With Podcasts on the Rise, Many Organisations May Seek to Support Them in Any Way Possible
Given the range of different content being published online, it make sense for platforms to diversify their offerings available. Doing so should help protect them from the harsh changes in the environment, and allow them to adapt to shifts in trends. Or, platforms can also take the unique root of adapting the content to their platforms, instead of being the only ones needing to change.
Take YouTube for example; although only a whisper, they have apparently begun offering podcasters up to $300,000 to help them add video functionality to their podcasts. What this then allows them to do is adapt someone else’s content to their platform, opening a new avenue of creation, and hop onto the popularity of podcasts.
YouTube has already begun making move to improve podcast accessibility on their platform; in fact, users in Canada are able to listen to podcasts without even being subscribed to their premium service. With these two functions together, it appears YouTube are already aware of the trends necessary to enter this market, and help to ensure users come to them over their competition.
As stated above, the option to provide a grant to podcasts remains highly attractive, given YouTube’s previous reputation of launching successful podcasters. Take Joe Rogan, who originally started on YouTube before transitioning, quite controversially, over to Spotify. Increasing the attention onto podcasts would attract content creators, given this offering could potentially open an avenue in expanding their creative pipeline.
Additionally, accessing this market early allows YouTube an early foot through the door, as their popularity are rising. In fact, over half of 12-34 year olds in the USA listen to podcasts monthly, providing an untapped market for YouTube to access, easily transitioning them if their podcasters simply need to upload video formats.
This remains important, especially as the rate of podcast listeners is growing. By 2024, there are expected to be 100 million podcast listeners in the USA alone; couple this with a 1.33 billion USD spend on podcast advertising in 2021, with an estimation of that value doubling by 2025, the market remains ever attractive to potential investors.
With this clear rise of interest in podcasts from creators, consumers, and marketers alike, YouTube’s apparent interest becomes clearer. As long as they are able to manage the expectations of the relevant stakeholders, they should open up a successful avenue of success for themselves.
Finally, for our previous #SocialShort, click here.
