Apple’s software update last year lowered the volume on Audioboom, and the podcast platform revealed yesterday the impact of this change.
The London-listed company announced in a trading update that it had generated revenue of $19.2 millions for the last quarter of 2023. This was up 37% on the previous period and 5% year-on-year. It is estimated that the company will only make $65 million of revenue in the whole year, down from $74.9 million last year. The company also reported a $1.5 million loss in underlying earnings in 2023. This is down from $3.6 million profit in underlying earnings the year before.
Audioboom shares closed at 292 1/2p yesterday, but the announcement has wiped out 10 percent, or 32 1/2p.
Through his investment vehicle Candy Ventures, Nicholas Candy (50), property tycoon, owns nearly 15 per cent.
Audioboom attributed the drop in monthly downloads to Apple’s iOS17, which was released on September 1st and removed auto-downloading back catalogue episodes via the Apple Podcast app. It said that things were looking up at the end of the calendar year, as revenue per 1,000 downloads had increased and the business had returned to a profit of $200,000.
Stuart Last, chief executive of the company, said, “I’m encouraged by the more positive mood in the advertising industry. Brands have made strong budget commitments in the upfronts booking period, which has resulted in us contracting over $47 million in revenue for 2024.
Audioboom blamed a 20 percent revenue drop in 2022 on a bad advertising market, and the loss of Morbid a popular true-crime podcast to Wondery, an American rival network.