The future of podcasting on YouTube

• What is the future of podcasting on YouTube? Johanna Voolich, Chief Product Officer of YouTube, is interviewed by Rene Ritchie (and her conversation is written up in the company’s blog.) She describes the company’s vision of podcasting on the platform being an “eyes optional” experience; and confirms that YouTube does not plan to publish RSS feeds. She does, though, look suspiciously as if she knows a little more than she can say, when talking about whether YouTube might augment audio-only podcasts with AI visuals of its own.

• Acast is celebrating its tenth birthday today, with a number of video messages from podcasters, and events across the world. We’ve a few of the videos on our website. The company was recently highlighted by Podtrac as the world’s largest podcast company.

• IAB UK has published its Digital Adspend Report for 2023. The report is behind a login wall, but Adelicious report that it says podcast advertising in the country grew 23% year-on-year to £83mn (US $103mn). Digital audio as a whole grew 12% to £176mn ($218mn).

  • The IAB in the US recently posted $7.2bn for “internet audio” (we don’t yet have a podcast figure), which suggests that, adjusted for population, the UK market is seven times smaller - reflecting analysis by Will Page towards the end of last year.

• In Japan, Otonal Inc and The Asahi Shimbun Company have jointly released a survey of podcast usage in Japan. The data shows that 1-in-3 Japanese people aged 15-19 listens to podcasts every month; overall, 15.7% of Japanese adults listen to podcasts. “Podcast listening is as popular as TikTok consumption across all age groups”, the survey says.

• PodJourney, a coaching platform, has launched. The platform is a collaboration between GeminiXIII and coaching platform MyJourney Technologies.

• During Q1/24, PodMatch paid $58,116 to podcasters, says founder Alex Sanfilippo.

• If you’re a student in the US, Canada or the UK, Blubrry is offering 50% off their podcast hosting plan.

• Amplifi Media’s Steve Goldstein points out the risks of AI audio in a blog post.

• The founders of investment podcast Acquired, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, are raising a fund to invest in growth-stage companies.

Tips and tricks - with Memberful

• Ad and Episode swaps are one of the best ways to help grow your podcast, suggests Podcast Discovery.

• Is your hard drive filling up? We’ve written a guide on how to store those podcast production files.