Podcasting And Future

Podcast is online episodic series of audio or digital radio which is downloaded through web syndication. Podcast is forged out of broadcast used in mainstream media jargons and the new device syndication, iPod. Podcast is an internet based radio service where listeners download clips of audio delivery from their devices.

The future

We set out to develop a view on the future of podcasting. Understanding where podcasting is headed is important to us because we have been building, and recently released, a social audio discovery app called Clammr. Podcasting also has significant implications for the $65 billion global audio sector that includes broadcast radio, recorded music, and on-demand streaming services. Until now, broadcast has dominated and on-demand audio has been a small piece of the pie, limited mostly to music streaming. If podcasting transitions to mass adoption, it can usher in a broader shift from broadcast to on-demand audio that could put much of the $65 billion audio sector up for grabs.

We’ve worked with over 2,500 independent audio creators in launching our app, and conducted a detailed survey of podcasters to understand how they felt about the state of podcasting going forward.

Podcasters in our survey report that the enabling tools for podcasting work well: Over 80% of respondents feel well-served in recording, hosting, and distribution. At the same time, we learned that two challenges threaten to stymy the emergence of podcasting. Podcasters need help in growing audience and generating revenue. Without innovation in these two areas, podcasting and on-demand audio more broadly may continue to remain a narrow behavior that is experiencing a brief moment of hype similar to what it saw in 2005.

The Challenge of Growing Audience

Over 75% of podcasters in our survey report that they are dissatisfied with their ability to get new users and with their app presence in particular. The root cause of this dissatisfaction with audience growth is that audio discovery is broken and social media has not extended to audio beyond music. It’s telling that over 75% of podcasters list social media or word of mouth as their top two drivers of new listenership but that the majority are dissatisfied with their social media presence and see challenges overall when it comes to growth.