Dan Bobkoff, CEO of Rhyme Media, hits the stage at NAB Show New York! Get a first look at all things radio and podcasting and learn more from Dan in October.

Get your pass for the Radio & Podcast Interactive Forum and add Leveraging Data Insights to Improve Programming, Promotions and Bottom Lines to your myNAB Show New York Planner.

What are the biggest trends impacting how data is being used right now in the podcasting and radio space?

Podcasting’s metrics have long lagged other forms of digital media. They’re often imprecise and incomplete. That’s improved in recent years, but there are still limits that affect measuring ad effectiveness and other factors. It’s one of the reasons many podcasts are exploring YouTube as an additional distribution channel.

What challenges do professionals need to overcome, because of these trends?

While the number of podcast listeners and the amount they listen to has been growing, there has long been a glut of shows. That mixed with less-precise metrics has held the industry back and made it harder to make enough revenue from shows that have audiences in the tens or hundreds of thousands rather than millions. It’s one of the reasons that podcasting has been going through a rough patch.

At the same time, data is improving and from the creative side of things, it’s important that the industry still takes risks. Many podcast companies are much less willing now to greenlight shows that differ from past hits, which is leading to a lot of copycat chat and true crime podcasts. And listeners can tell when it feels like a show was created out of a cookbook.

What’s one thing you wish more professionals knew about?

I wish more creatives used data to make their ideas better. On the business side, data tends to make funders risk averse. But on the creation side, producers don’t use data enough to get ideas for shows or improve their existing ones. Knowing what your audience is most interested in can be one big factor that helps you decide your show’s focus, but it need not dictate everything about it. And analyzing listen-through rates and drop offs can be powerful signals of when you stop serving your listeners.

What discussions should they be having with the exhibitors?

I’d ask how new technologies will enable new human creativity rather than sapping it or simply replacing it with AI.