Every national market in the world will finish this year with more ad spending than in 2020. In most categories, worldwide growth records will be shattered. But 2021 was a very unusual year, following a very unusual 2020.

iHeartRadio is the most popular US podcast publisher, with 30.0 million people tuning in to its podcasts in September.

Podcasting is majorly boosting Spotify's ad biz: Ad revenues are up 75% year over year as the audio giant's investments in podcasting finally begin to pay off.

Our inaugural global forecast for podcast listeners shows deepening engagement with the medium across all geographies, although at widely varying rates. This report covers 18 major markets in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

Spotify’s video podcasting push could bring in more users and marketers: Podcasts are already gaining steam with both groups, and video will help make the medium—and ads in it—even more engaging.

Social media platforms are betting on social audio as part of the creator economy: Live audio is becoming less about the platforms that started the trend as more big firms launch creator-focused features.

Spotify has the most users among digital audio platforms, followed by Pandora, Amazon Music, and Apple Music. Amazon will surpass Pandora in listeners next year.

Due to listener growth, advertisers no longer find digital audio advertising experimental.

Spotify is still expanding its podcast listenership in the US, while Apple Podcasts’ has essentially stagnated. In fact, Spotify will narrowly surpass Apple in this metric by the end of this year.

US adults spend significantly more time listening to terrestrial radio than to any other ad-supported audio format.

In Q2 2016, Spotify was primarily an ad-supported platform among 25- to 54-year-olds in the US.

South Korea's new laws make changes to Apple and Google app stores near inevitable: The US and EU won't be far behind, and mandatory 15% to 30% fees could soon be a thing of the past.

There will be 23.6 million YouTube Premium subscribers by the end of the year, which is up a healthy 18% over 2020.

We project the number of paid digital audio subscribers in the US will hit 121.9 million this year, up 11% over 2020's total.

Amazon’s move into podcasts creates the possibility for massive, networkwide deals: The platform’s recent content acquisitions point to how lucrative podcasts are as a vehicle for ads, even during the pandemic.

On today's episode, we discuss Spotify's Q2 performance, what to make of its ad revenue growth, and how its podcast investments are getting on. We then talk about where Amazon wants to take Alexa, social audio's monetization issue, and the significance of the NBA and iHeartMedia podcast partnership. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Peter Vahle.

According to our July 2021 forecast, 2023 will be a pivotal year for the US B2B digital ad market: Display will overtake search, mobile will surpass nonmobile, and the split between digital and traditional will near a tipping point just beyond our forecast period.

Spotify earnings: Following some rocky times due to the pandemic, we expect Spotify to see strong advertising and user growth in Q2, plus an update on its podcast ventures.