It's no mystery, podcasting is on the rise. Major companies such as Spotify, iHeart Radio (USA), to name just a few, have invested massive amounts of money in recent months. Advertisers are eyeing podcasts too.
New market offerings and platforms make podcast creation and distribution relatively simple.
It is estimated one million podcasts exist worldwide. Compared to blogs (where the estimate is 500 million), experts in the field state the podcast market is in its beginning stages.
As Seth Godin said "podcasting is the new blogging."
Too late to enter?
Most say no. Should your company invest in this going medium?
Let's explore.
Podcast longevity is good. If you are an active podcast listener, you can attest to listening to 'older' podcasts, unlike blogs. Google is promoting podcasts, perhaps even surpassing blogs in search. The company launched Google Podcast in 2018.
For example, if you search Pat Flynn podcast, Google search shows vignettes of recent shows, and if clicked, go directly to Google Podcast.
Hence, American marketers aren't sitting back. Growth is there. And for a good reason.
The number of podcast listeners in the US continues to grow, and 2019 revealed a sharp increase, according to Edison Research, a company that tracks business trends and has tracked podcasting since 2006.
According to their latest research, one out of three people in the US listen to at least one podcast every month. And, listening by age groups is instrumental for marketers, too.
According to the annual survey The Infinite Dial (conducted by Edison Research and Triton Digital), young podcast listeners are on the rise. Forty percent of people between the ages of 12 and 24 listened to a podcast last month, a ten percent increase from 2018.
Spotify music listeners apparently enjoy podcasts as this jump is attributed to the music streaming service's recent addition of podcasts and their substantial investment in the medium.
Podcasting growth isn't only in the US. Globally and in Europe, the number of people listening to podcasts is on the rise.
Will podcast surpass blogs. Only time will tell. But, one thing is for sure - podcasts are gaining in momentum and smart marketers aren't sitting back.