Predictions for 2025 - and impressions of 2024
We asked our PWR Supporters, the supporters of our weekly podcast Podnews Weekly Review, for their impressions of 2024 and predictions for 2025. You can become a PWR Supporter on our Buzzsprout website.
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Cameron Moll, from Buzzsprout
I’m Cameron Moll. I manage design for Buzzsprout. So the UI for the tools that our podcasters have come to love, anything brand related, this all falls under my purview as head of design.
2024 was a banner year for Buzzsprout: how it presents itself to the world and how we empower podcasters to present themselves to the world as well. And probably the most visible change of all that was this complete brand refresh for Buzzsprout. A new logo, new colours, new artwork, a new UI. I was fortunate to lead these efforts with some outstanding people, both internal and external to Buzzsprout.
We also launched our iOS and Android apps this year, huge effort by the team. Both apps have been received really well by podcasters. I’ve done this a few times in my career, this idea of like standing up apps, a zero to one effort as we say sometimes - and it’s, it’s no small task. So a ton of great work by the team.
There was other great stuff as well throughout the year, loads of updates, you know, like a new podcast, website themes, refreshing our embedded player, manual insertion points for mid-rolls and a bunch of other great things.
Now looking ahead to 2025, I’ve done these end of year predictions and I’ve been building for the web about two and a half decades. So I’ve done a lot of these and most of them are related to design. And I’ve learned that I have no better than a 50% success rate, or in some cases, far worse than that, in getting these right. And I think that’s the case for all of us, but they’re a fun endeavour nonetheless. So here we go…
Number one, AI will again be one of the biggest stories of the year. But what I think we’re going to see in 2025, will be the tools that we use as podcasters will be improving in such a way that AI will be so embedded in the products that we use that it will start to transition to a role behind the scenes, as it should.
This year, a lot of companies, Buzzsprout included, were eager to promote their AI features with like sparkles and AI labels and that sort of thing. And we’re not going to see this go away next year. And in fact, we’ll probably still see it rise for a bit. But as AI is more naturally integrated into these workflows, it’s not going to be necessary to remind people that they’re using automated intelligence. So, I think we’ll hit peak AI by the end of next year. But until then, we can probably expect to have AI continue to dominate news headlines.
And one of the areas in particular that I’ll be keeping a close eye on next year is watching AI potentially go from the role of collaborator to potentially becoming like the talent behind the mic. And we’ve already seen some very fascinating, but also very concerning advancements with Google NotebookLM and other tools like it. And things like Spotify Wrapped, which gave users this AI podcast of their Wrapped stats, which was powered by Notebook LM, by the way. And the voices for these tools, their intonations are just remarkably realistic. Not like the six-fingered, you know, hands we saw with early AI image generation. They’re just stunning. And so we can probably expect that those voices will become only more indistinguishable from human voices over time as the tools improve.
But I’m not holding my breath to see if our bot overlords are going to dismantle the podcast industry as we know it. Again, I’ve been building for the web a long time and I’ve seen countless threats of technology replacing humans that have come and gone. So I’m not going to lose sleep over this. I don’t think people should, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on this or maybe a close ear in 2025.
Number two, I think we need to be honest here and recognize that most podcasters want as many ears as possible listening to the content that they’ve worked so hard to create. And you can’t argue with the gravitational pull of the big players in the industry like Spotify, Apple, and YouTube because of their ability to draw in millions and millions of listeners. But the problem, and this can be a huge problem for the long-term health of the podcasting industry if not held in check, is that often these big players and others have shown reluctance to support or protect, or maybe embrace ,the open nature of podcasting.
Part of that lies in the fact that their profit models are not necessarily built on helping you get your episodes in as many places as possible. They’re built on proprietary closed wall platforms that tend to maximize ad revenue. I think this is something that we need to hold in check and keep in check as an industry, as a group of practitioners working to further the goals and aims of, of this beautiful, remarkable vehicle that allows people to have a voice and to have that voice be as, as present as possible in as many places as, as possible.
