iHeartMedia, the largest audio media company in the U.S. and the top podcast publisher globally according to Podtrac, announced a partnership with Sounder, an audio intelligent platform that builds foundational podcasting technology to drive monetization, brand safety and discoverability for audio content.

iHeartMedia will leverage Sounder’s Audio Data Cloud to provide both established and emerging podcast creators the best AI and Machine Learning (ML) tools to help them gain critical, real-time insights to accelerate growth and improve monetization. With more than 750 iHeartRadio Original podcasts — including some of the biggest podcasts and creators in the world – now using this technology, these new capabilities will rapidly become the industry standard.

iHeartMedia will leverage Sounder’s Audio Data Cloud’s automated best-in-class AI and ML brand safety solution to ensure advertisers can confidently invest in the iHeartPodcast Network’s expansive and rapidly growing line-up of diverse content with more than 392 million downloads and streams a month (more downloads than the next three podcast publishers combined).

The brand safety solution enables iHeartMedia’s marketing partners to buy across a wide array of creators with the assurance that the content adheres to industry safety standards. The technology will quickly expand to also allow advertisers to customize their brand safety guidelines, unlocking new and more diverse publishers to provide even more effective ad placements.

Sounder’s Audio Data Cloud enables large publishers the ability to perform brand suitability analysis, topic analysis, content summarization, and dynamic segmentation. These solutions help accelerate the size and engagement of the iHeartPodcast Network’s large and growing audience from the biggest and most diverse shows in the network, to the rapidly growing number of up-and-coming creators. Audio Data Cloud leverages Sounder’s proprietary automated speech recognition technology and powerful AI/ML models. In doing so, it unlocks uncultured value for all enterprise audio content.

In addition to this commercial partnership, iHeartMedia has also announced a strategic investment in Sounder, as lead investor in the company’s Series A round.