Now & Next Podcast S2E4 – Where Is Podcasting Headed After a Phenomenal 2019?
Hot Pod’s Nicholas Quah sits down with Leora Kornfeld for an insightful chat about the trends redefining the podcast industry and what to keep tabs on in 2020.
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Hot Pod’s Nicholas Quah on the Flourishing Podcast Industry
In this episode of Now & Next, we journey into the business aspects of one of the media landscape’s buzziest areas: podcasting.
Last season we examined the emerging podcast industry with Vancouver podcasting company Pacific Content’s Steve Pratt and Dan Misener. Since then, their company has been acquired by Rogers Media, while another company we talked about during that episode, Gimlet Media, has been acquired by Spotify for $230 million. The latter also acquired Parcast and Anchor earlier this year, spending over $400 million on podcasting acquisitions.
Such acquisitions speak to the industry’s real-time build-out as well as the rapid rate of growth it’s experiencing. For example, there were some 500,000 podcast series last year. Today, there are around 800,000 of them.
The ad revenue supporting the burgeoning industry is similarly impressive. Between 2015 and 2019, revenues jumped from just over $100 million per year to over $600 million annually.
Our guide for this episode is Nicholas Quah, founder of Hot Pod, the leading newsletter on the podcast industry.
In this episode, Nicholas Quah:
- Takes stock of the key moves that occurred in the industry over the past year (2:19)
- Reflects on how the influx of money in podcasting will impact the industry (6:50)
- Ponders how business models will evolve in the podcasting space (15:04)
- Shares his thoughts on what the next round of big moves in podcasting will imply (20:07)
Download a transcript of the episode
Dig Deeper
- Obtain more information about the Performance Envelope Program, which covers podcasts connected to convergent productions
- Listen to Now & Next Season 1 Episode 2: Pacific Content on the Audio Renaissance
- Read The Rebirth of Audio: Podcasts, Smart Speakers and Online Consumption Habits on CMF Trends
- Read Podcasting and Crowdfunding: Model Diversification and Hybridization on CMF Trends
- Dive into CMF Trends’ coverage of podcasting
- Check out and subscribe to Nicholas Quah’s Hot Pod News
- Read Nicholas Quah’s pieces on NiemanLab and New York/Vulture
- Get a look at podcasting in Canada thanks to Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2019 report
- Read Here’s Why We’re Entering the Golden Age of Podcasts, in 10 Graphs on Chartable
- Read The Podcast Industry Expected to Create $1 Billion in Annual Revenue by 2021 on The Verge
- Read Open or Closed: Who Will Control the Paid Podcast Experience, Podcasters or Tech Companies? on NiemanLab
Credits
- (00:21) – Podcasts on TV: Big Successes and Major Flops by the CBC on YouTube
- (00:26) – Sarah Koenig Interviewed the Taliban for ‘Serial’ by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on YouTube
- (00:35) – Podcasts See Massive Boom in Listeners and Investment by CGTN America on YouTube
About Now & Next
Now & Next is a podcast featuring in-depth interviews in which experts take a closer look at emerging trends and the digital transformation of the media and entertainment industries. Now & Next is brought to you by the Canada Media Fund, produced by Katie Jensen and recorded in Toronto at Vocal Fry Studios. Leora Kornfeld hosts the series.
