Podcasts, the Next Media

 

Starting this year off with Barstool's Call Her Daddy and even Joe Rogans $100 Million Spotify deal leading to Howard Sterns Sirius XM's $120 Million a year deal, even leading to the new Sofia with and F podcast and other up and coming Tik Tok podcasts, it seems to be podcasts are the nest best thing. 

Powerhouse deals with host icons like shock jock Howard Stern, and the controversial Joe Rogan definitely are spearheading this new mainstream content platform. For the past 10 years there was a surge in Youtubers and still are with daily vlogs, beauty gurus and lifestyle brands but podcasts have been the up and comers with their genre diversity from NPR to comedians Bill Burr and Theo Von, even mainstream host Conan O'Brien. 

Iheart Radio hosted the second podcast award this past January even with shows likes Iheart's Ron Burgundy Show, EarWolf and Team Coco's Conan O'Brien, Needs a Friend, Barstool's Pardon My Take and Armchair Umbrella's Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. Other notables including Life is Short with Justin Long, Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, Your Favorite Thing with Wells Adams and Brandi Cyrus. Besides hollywood stars, social media stars have built an audience such as Logan Paul with Impaulsive, Addison Rae, Bryce Hall, Charli and Dixi D'amelio, and David Dobrik. 

Media is in the state of transition where content is moving digital and streaming services, creating this new boom of podcasts. Traditional media is in the past, today podcasts have brought in starting with 28 Million to 62 million weekly listeners comparing 2015 numbers to 2019 according to Edison Research and Triton Digital. In 2020, 155 million listens weekly. This boom of views has definitely created an armrace between popular platforms Spotify, Iheart, Barstool, New York Times, and NPR, all with 10's to 100's of millions of global downloads and streams. 

The projected audiences for podcasts coupled with ad sales and the ability to exceed $1 billion in revenue are extremely promising. Youtubers for the past ten years have capitalized on their home videos and building a brand but now podcasts seem to be the future. From listening on the commute to work or simply work from home, there are thousands of podcasts options today from educational to entertainment and more. Podcasts are the new radio shows, and the next best thing.