawful and unenforceable. Article writer Michael Kuhnzelman notes that the operational impact of this decision remains to be seen as the Trump administration will likely appeal, and it remains unclear how much damage has already been done by the order, including the dissolution of the corporation for public broadcasting.

3:04Next up, it's April Fool's Day podcasting celebrates. For a more lighthearted turn of news, here are some jokes, gags, and general Tom Foulery in podcasting today. Noiser and airship a partner with Magellan AI this year to make history dailies April Fool's episode a special one. The episode focuses on a real story from an accidental military victory in 1572, but it comes with a twist. The advertisers are also from 1572. You can read the press release to see how Magellan AI developed both time travel and a parchment based dashboard to handle time travel attribution. Headliner is keeping things in the modern day with their April Fool's prank issuing a press release for a new feature called Full Circle, taking the next step beyond audio podcasts into video. Full Circle allows users to upload a video and then download it as video, quote, just like audio grams, but for video, end quote.

4:05Unfortunately, as I'm allergic to fun, the download is skipping April Fool's fun entirely. No jokes here. On an unrelated note, here's an ad break, something you hear on the download very regularly. Are you stressed thinking about how your cat hasn't gone in a while, and by gone I mean poop, your cat can't poop? You've tried everything, changing their diet, holding them like a baby and bottle feeding them like you did when they were a little kitty cat and everything seemed right in the world. You've even hired a friendly local witch on Etsy, none of it worked, and you're pretty sure the witch opened a credit card at TJ Maxx in your name. Now your cat just sits next to its empty litter box, staring up at you, blaming you with its eyes as though this is somehow all your fault. Maybe it is your fault, or maybe it's feline irregularity syndrome. Feline irregularity syndrome is just a marketing phrase, a brand might use to make something

5:06like constipation or digestive issues sound more official, memorable, or serious. That brand is Smooth Me Alve. Smooth Me Alve is the perfect solution for when your feline friend just won't go. Smooth Me Alve is specifically formulated with all natural fiber-rich ingredients to help your cat get things moving again, safely, gently, and with only the minimal required amount of judgment. Smooth Me Alve is shipped straight to your door in discrete packaging, so you never have to make that awkward last minute pet store run again. And just fur listeners of this show, we got a special offer. For more information to get 20% off your first order, go to smoothmealve.com slash podcast and enter promo code podcast at checkout and be sure to let them know you heard about Smooth Me Alve from this show first.

6:11Welcome back. Let's get serious again. And for our final top story today, PODNEWS report card 2026. All jokes aside, PODNEWS has opened its inbox for the fifth annual report card on major podcast platforms. All are welcome to submit with a questionnaire taking around 10 minutes to complete. The result will be shared on stage at the podcast show London in May, as well as published in the PODNEWS newsletter. Comments provided by submitments will not be attributed without PODNEWS first requesting permission directly. Submissions close end of day, April 30, 2026. For the rest of the news, Jay Rose, formerly of DAX United States, has announced he is joining daylight media as senior vice president, sales, and brand partnerships. ACAST has debuted its Women in Podcasting 2026 research in Milan, including the finding that 33% of surveyed European podcast listeners say they are not exposed to enough female

7:14hosted podcasts on the platforms they use. Inside radio covers the launch of SG Creative, a new audio advertising service created in partnership between stream guys and WAVE and network. SG Creative will be demoed publicly at the NAB show in April from the 19th to the 22nd in Las Vegas. American public media has announced Dave and Broncaccio is ending his 10 years host of Marketplace Morning report in early April, transitioning to a new special correspondent role. True Native media Sabrina Nielsen writes about the widely believed narrative that advertising on bigger podcasts automatically gets better outcomes. The Signal Awards have launched the Signal Room, a new podcast hosted by Gemma Brown, and produced in partnership with Wistia. It's currently available with the first episode on the usual podcast platforms for audio, as well as Spotify and YouTube. PRX and more perfect have launched in pursuit with Colleen Shogun.

8:15Police host Shogun, the country's first woman to lead the National Archives and Records Administration, will lead discussions of prominent public leaders, historians, and journalists from American history. That'll do it for today's episode. You can catch the links to everything I just talked about, including smooth meow by going to the one link in your podcast show notes, which will take you to today's episode post on sounds profitable dot com. You can also sign up to get the newsletter version of Downloads sent direct to your inbox every day. Today's episode was written by myself and produced by myself, Brian Barletta, Molly Demilier, and Tom Webster for Sounds Profitable I'm Gavin Gattis, and I'll see you tomorrow.