Has Podcast Listening Jumped the Shark?
How to Keep Demand up Among the Hype
I just finished the final installment of the Amazon remake of Lore and aside from reaffirming my fear of dolls, the TV series got me thinking. How will this and the other Hollywood productions that are rolling out impact podcast adoption? Will they draw in new ears for their respective audio companions and generate new legions of podcast fans?
Since I’ve been a Lore fan from the beginning, I actually went back and listened to some of those original podcast episodes, and I’ll continue to listen despite having finished the TV series. If I had no idea that Lore as a podcast existed or what a podcast was, the curious side of me makes me think I still would have been inclined to check it out.
Between the recent interest from Hollywood execs looking for content and big businesses looking to make acquisitions, the podcast hype has been real in 2017. But the jury is still out on whether this will impact overall listening. In the meantime, more and more businesses and independent creators are rushing to start their own podcasts in an effort to catch this wave. But there are still two key factors that need to be in play in order to keep the demand for podcasts going:
- Awareness
Podcast consumption itself has a while to go and still represents only a fraction of the population. According to Edison’s 2017 Podcast Consumer Study, 112 million adults 12+ have ever listened to a podcast and 67 million listen monthly. While podcasting may never achieve the same numbers as traditional media platforms, using tactics like these screen adaptations as a hook could certainly capture new audiences, that is, as long as the podcast and/or podcast personality is properly promoted as the inspiration. Building a strong listener base is the goal, but the metric to watch will be awareness. Currently around 60%, we’ll see how this number grows when Edison’s 2018 Infinite Dial is released after a year chock-full of podcast-related headlines.
Efforts are being made, but better self-promotion and education is still needed for this new (well, new to most) content source. NPR launched the short-lived #trypod campaign to spotlight how to find and listen to podcasts. International Podcast Day on September 30th also made some inroads with a social push, combined streamed events, merchandise, and meet-ups. Live events, such as comedy festivals, film festivals, and even dedicated podcast festivals, have also presented opportunities to plug relevant content and promote the medium overall. There’s no better time than now for producers and networks to band together to build on these efforts to launch a wider education campaign that goes beyond those who are already in the inner circle. At the moment there’s really no single authority to take the reigns on this task. It’s been largely up to either the major industry players or small teams of enthusiasts.
2. Discovery
Podcast discovery has been a known issue in the industry for a while now. Even as an employee at a podcast company I have a hard time discovering new shows. I routinely find myself relying on recommendations from friends or the Apple Podcast charts. In other words, I’m listening to the same shows as everyone else and may be missing out on some really meaningful content. Conversely, podcasters are missing out on some really great potential fans because they don’t know how to find their show.
The future of discovery (and getting better at it) will not rest solely on the shoulders of the giants like Apple, but rather enterprising start-ups. CastBox, which has raised $16 million in funding, is out to disrupt podcast discovery. With their sights set on becoming the “YouTube of audio”, the app is launching a new audio search feature that uses natural language processing to let listeners search for keywords and topics across more than 50 million episodes. Podcasher has also thrown its hat into the ring with its IMDb-style approach. Now in beta launch, the site boasts a database of 18 million episodes. Where others have failed, like the now-defunct Audiosearch, these platforms will have to learn from past mistakes in order to really shake up the current state of podcast search.
These are tumultuous times with shifting technology , and tastes, at play. Fear not podcasters, tremendous progress has already been made. Advertisers are paying attention, the tech side is paying attention, the media is paying attention — now we just need to keep working towards the continued growth in demand from listeners. So keep doing what you’re doing, but don’t forget to promote podcasting as a whole. Lifting up other podcasters, sharing the ways you find your favorite podcasts, or helping your listeners educate non-podcast listeners are great places to start.
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