In case you hadn't heard, podcasting is booming.
According to The Infinite Dial 2019, an annual survey conducted by Edison Research and Triton Digital, more than half of all adult Americans have listened to one.
And as the report chart below shows (click to enlarge), 32% of all Americans aged 12 and older listened to a podcast in the last month. This equals about 90 million people.
There are a number of drivers of podcasting's growth. These include:
- There's now a diverse array of interesting podcast content.
- Large audio/music firms like Spotify, Pandora and Apple have embraced podcasting.
- So have big media companies like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
- Smart speakers have made it easier to find and listen to podcasts.
- The use of internet audio in cars has become easier and more widespread.
- Successful business models are emerging.
Most revenue estimates for the podcast industry continue to be small - ranging from $500 - $700 million in 2018. But as the TechCrunch article Y Combinator Bets on the Booming Podcast Industry points out, revenues are expected to rapidly increase.
Podcasting is interesting to us here at Small Business Labs because it's yet another example of small businesses and even individuals successfully competing with large corporations.
In fact, many successful podcasts come from solopreneurs and micro-businesses. This is due in part to podcasting's low production and distribution costs.
The other part is creating compelling content, which a lot of solopreneurs and micro-businesses are capable of. This is especially true for podcasts designed to build community or used for content and/or influencer marketing.
Medium's 10 Big Takeaways from 2019's Infinite Dial Research covers the study in more detail.
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