Amazon and Spotify Boost Podcast Offerings, and Audiences Soar

Those in the business of producing content were able to take advantage of the Covid-19 lock downs. A lot of the media industry was helped by people having more time at home. Ad dollars followed audience numbers in the podcasting industry.

In the US alone, advertising revenue more than doubled over the course of the next four years. The number of people listening to podcasts jumped 40% in the same time period.

It might make you believe the boom times are over. According to a media consulting firm, the number of podcasts on the service has more than doubled in the last year. There are more people looking for a slice of the pie. The US would have had advertising revenue of just $500,000 in 2021.

The number can be a bit misleading. The most popular shows get most of the ad dollars. There are millions of people who make little or no money on the show. Discoverability, or how easy it is to find a show, has become harder as the amount of podcasts has increased. Amazon.com Inc., and other platforms have beefed up their own offerings.

Gimlet Media, the Ringer, and Joe Rogan are just a few of the companies that have been acquired by the streaming service. In order to reduce its dependence on music, it has to pay a lot of money to record labels. The costs of the show don't change with the audience, and they have two revenue streams.

The incentive to give their own productions more prominent placement in the app is what it means. The risk is that the platforms mimic the approach pioneered by social media companies A decade ago, Facebook encouraged brands and public figures to create pages on its platform in order to reach a large audience. Most of your followers didn't see your posts unless you paid to spread the word.

It could become more difficult for new shows to find an audience if that route is followed. Artists are able to pay to promote new tracks on the platform.

The podcasting industry is expected to bring in over $4 billion in advertising revenue in the next decade. The incumbents at the top of the pile will benefit the most.

Next, read about Facebook copying TikTok to make it cool to teens.