Can you please spell “Podcast”?
Surprising title? Not really, it is a real question! When I first started working on my own podcast, I expected people from the ‘older’ generations and some non-savvy beings living under the proverbial ‘rock’ to ask me that question. And yes, I was prepared with answers and a few ‘c’mon-get-with-it’ eye-rolls that every technologically-challenged creature must bear.
But, when a millennial in a big city in India, a local “digital star” with a few thousand followings asked me to spell “Podcast”, I was fumbling for words.
To my despair, this wasn’t the last time! While doing my research for content, I was asked what Podcasts were, how does one access it, and how is it different to radio etc. Some even thought that a podcast is only hosted by celebrities, big brands or popular YouTube channels, and not by just anyone who has a voice!
After having spent the last few years in the Boston and then Toronto where Podcasts are a popular source of entertainment, and the market has, to some extent, come to a point of stagnation and content overflow, this was an eye opener. A reality check on how new the concept was in India, with just a handful of listeners and a small community of podcasters.
An incredible opportunity!
So, for all newbies and the uninitiated, here’s a curated read on the world of Podcasts….
The dictionary says….
A podcast is a digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.
The non-dictionary version
Podcasts are audio recordings of a conversation with a guest speaker or a monologue of an individual sharing his or her thoughts on a specific theme or simple storytelling.
Podcast is to radio the same way Netflix (and any other web platforms) is to TV/cable. No annoying ads, no blasting non tasteful music, on demand, at your disposal kind of a thing. All you need is a smart device, a pair of headphones and a willingness to consume diverse content.
The Beginning…
There is a little ambiguity on the timeline of the origin of podcasts. Some say the seed was sown way back in 1999, while for some it was actually born in 2004–2005. So, it would be safe to define the original timeline as the early-mid 2000’s.
Former MTV video jockey Adam Curry and software developer Dave Winer wrote a program called iPodder, that enabled them to automatically download Internet radio broadcasts to an iPod. With the help of a few more brains, the Podcast was officially born! In 2004, describing it as a new internet radio broadcasting, this baby was given the name “Podcasting” by a Journalist Ben Haamersley, who wrote for The Guardian. Several months later, Dannie Gregoire used the term to describe the automatic download and synchronization of audio content and he also registered several ‘podcast’ related domains.
Around this time, Really Simple Syndication or RSS feeds became a standard for allowing internet users to subscribe to websites with ever-changing content. Used for text-based blogs to deliver new text posts to interested readers, but it eventually this technology allowed podcast subscribers to get audio episodes delivered to their feed.
The end of the year saw detailed podcast articles appear online and later in the year, Liberated Syndication (Libsyn) launched the first Podcast Service Provider, offering storage, bandwidth, and RSS creation tools.
Go global…
The year 2005 was a real landmark in the history of podcasting, a time when it moved out from a small community of listeners, and literally saw the face of the world. Apple added podcasting to its iTunes 4.9 music software, building a directory of podcasts n the iTunes Music Store. The new iTunes could subscribe to, download and organize podcasts all in one place. Apple also promoted the creation of podcasts using its GarageBand and QuickTime Pro software and the MPEG 4 Audio (M4A) format instead of MP3.
George W Bush was the first Podcasting President during 2005–07 when the White House website added an RSS 2.0 feed to the previously downloadable files of the president’s weekly radio addresses.
Numbers speak!
According to Apple at WWDC 2018, there are about 550,000 active podcasts and 18.5 million podcast episodes. However, as per the recent studies conducted by Nielson and Edison, musicoomph.com states that this number has extensively grown to 700,000 and 29 million respectively.
Storytelling, A Digital Nation & Future of Podcasting
Folk tales have been an eternal part of the Indian culture and history. Ancient stories like the Panchtantra, Hitopadesha Tales, Akbar-Birbal passed from generation to generation, still resonate with us and have a high regard in our society and culture. Even the great Indian epics like the Ramayana, Bhagvad Gita and Mahabharta are a collection of short stories from the lives of great souls. Most of it was written centuries later, reached people, through storytellers or the elderly in the communities.
As generations grew, technology introduced us to the Radio. For almost five decades, our fathers and grandfathers and for the younger lot, their Great Grandfathers, loved and grew up on a show called the “Binaca Geetmala” and the voice of Ameen Sayani. The streets would go empty and 8–9 pm slot was termed as the “Geetmala Hour”.
From just a single radio channel to more than 3000 radio channels in India (including regional and online) and innumerable stories to tell, it would be appropriate to say that our appetite for audio content is pretty large and a part of the Indian DNA!
The digital revolution in India has broken the constraints of big cities and is growing stronger in small towns and even villages thanks to affordable data plans and easy accessibility.
According to the Kantar IMRB ICUBE report, 87% of the total internet user base in India, or 493 million Indians, are defined as regular users. Of this, 293 million active internet users reside in Urban India, while there are 200 million active users in Rural India.
97% users in India access the internet through mobile phones.
As the number of Indian language internet users is growing, the market for regional content is gaining traction. According to a research report published by KPMG in India and Google, Indian Language internet users are expected to account for nearly 75% of India’s internet user base by 2021.
According to The Indian Podcast Listener Statistics in 2018, 77% of Indian podcast listeners use their phones, mostly while commuting. In cities like Delhi, Mumbai & Bangalore, everyday commute takes up a substantial share of daily lives and people primarily resort to music followed by e-books and podcasts for audio entertainment.
Podcasting is for all, by all
In comparison with the US and China with market sizes of $314 million (2017) and $7.3 billion (2018) respectively, the Indian Podcasting industry is growing at a slow pace due to lack of awareness for the medium based on the myth that podcasts are only for the elite and intellectuals and production requires a specific technical skill.
Unlike the Radio, podcasts are not bound by content restrictions, run on different formats- from interviews to chat shows to storytelling, a large variety of genres to choose from and do not involve any licensing fee to air. Whether you love news, sports, health, food, fashion, beauty, business, finance, music, movies, mythology, or looking for bedtime stories or some lifestyle advice; there is something for everybody.
For content creators, podcasting is a like blogging but with a better medium, since sound creates a better impact, and requires minimal investment. All one needs is a smartphone, basic editing software which is freely available on the internet, and a podcast hosting platform. A creator can choose a podcasting publishing platform based on the ease, reach and the cost of publishing. However, a significant rise of free publishing platforms in India maintains the supply and distribution of good content.
With growing awareness, deep penetration of the internet, increased use of smartphones and a large appetite of the Indian youth to consume regional and diverse content, the podcasting market, which is more or less untapped at this point of time, has immense potential of growing into a popular and preferred medium of audio entertainment.