So I’m really excited to see what next year holds for the podcasting industry. I expect nothing less than our best year ever. So on behalf of the Buzzsprout team, thanks for having me pitch in. Happy 2025 and keep podcasting.
Matt Medeiros
Podcasting in 2025. Why the dedicated will define the industry’s future.
Every time I hear someone say podcasting is getting easier, I can’t help but shake my head. Sure, you can grab a decent microphone for under $100 now and tools like Descript have revolutionized editing. But here’s the truth. Running a successful podcast in 2025 will demand more dedication than ever before.
Let me explain why the future of podcasting belongs to the dedicated and what that means for creators, listeners, and the industry as a whole.
The dedication factor. Why most will fail.
Think about this. For every hour of polished podcast content, you’re looking at roughly five hours of work. That’s a stark contrast to throwing up a quick TikTok or Instagram reel. Between configuring equipment, coordinating guests, refining your workflow, editing, distribution, podcasting remains a substantial commitment.
What we’re going to see in 2025 is a clear separation. The hobbyist podcaster who thought they could juggle this alongside their regular content creation will sadly fade away. The celebrity podcaster who jumped in for a quick cash grab, well, they’ll start questioning their return on investment or at least their managers and partners and advertisers will. What we’ll be left with is a core group of dedicated creators who understand the true power of podcasting, building trust and maintaining authenticity over the long run.
The video trap. Why your boring podcast won’t get better with video.
Spotify wants video now. YouTube wants to own video podcasting, and podcasting at large. Everyone’s pushing video as the biggest thing that’s coming. But here’s the uncomfortable truth. Slapping a camera on your podcast won’t make it any better. Adding video is like putting racing stripes on a car. It might look faster, but it won’t actually improve performance. If your content isn’t engaging enough in audio form, seeing two talking heads certainly isn’t going to suddenly captivate your audience. Yes, video gives you another discovery avenue, but it’s not the magic bullet for mediocre content.
We should treat YouTube like we treat other social media platforms to leverage their network reach to push traffic back to us. I’m not saying you don’t invest in YouTube from a search and discoverability standpoint, but certainly don’t think it’s going to help save your podcast.
Trust the real currency of podcasting.
What’s often overlooked in the race for views and subscribers is the fundamental strength of podcasting. Trust building at scale. When someone puts in their earbuds and listens to your voice for an hour, that’s an intimate connection that’s hard to replicate in any other medium.
In 2025, we might see the overall listener numbers decline as the market corrects itself. But here’s the exciting part. The engagement quality will skyrocket or at least tick up into the right. I’d rather have 5000 deeply engaged listeners or 500 deeply engaged listeners who trust my perspective than 10,000 passive downloads from bots or drive by subscribers.
This is the essence of podcasting: building trust with your listener, not listeners, one at a time. It’s the inconvenient truth of podcasting versus social media, quick clip video solutions,
Content ownership.
As AI continues to reshape the digital landscape, owning your content and distribution becomes even more critical than ever. We’ve watched as Google indexed our content only to have AI platforms scrape it all over again. It’s stolen from us and then stolen from us again. We didn’t get any credit for it.
The power of human generated authentic content has never been more valuable. This is why the fight for RSS and open standards isn’t just technical nitpicking. It’s about maintaining control over your creative output.
In 2025, successful podcasters will be those who understand they’re not just creating content, they’re building a platform they actually own. You’re building a catalog, an archive, a silo, a platform of your own content. And podcasting with open RSS distribution is the channel that you own. And that is the most amazing part of podcasting - and even more important that you own it and it’s yours.
Value for value, redefining worth in the podcasting landscape.
The traditional advertising model of $25 per thousand downloads is becoming obsolete. At least it is for me, the “roll up your sleeves, a build it my way, I own my content” podcaster.
Forward-thinking podcasters realize that their dedicated audience, though perhaps small, carries immense value. When you’ve built genuine trust with your listeners, you can command premium rates from sponsors who understand they are reaching the decision makers, the buyers, the most valuable listeners, not just casual listeners. This is the inverse of value for value.
