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Like any growing industry, podcasting needs to appeal to a
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younger audience, if only to keep replenishing supply as, well, natural
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attrition occurs, shall we say.
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The good news is the kids love podcasts!
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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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Recently an early data point from Edison Research's Share of Ear
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report was released that, if I'm honest, is a little hard to believe
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because it showed podcasting kicking the pants out of AM/FM radio.
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And now, okay, maybe you don't think that's a really big deal, but I
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assure you that is a very big deal.
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Let me be a little specific, or really specific, because sometimes these stats
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and figures can be misinterpreted.
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I'm not immune to that.
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So I'll put a link to the actual chart that was shared in the episode
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details and I'll also embed the image in the article on the website so you
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can examine that at your own leisure.
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But for your ears, the data point is laser focused.
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It shows that last year, 2021, 13-24-year-olds, the kids, if you will,
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spent more than twice as much time listening to podcasts as they did to AM
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radio when consuming spoken word content.
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Specifically, they said that they spend 35% of their time with
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podcasts compared to only 16% of their time with AM/FM radio.
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That's really big.
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Now, let me shine a light on two of those points.
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First, this is about spoken word audio only.
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This is not about media consumed of all everything, right?
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So that's not time spent with music.
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That's not time spent watching movies, time spent reading books.
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None of that stuff is factored in here.
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So you could think of this as time with talk radio versus time with talk
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podcast if that helps you because, you know, not all radio is talk, but
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almost all of podcasting is talk.
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Secondly, this is about 13-24-year-olds.
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A mix of not-yet and the freshest consumer generation, if you will.
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We have now an entire generation that will very likely carry that preference, that
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listening preference, forward and further increase their reliance on podcasting.
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So what has me so excited about this?
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Well, I'll tell you.
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My excitement around this centers on two main themes.
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First, is the organic nature of what happened.
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Look, there wasn't a centralized podcast consortium formed a decade ago that had
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aims on getting an entire generation to switch their spoken word preference.
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They did it on their own.
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An entire generation who have discovered podcasting is a preferred method of
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entertainment, information, and education at least when spoken word is concerned.
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They discovered on their own that podcasts give them what they want, more
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than what they want from the radio.
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But I still hear you out there.
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You're saying, "Yeah.
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Well, yeah, Evo, why would the kids listen to the radio anymore?"
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And okay, you're right.
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This data point just proves that.
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And it also leads me to the second excitement-inducing theme.
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Where consumption habits go, so flows the investment.
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Investment in content creation that aims directly at this generation.
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Continued investment spread out over years in content creation that
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ages up with this generation, too.
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Now, some of that investment is going to be made by other media publishers,
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including radio networks and radio stations, as they react to this news.
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People have been ringing radio's death knell for the better part of my entire
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existence on the planet and the overall industry has proven itself to be rather
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resilient so I'll not do that today.
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In fact, I'm confident that they're going to rise to this challenge, but likely in
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a way that makes them pivot to podcasting more and more with their content, as well
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as start making podcast-specific content.
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Look, radio has the skills.
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They have the advertising dollars.
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And for them, making the pivot to podcasting is fairly straightforward.
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And those publisher-funded initiatives, as those things hit podcasting, more
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and more money is going to follow.
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More advertising dollars for sure.
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And more money invested in innovations to make podcast advertising more
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efficient and more effective.
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More business models to try and monetize the hard-to-monetize
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long tail end of podcasting.
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Plus, more money and more innovation among the tools and services that
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a new generation of podcasters will use to make and distribute their
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podcasts, more money and more innovation amongst the tools and services a new
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generation of podcast listeners will use to find and consume podcasts.
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That's what has me so excited about this data point.
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So, how do you do, fellow kids?
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With that, I shall be back directly with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
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Cheers!
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Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.
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He's on a mission to make podcasting better.
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Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes
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section of your podcast listening app.
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A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at
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podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected
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transcript, both created by Allie Press.
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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.
