The Digital Library Market Has Issues. Hoopla Wants to Talk About Them.
With its podcast, The Straight Download, Hoopla is leaning into some of the uncomfortable marketplace conversations in the digital library world.
Amid a boom in branded podcasts, it’s hardly a surprise that digital library vendor Hoopla Digital decided to launch its own in 2025—The Straight Download. Podcasts have become a popular way for companies to engage with customers and to market their services. But Hoopla’s monthly show is taking a somewhat different approach: it’s leaning into some of the uncomfortable marketplace conversations that some in the digital library world might prefer to avoid.
Launched in May 2025, The Straight Download features Hoopla founder and President Jeff Jankowski in conversation with SVP of Sales and Customer Support Ann Ford. The first episode was pretty standard podcast fare—a 12-minute conversation in which Jankowski and Ford talked about Hoopla’s origins and their pay-per-use model. But the conversations since then have become more candid, open, and issue-driven.
“I was sitting in Jeff's office, and we were talking about things, as we do, and I thought, ‘we should just have this conversation in front of everybody.’ Let’s bring everybody into this kind of dialog,” Ford says, when asked how the duo came to center their podcast around the thorny issues facing libraries in the digital age. “Basically, what you hear on the podcast are the conversations we're having every week in the office.”
Yes, the two also discuss Hoopla's programs and offerings, as you would expect from a branded podcast. But in the last few months, Jankowski and Ford have let it rip on an array of issues libraries are grappling with—shrinking catalogs, rising licensing costs, price per circulation and utilization rates for metered access titles, and the gamification of the holds list for digital content, to name a few.
For example, while the major publishers have organized against library ebook legislation, Ford and Jankowski in November had Connecticut Library Consortium executive director Ellen Paul on the podcast for a discussion about Connecticut's recently enacted library ebook law.
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"Ellen is advocating for change and advocating for libraries and I'm all for that,” Jankowski told Words & Money when asked why he wanted to discuss Connecticut’s ebook law with Paul on the podcast. "We pay very careful attention to what's going on in the marketplace, and to what's impacting libraries."
That includes how library leaders are approaching digital—for better or worse—a theme that emerges frequently on the podcast.
“I think librarians have to recognize how their work is shifting, because, if they really do want change, they are going to have to get a point where they're comfortable with different solutions," Ford told Words & Money. "But there is a feeling among some librarians, like, 'oh, we have to do it this way,’ and there's a resistance to change. And that's a mountain we’re all going to have to climb together.”
Jankowski agrees. “I think many public libraries still view their role as carefully curating the digital collection. But in the digital landscape, there really isn’t a fixed collection anymore. That's a tough conversation to have with some librarians," he says. "With metered licenses, you're just buying new releases based on holds. And that's clearly not working for many libraries. If we can’t talk openly about these subjects, who will?”
In the first episode of the new year, which was released on January 9, Ford and Jankowski spoke with Fort Bend County (Texas) Libraries director Roosevelt Weeks about the kind of innovation and change—sometimes difficult change—needed in libraries in the digital age.
“Libraries have to be ready to hear that maybe the way they’ve been buying digital has to change, and that’s a very difficult conversation to be having right now,” Ford suggested at one point in the conversation. “You are exactly right,” Weeks replied. “There is going to have to be a mind shift in how we look at [digital]. We have to look out for what’s best for the public, because they’re the ones funding us in this space.”
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For sure, Hoopla certainly could have taken a safer approach to its podcast. But having frank conversations about the issues in the digital library marketplace just might be an effective strategy for the company. For one, it can help clarify and differentiate Hoopla's pay-per-use approach to the digital library market.
"It's easy to point to a pay-per-use service like Hoopla and say, ‘I can't manage my costs, this is unsustainable.’ But the reality is, 92% of what librarians are buying from OverDrive today is really just prepaid pay-per-use," Ford says. "With metered licenses, public libraries are basically paying up front for the pay-per-use model. So, let's talk about it like that. Let's call it what it is. And because the licenses are time-bound, they're losing access in 12 or 24 months."
Furthermore, while 2025 was another year of growth for Hoopla, the company also faced some negative press, including complaints about unvetted materials and AI slop among its offerings.
Jankowski says the company has adjusted its practices to better filter out AI content, but he concedes this will be an ongoing challenge not just for Hoopla but for many in the digital space.
“There are a lot of issues that I’m really passionate about and that I would like to talk about, but we had to kind of set the table first,” Jankowski says. “So, the podcast is trying to set the table so we can have more discussions about issues.”
No question, more discussions are very much needed in the current licensed-access digital library market. In a sort of "perfect storm" moment, librarians say demand for digital content in libraries is surging while library budgets are stressed and license costs are rising. Furthermore, user expectations are shifting in the streaming age, indie content is exploding in popularity, AI is an X factor, and there remains the fundamental question of how libraries can fulfill their traditional missions in a licensed access world and be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.
Jankowski says he wants Hoopla to be part of those conversations, wherever they may lead.
"Maybe you don't like our business model. Okay, then let’s talk about business models. We don't expect everyone to partner with us," he says. "What we want is to have conversations that can help propel the marketplace forward."