Largely when we talk about value for value or how it’s portrayed in the market, is a podcaster to listener relationship. If the podcaster is putting out valuable content, the listener sees that, understands it, and gives value back generally in the form of dollars or satoshis. There’s other ways to go about giving value back as a listener, but let’s just hold that aside for a moment. Now value for value for podcasters, or at least what I’m encouraging, is to look at that value from a sponsorship opportunity. Go to the sponsors or would-be sponsors of your show and say, I have a valuable audience. Wouldn’t you like to be in front of it? If so, you won’t get it cheap, but you’ll get it based on what I perceive as my valuable audience.
This shift puts the power back in the hands of creators. It’s not about playing by platform algorithms or settling for industry standard rates. It’s about knowing your worth and finding partners who value your audience connection. The essence of value for value will shine in 2025.
As we move through 2025, we’ll see a podcasting landscape that’s more focused, more professional, and more valuable than ever. The get-rich-quick crowd will move on to the next trending platform, leaving space for the dedicated creator to thrive. Success in this new era won’t be measured by download numbers alone, but by the strength of your audience relationships, the quality of your content, and your ability to maintain independence in an increasing, consolidated media landscape.
For those willing to put in the work, understand their worth, and stay dedicated to this podcasting craft through 2025 won’t just be another year in podcasting. It will be the beginning of a new golden age for the medium.
The question isn’t whether you can start a podcast. The question is, are you dedicated enough to build something that lasts? What do we want as an industry? Do we want podcast monetization? Do we want streaming satoshis? Do we want ad tech and dynamic filtration of content? Or do we need to take a step back in 2025 and encourage people to fall in love with podcasting again?
Mike Hamilton, Rogue Media Network
More live shows from smaller podcasts, I think, are in our future for 2025. More merchandise and tours that appeal to specific niches. Fandoms are very specific and love those inside jokes. So, I see a lot of smaller shows looking at their thousand true fans rather than their hundred thousand who might listen and just serving them better.
I think audio fiction will continue to grow and get more diverse. I think smaller stories, not only of true crime, which has been very popular, but almost like indie movies. These are going to be more heartfelt stories that are from lesser known writers and studios that will make fans happier by serving those small niches or groups.
In a little bit of a negative one, I think StreamYard is going to feel a reckoning for their outrageous price gouging, especially for day-to-day creators. I think there are too many tools and services just like them to justify their disdain for their customers.
The words podcast and show, I believe, will become synonymous. I know we as a network have already asked our creators to start shows, not podcasts. The difference being that shows are better prepared and presented. They can include audio and video segments, types of production is going to take center stage again. And I think the free-flowing conversation shows will become a smaller sector. Of course, you know, not counting Joe Rogan and Call Her Daddy.
I also think that unfortunately Spotify and YouTube will continue their battle for supremacy with podcasters and consumers being the losers. Both of these companies will continue to squash innovation and profit for smaller creators.
But not to end on a bad note, I think we are a very innovative and creative people. We always find ways around new rules and regulations. Having said that, I predict that podcasts will become podcasts again, meaning that we as an industry and collective will get back to making great content and stop worrying about our corporate overlords so much.
As an American, I can’t tell you what the next year looks like from a political and business perspective, but I can tell you that based on history, when faced with corporate greed and regulations, humans find a way around. When you look at something like punk rock, it emerged as kind of a backlash against political parties of the day, mainstream music, greed, corruption. It was a champion of just raw music stripped down. Let’s go fast. Let’s go loud. DIY, make your own stuff. Get smaller labels. Get away from the large corporate entities.
I hope that as an industry, we can take this attitude and do the same.
Happy holidays to both of you, along with all your listeners and anybody in the podcast industry. I’m a guy from Texas with a dream to be creative for a living. And everyone I’ve met in this industry has made me feel so welcomed. And I’m honored to be a part of this.
Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting
I’m not going to do anything very bold for a prediction here, but say, I think we’re going to continue to see the price of programmatic ads go down.
And the reason for that is simple. If we go back to banner ads on websites, it used to be you could get paid decently for those, but then everybody got a website and the prices fell through the floor. And I think we’re going to see that with podcasting as well, as more and more media hosts are now adding dynamic capabilities.
The thing I want to watch, it’s not really a prediction, but it’s video.
We’ve been promised so much about video from YouTube and Spotify, and I’m just going to be interested to see if they can fulfill the dreams that they’ve now set out for us. My guess is maybe July of next year, you’re going to hear a lot of people go, hey, this isn’t working. So we’ll see, I guess.
Thanks for the show. Keep up the great work.
Rachel Corbett
My highlights of 2024 - I’m going to start with a controversial one because everybody talks about how it might be the end of all our jobs, but AI. Wow. Are there a lot of things in the process of podcasting that have been made a heck of a lot easier this year by the incredible rise of AI? A lot of the stuff that has been an absolute pain point for podcasters, like how do I come up with social posts for every different platform? Is the content that they spit out immediately great? Can you just copy and paste it? No, you can’t. But is it a lot easier to edit something that exists and start with a blank piece of paper? Yes, it is. So I think anything that can simplify a lot of the steps in the process is a great thing from my end.
And then finally, every year for me, a highlight is just the students that come through my online podcasting course. Independents have built this business and it is an absolute privilege to be a part of the early part of people’s podcasting journey to give them the tools that they need to jump in and hopefully not podfade because they understand exactly what they need to do, but also just see what incredible ideas people are coming up with. So that is really exciting and very personally fulfilling for me every single year.
In terms of predictions, I think next year we are going to see the true impact of video. Where does it actually sit? At the moment, everybody is obsessed with it in a way that has made people think, if I do not have a video podcast and full episodes of my podcast are not up online, then I am not going to be able to be a successful podcaster. That is not true.
And it is important to note that the people really pushing video and the importance of it are the video platforms that can monetize it. I am not saying by any means that you should ignore video. It is an essential part of your promotional strategy. And for some podcasts, it will work brilliantly well.
But, I think a lot of people are feeling like they can’t get into podcasting because video is a requirement. There are a lot of shows that are working at the moment and are up to their necks in work and cannot possibly add video into the mix and are thinking, if I do not do this, I am going to lose out. And the truth is that for some shows, it is going to work brilliantly; for others it’s not going to be important. So I think as long as you are able to create content every single week that connects with an audience, if you can film a couple of bits of videos and get it up on social, fantastic. But the idea that you have to have a full production set up at your house and you’re editing full episodes, it’s not true. You don’t have to do that.
Let me say that the people that are going to be really leaning into the video stuff are going to benefit massively from the fact that the platforms want to push them. So there are going to be huge discoverability benefits for being on those platforms. But ultimately, I think a lot of people are going to try the video thing. People are going to think this doesn’t actually work as well as I thought it would. And then they’ll pull back. And I think next year we’ll have a more realistic understanding of how important video is in the podcasting mix.
Also, the other thing is - sorry to go on about this, but I feel very passionate about it - the whole push to the idea that a podcast has to be video first, that moves away from every reason why podcasting has become such a successful medium. It’s an antidote to screen fatigue, and it can be fit into my day perfectly without me having to look at the screen because I can walk the dog and do the shopping and do other things. I know that people often say, well, having videos on YouTube, people are watching it in the background. I tell you what, I’m not setting up a whole set at home and putting makeup on for people to have it on in the background while they’re cooking. Like you can do that with my audio, you know?
Anyway, don’t get me wrong. Video is important, but it’s just not a silver bullet, okay? For everybody, not every show is a diary of a CEO.
I did have some thoughts on some other commercial things, but I think I’ve gone on long enough and it’s probably time to give somebody else a go.
Si Jobling
It’s a great opportunity to think what has been great about this year, what’s not been so great, and what I might hope to happen next year.
