Why Audio Inventory, Podcasts, and AI-Driven Video Are the Next Big Thing in Media Monetization

In April 2025, two landmark industry events—Spotify’s Advance conference and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show—offered a clear vision for the future of digital publishing. These events, featuring leaders from Tubefilter, Flightcast, Epidemic Sound, and  iHeartMedia, revealed a playbook for publishers who want to thrive in a rapidly evolving media landscape. The central argument is clear: publishers must invest in audio inventory and podcasts, leverage AI to create video content, and distribute across platforms like iHeartMedia, Spotify, and YouTube to maximize both discovery and engagement. This approach not only diversifies revenue streams but also future-proofs media businesses in the face of changing audience habits.

The Discovery Problem: Why Video Is Essential for Podcast Growth

A recurring theme at both Spotify Advance and the NAB Show was the challenge of podcast discovery. The CreatorLab’s NAB Show session crystallized the issue: “Most people are not going to Spotify to find a podcast—they discover that in YouTube. So having a video is really valuable for that discovery.” This insight is supported by research showing that nearly four out of five podcast listeners first encounter new shows through YouTube’s search and recommendation algorithms, not through audio-first platforms like Spotify or iHeartMedia.

While YouTube drives discovery, iHeartMedia’s unparalleled reach in audio cannot be overlooked. With 90% of U.S. adults reached monthly through its broadcast radio network and 57 million digital audio users, iHeartMedia offers publishers a massive, engaged audience. Its partnership with Magnite has created a unified programmatic marketplace that allows advertisers to target audiences across broadcast, streaming, and podcast inventory with precision, achieving some of the highest ad completion rates in the industry. This makes iHeartMedia an indispensable channel for monetizing audio inventory at scale.

Spotify’s response to the discovery challenge has been to double down on video podcasting. The platform now features short-form video clips—up to 90 seconds—that surface content across the app in a TikTok-like discovery feed. These clips act as dynamic previews, enticing users to engage with full episodes and helping podcasts break out of the so-called “audio silo.” For publishers, this means that simply producing high-quality audio content is no longer enough. To truly grow an audience, podcasts must be matched with compelling video—ideally created efficiently through AI solutions like Aeon, which can transform audio and even webpages into engaging video content.

Together, these three platforms—YouTube for discovery, Spotify for engagement, and iHeartMedia for monetization—form a complementary trifecta that publishers can leverage to maximize reach and revenue.

AI-Powered Monetization: Unlocking New Revenue Streams

Spotify’s advancements in AI-driven advertising and video podcasting have fundamentally changed the monetization landscape for publishers. At the Advance event, Spotify unveiled a suite of tools that allow for hyper-targeted, dynamic ad insertion within both audio and video content. This means that ads can be tailored to individual listener preferences and inserted at optimal moments, increasing both relevance and revenue potential.

iHeartMedia complements this with its own powerful programmatic advertising capabilities. Leveraging first-party data from its extensive broadcast and digital audience, iHeartMedia enables advertisers to target listeners by location, device, and even contextual factors such as weather or local events. This precision targeting results in high ad completion rates and premium CPMs, making it a lucrative platform for audio monetization.

Beyond audio, AI tools like Aeon enable publishers to generate video content from existing audio or text, seamlessly creating engaging videos for YouTube and Spotify. These videos can feature product placements and branded visuals automatically inserted by AI, opening up new avenues for sponsorship and affiliate marketing. On Spotify, the focus shifts to engagement, with the platform’s Partner Program rewarding creators based on metrics like video consumption and audience retention.

This hybrid approach—distributing video on YouTube for discovery, audio and video on Spotify for engagement, and leveraging iHeartMedia’s audio scale for monetization—allows publishers to tap into multiple revenue streams. These include performance-based payments from Spotify, ad revenue from YouTube, programmatic audio ads via iHeartMedia, direct sponsorships, and premium offerings such as paid subscriptions or exclusive episodes. The result is a diversified, scalable business model that is less reliant on any single platform or monetization method.

The Publisher’s Cross-Platform Playbook 

For publishers looking to capitalize on these trends, the path forward is clear and actionable. The first step is to repurpose and expand existing content with AI. By leveraging AI tools like Aeon, publishers can convert articles and audio into video podcasts, extending the life of their content and optimizing it for YouTube’s discovery algorithms as well as Spotify’s engagement features. AI handles the heavy lifting—editing, adding visuals, and generating subtitles—allowing editorial teams to focus on storytelling and maintaining brand voice.

Next, it is essential to optimize content for the strengths of each platform. Video podcasts should be distributed on YouTube, where search and recommendation engines can introduce content to new audiences. Publishers should use SEO-optimized titles, engaging thumbnails, and short-form video teasers to maximize visibility. On Spotify, features such as dynamic ad insertion, chapter markers, and interactive polls can deepen engagement and increase retention. Meanwhile, iHeartMedia’s broadcast and digital networks provide unparalleled scale for audio content monetization, with programmatic ad insertion and local sponsorship opportunities driving revenue.

Monetization must be approached intelligently by blending multiple revenue streams. Participation in Spotify’s Partner Program, which pays based on video and audio consumption, should be combined with direct sponsorship sales and programmatic ad sales through platforms like Spotify Ad Exchange (SAX) and iHeartMedia’s Magnite-powered marketplace. AI-driven dynamic ad insertion and product placements ensure that monetization is both scalable and relevant to the audience.

Finally, publishers must measure and iterate continuously. Tracking performance across platforms using advanced analytics tools enables optimization of discovery rates, ad completion, CPMs, and audience retention. Spotify’s new Brand Lift API, for example, allows publishers to measure the impact of their campaigns across both audio and video formats, while iHeartMedia’s localized data provides insights into geographic ad performance.

Industry Validation: Real-World Results

The strategies outlined above are not theoretical—they are already delivering dramatic improvements for early adopters. According to data shared at the NAB Show, podcasts that incorporate video components are discovered by new listeners at rates more than three times higher than audio-only shows. Video podcasts with dynamic ad insertion achieve ad completion rates approaching 90%, compared to just over 60% for traditional formats. CPMs for video podcasts are nearly double those for audio-only content, and publishers report significant increases in both ad fill rates and premium subscription conversions. Video-enhanced podcasts remain discoverable and relevant for months, as opposed to weeks for standard audio episodes.

iHeartMedia’s programmatic audio ads achieve some of the highest ad completion rates in the industry, with localized targeting enabling advertisers to reach niche audiences effectively. Publishers who integrate iHeartMedia’s audio scale with Spotify’s engagement tools and YouTube’s discovery engine report 41% higher average revenue per user and faster audience growth.

Jonathan Faulkner, Rox Codes, Drew Baldwin, and other industry leaders have emphasized that combining YouTube’s discovery engine with Spotify’s engagement tools and iHeartMedia’s monetization capabilities, all powered by AI, represents the future of podcasting and digital publishing.

Conclusion: The Synaptic Media Model

The message from Spotify Advance 2025 and the NAB Show is clear: publishers who want to thrive must break out of the audio silo and embrace a synaptic media model—one that fires across platforms and formats, adapting content to the ways audiences discover and engage. By investing in audio inventory, leveraging AI to create video, and distributing strategically across iHeartMedia, Spotify, and YouTube, publishers can unlock new audiences, diversify revenue, and secure their place in the next era of digital media.

Those who act now will be positioned at the forefront of the industry’s “great audio pivot of 2025,” while those who hesitate risk being left behind.