In the last 17 years, we’ve become more familiar with the podcast, a combination of ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’ brought us the term in 2005, and they’ve risen in popularity, specifically over the last few years.
Take any statements on history in this with a pinch of salt, this is from personal experience of audio consumption while growing up.
A very brief history of audio content in my lifetime
Previously, the only accessible forms of audio content were radio and CD’s, which came with a handful of issues. Going for a drive and listening to radio wasn’t always as easy as expected, with ranging signal and regional channels, it was sometimes impossible to have a clear listening experience.
CDs were great for longer journeys. Almost everyone had a collection of 5-6 disks in their glovebox, ready for a longer drive, whether they were albums or audiobooks, they were a lot more reliable than flaky radio signals.
MP3 players, iPods, and smartphones were eventually compatible with car audio systems, and this changed the way that my family listened to things in the car, being able to choose from a larger library of songs for longer journeys.
A key moment in the rise of podcasts
In the 2010s cars were able to connect to devices via Bluetooth and aux cables, allowing passengers to stream or listen to any downloaded audio on their phone, whether that be music or podcasts. The days of searching for an engaging radio show, and listening to a CD for the 13th time in a week were slipping away – we were adapting to a consistently-growing library.
In order to keep listeners engaged, radio hosts aren’t able to focus on a niche for a long period of time, so are forced to cover a variety of topics at a surface level. Imagine tuning the radio only to be met with endless talk on something you don’t care about, sending you back to search through channels. As they’re streamed, podcasts work as an ideal background noise for me, mentally setting me in a place of engaging and productive conversation, allowing me to focus on work more.
Why is everyone starting a podcast?
The setup cost for a podcast is incredibly cheap, compared to what someone would need to take a step into cinematography, photography, graphic design, or any form of digital editing. Audio software doesn’t require a super powerful computer, and you can get a couple of decent microphones for less than £100. Audio files tend to be fairly small, so it’s unlikely you’ll need to buy any extra storage, making it a good way for those on a low budget to step into content creation.
Because of these low costs, the risk of starting a podcast is incredibly low – if it doesn’t work out, you’ve only lost a fraction of what could’ve been lost if you went down a different route of content. This makes it appealing to anyone really, as a cheap experiment that could become a very well-paying career, there’s no reason for people not to give it a go.
If it works out, multiple brands are flooding the space to advertise on various podcasts, paying the hosts to read out a pre-written script to their audience. While I’ve never made a purchase on the back of these, I know the impact it can hold when coming from a familiar voice instead of an actor, and definitely pushes a lot of listeners into paying customers.
Let’s talk about influencers
Podcasts, however, can pick any topic as big or small as they’d like, as listeners actively search for conversations that surround these areas that can be upwards of two hours long. As more individuals realised they could decide what to listen to, I’m sure many of them drifted away from radio to pre-recorded and downloadable content for their journeys.
Over the last few years, there’s been a massive rise in the number of influencers and content creators diving into podcasting. Whether it’s a show with guests, interviewing them about life experiences (something like Impaulsive, JaackMate’s Happy Hour), or a few creators getting together to talk about recent developments in their industry (Mom’s Basement, Colin & Samir). Personally, these are up there in my list of regular listens, gaining insight into the industry that made people millionaires from hobbies, and finding out about that journey and how they continue to shape the space. It’s inspirational.
Being able to listen to certain individuals expand on their opinions and beliefs without censorship can help listeners to build a ‘relationship’ with these individuals. As fans discover more about them from each interview and piece of content released over time, the amount of similarities could be growing – with some forming a friend-like bond without ever meeting the host.
Podcast Profits
The figure above is crazy to me. In the last three months of 2020, 25% of Spotify’s regular users consumed podcasts on their platform, showing the companies acquisition strategy as a success.
Spotify is acquiring multi-million dollar deals for exclusive content: The Joe Rogan Experience ($100M), Call Her Daddy ($60M) being the biggest, while I’m seeing more and more podcasts move towards being Spotify Exclusives, sharing only a few clips from each episode across their social profiles. Add this onto the $150 million acquisition of anchor.fm in 2019, bringing over a million podcasts to the streaming platform.
Apple also has an exclusive deal with BBC Studios for subscription content across their platform, that’s ad-free and available in the entirety of the US, something that wasn’t available before.
With big moves like this coming from giants in the audio-streaming industry, it’s a safe bet that the podcast space will continue to grow in the coming years, and play a stronger role in the financials of these companies in this period.
Zak Michaelwaite 
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