So I think one of the main highlights I’ve noticed over the past year is the purge of podcasting as an industry. I think it’s been an opportunity to consolidate and focus. The reality has hit, that advertising on podcast is not necessarily as lucrative as originally proposed, but there have been some success stories as well across the globe and especially in the UK, there’s been a great shift towards “podcast” as a medium.
I use “podcast” in inverted commas because I appreciate podcasting misinterpreted in many places, e.g. BBC Sounds. But it’s great to see the fact that good content is prevailing. The not so great or the less regular content is managing to keep up. And the influencers and celebrities are either persisting or moving on or finding different ways of being creative as well. It’s great to see that.
I had great fun at The Podcast Show in London back in May. It was really interesting and fascinating to hear all those insights and stories from the media heavyweights. So a little bit of contradiction to what I just said. But it was very enjoyable just to dive into some of those technical conversations as well, especially when I got to be part of that Podnews Weekly recording.
What I also enjoyed about the conference, as always, was meeting up with old friends and new. Those people I’ve been recognising and appreciating in the industry over the past few years. And I’ve really enjoyed having those random conversations and keeping those relationships alive.
The final thing I’m really pleased to see this year is how Truefans and Fountain have been constantly pushing the envelope with all the new Podcasting 2.0 tags and features, especially with the shift towards more open social network protocols like ActivityPub and Noster. It was wonderful to see how quickly Truefans deployed that Truefans
I’ve got a few areas that I’d like to see grow.
I think AI is a buzzword, but it’s here to stay and it’d be great to see some better transcriptions and show notes with AI. I’d like to see AI make better use of understanding where websites are referenced in a conversation and maybe just append links to the descriptions or show notes so it’s easier for listeners to click through.
It’d be great to see transcriptions understand those nuanced accents. Me, for example, I have a Midlands twang from the UK, and I know that some AI struggles with that and some AI even really struggles to understand my Brummie wife. So, it’d be great to see some of those AI models trained on real world examples beyond the main hotspots of posh British English and the accents around the States.
I’d like to see more personalized podcasts so we can maybe use news sources to create a very curated, filtered news source in a podcast medium, very much like what James does on a daily basis. But it gives the users a chance to pick their topics and pick a voice that they’re comfortable listening to. Remember, people follow people and humans and personalities. We like to be able to relate to these individuals. But if we can try and get a bit cleverer with what content lands and curating it to the audience, that’d be a really interesting shift. It’s why I have a variety of podcasts I listen to, ideally with a bit of a satirical comical edge as well. That’s something you cannot emulate with AI. So, I just want to see that experimentation to see how it comes out.
And I really like to see how creators can make better use of tools like ActivityPub and other distributed social networks and try to engage with their audiences better, not just limiting yourselves to the walled gardens of Spotify, Apple and YouTube, but how can we use these open protocols to really connect with the listeners and get some really good interaction going on with it as well.
Finally, I’m really carefully watching what Spotify and YouTube are doing when they embrace and push video as so-called “podcasts”. I love video content. I get it. And I know it’s where the future is, but I don’t like the use of word “podcasts” when it’s just someone with a microphone in view on a camera.
I do miss that openness of early video podcasts. Remember Diggnation? One of those early ones with Kevin Rose. That finally came back this year, actually, and I’m really glad to see that with those lads - but again, it’s they are limiting themselves to the walled gardens of YouTube, Spotify, and those ones, not necessarily embracing the open podcasting sphere.
Jim James, host, Unnoticed Entrepreneur podcast
It was called the podcast election in America, and Trump was able to get in front of 50 million listeners, all by using what was traditionally seen as a hobby medium. So for me, 2024, podcasts became the mainstream media.
I have also been excited in 2024 by the full impact of AI on the ability of indie podcast creators like me to generate content at scale. We’ve got innovators like Descript embedding tools like Underlord, which is able to ease my workflow and enable me to create multiple language versions of my podcast. I’ve also been able to use the Google Notebook LLM to take an article that I’ve written and to make a podcast, which is just amazing.
So 2024, podcasts have gone mainstream and the technologies empowered indie podcasters like me to create content at will and to compete, maybe, with the large companies. What do I think about 2025?
AI is obviously going to get more and more powerful, and that’s going to create new business models. In my own case, I’ve been able to take my podcast episodes with entrepreneurs and to create three books, which have then been published by the New York publisher Wiley. I couldn’t have done this without AI at each stage of the process, and so I’m excited to see what comes next. I think we’re going to see a blurring of the lines between human and AI-created podcast content.
One prediction that I have is that we’re going to see podcasts being created by corporates, as they’ve seen the power of having a direct conversation with their audience.
We’re going to see more citizen podcasts in local areas, where local newspapers and radio stations have been closing down due to their high costs of operation. Citizen journalists producing podcasts will fill the need for community news and engagement funded by local sponsorship.
Finally, with the Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko offering to talk to Joe Rogan on his podcast about the Ukraine war, my prediction for a new word to be added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2025 will be podlomacy. Slava podcasting!
Rockie Thomas, SoundStack
If you want an idea of what’s in store for podcasting in 2025, just ask these three questions. “Open web or walled garden? Video or audio? What is a podcast?”
It is a Nietzsche level existential crisis, and that is okay. It’s what happens when a medium starts to be called mainstream and podcast interviews are considered earned media. If podcasting was a young person, we would call it adulting. It makes for crazy, exciting times full of possibility.
So what can we expect in 2025?
After years of dynamic ad insertion replacing most ads, direct and programmatic, publishers will need to brush off their direct baked-in ads to fully optimize their revenue on all platforms.
In order to count baked-in ads and measure mixed-platform audiences, analytics will need to adapt, increasing the need for metric platforms to count more than just audio downloads.
Podcasting might not be exactly the same on the other side of 2025. And again, this is okay, just as long as the story stays the same, because great content will always find the audience.
Neal Veglio, Podknows Podcasting
This year, I have been absolutely blown away by the growth of indie podcasting. I don’t mean in terms of the value of the space. I mean in terms of the quality of the space.
Earlier this year, of course, we had the Independent Podcast Awards for a second time. And hearing some of those entrants, the quality, the time being invested into these productions, it was quite astounding. And I’m loving seeing how that space is developing.
My predictions for 2025 - everyone’s probably going to be leaning into the video podcasting thing, aren’t they? I’m going to push against that. I’m going to say that this coming year is going to be more about audio again. I know that we’ve all pretty much written Apple Podcasts off when it comes to innovation and any new ideas. I think they know that they’ve got to catch up with Spotify; and look at what Spotify is up to. Of course, not being the number one podcast app in the ecosystem, which obviously the research and all the surveys are saying YouTube now is and Spotify is number two. I think we all know that actually Apple Podcasts still dominates just about the market. And once they start leaning into this new clips idea that Spotify have seemingly quietly introduced into the creator hub, that’s going to change the game in terms of discovery.
Of course, a lot of podcasters, these newbies, are saying, ah, “podcast discovery is terrible on the podcast apps”. That’s of course, because they don’t know how to optimize audio content. And that’s why they think video is the savior.
I’m going to say Apple Podcasts and Spotify are going to really change the game on this in the coming 12 months, as clips of your soon to be favorite shows begin to emerge in the main feeds.
Claire Waite Brown, host, Creativity Found podcast
My podcasting highlights of 2024 have really been the range of live events I’ve been able to attend this year from Podfest in Orlando to the pub get-togethers surrounding podcast show London, as well as the show itself, of course, and other IRL and online events, for example, with the Everybody Collective, UK Audio Network, Mike’s Podcast Club, and probably some others.
The best thing about these events is the people I meet, whether familiar friends I’ve made since starting podcasting or new podcast pals.
I don’t have a prediction as much as a wish for 2025. It relates to my love of making podcasty people connections. This is for the widespread adoption from hosting companies and listening apps of my favorite podcasting 2.0 feature - and I know we all have one - Podroll.
Podroll is super easy to implement and means you can recommend other podcasts that you like, so people who love your show will be encouraged to listen to theirs. For those of us who don’t have massive marketing budgets, this is a super friendly, supportive, and simple way to improve discoverability for independent podcasters built on trust between show hosts and their listeners.
James Burtt, Phonic Content
For me, the most exciting thing that happened in podcasting this year is the fact that Donald Trump won an election because of a podcast. Now, I realise that’s quite a bold statement, and I might not be entirely factually correct or accurate with that. But I genuinely believe that the way that the swing states voted, in large part was predicated on him doing the Joe Rogan podcast. I think it’s difficult to deny that fact.
Now, I’m by no means a political media expert, but it seemed that across the board, those that are political media experts were universally in agreement that the podcast that he’d appeared on, or the number of podcasts that he’d appeared on, had definitely moved the needle.
I think we’re getting to a point now where people want authenticity. And whether you like or loathe a particular party or their politics, or a politician themself, I think that even if you disagree with their politics, you can relate to them more as a human being if you’ve heard them in a long form content format.
I think that (British Prime Minister) Keir Starmer appearing on Diary of a CEO is another sign that politicians are really starting to understand the power of podcasting.
2024 was probably the year that we’ll look back and go, do you know what? Podcasting became mainstream that year. And I think that’s exciting.
I know a lot of the podcast purists are becoming less and less sort of fans of the mainstream nature of podcasting. But for me personally, all boats rise in a high tide. The more attention this amazing media can get, the more eyeballs and earbuds that come to this sector in this space, the better.
From a business perspective, I would say that 2024 has been the most challenging year that I have had of trading. I started the agency in 2020. We have seen podcasting become more and more and more and more popular, which is obviously a great thing. I think this year, 2024, was the great readjustment. Potentially, I feel like we’ve almost gone through our own podcasting version of the dot com boom. And I think there’s been a readjustment. Now, I think a lot of people have gone, “oh my God, abandon ship, slam on the anchors”. There’s a lot of panic in the marketplace.
If you are solely making your revenue through sponsorship and advertising, then I can completely understand that. I think, though, overall, this will be seen in the longer term as a blip on the horizon. I don’t think this is a sign of the industry going backwards in any way, shape or form. I think it’s probably just a readjustment to align back with the value versus the audience that podcasting has now got.
My prediction for 2025 is that video is going to become more and more and more important. Now, I am a audio guy, first and foremost. I started off working in radio and I love radio. And this, I think why I fell in love with podcasting, because it was like a newer version of radio, the evolution of radio.
When podcast video started coming in, I was a bit reticent. I was a little bit standoffish from it, but you can’t fight against the tide forever. As an agency, we’ve obviously had to jump on board with videos in a big way over the last couple of years. And I can only see that that’s going to increase.
I generally believe that the battle for long form attention is now being fought in short form platforms, such as TikTok, such as YouTube Shorts, such as LinkedIn. And whilst a lot of the podcast purists, the audio lovers amongst us, didn’t necessarily want the podcasting space to be about who’s got the best clickbait video, I think that’s the direction that it is going in because it’s never been easier to make content, yet it’s never been more difficult to get people to genuinely hear the message that you’re trying to deliver.
The other big change that’s coming in 2025 is going to be the increasing dominance of Spotify. I think what they are building out, what they’re attempting to build out with Spotify for creators is really exciting. The fact that they’re trying to make an ecosystem, the fact that they’re trying to give a home to content creators is going to be really interesting and really telling.
I remember when Spotify first started taking steps in the podcasting space. And I was thinking at the time, is anyone going to knock Apple off their perch? But I think in 2025, we might see Spotify do exactly that.
On behalf of the podcast industry, thank you for what you do. As a growing independent medium, I think it’s super important for us to have independent media that holds the sector to account. So thank you for the work that you do.
