Alix Spiegel and Lulu Miller, co-hosts hosts of NPR's Invisibilia
In 2001, Steve Jobs announced the original iPod, a music player that would make it possible for people to carry their entire album collections in their pockets. Over the next few years, a genre of narrative audio that took the device's name — "podcasting" — became a thriving mini-industry.
And then, sometime around 2009 or 2010, the podcast scene seemed to wither. The stalwarts ("This American Life," "Radiolab") stayed around at the top of the iTunes charts, but there wasn't much else happening. Download numbers fell. Interest waned. People moved on to online video and streaming music services as a way to pass the time.
Today, a very different problem exists: There are too many great podcasts to keep up with. There's "Serial," the true-crime drama hosted by "This American Life" producer Sarah Koenig. There's "99% Invisible," a design-themed podcast hosted by Roman Mars that has run several mega-successful Kickstarter campaigns. There's "StartUp," another product of the public-radio diaspora, which tells the episodic story of NPR veteran Alex Blumberg's attempt to create a podcasting business. Then there are the celebrities: Ice T, Snooki from Jersey Shore, Stone Cold Steve Austin — podcasters all.
According to Edison Research, 39 million people listened to a podcast in September 2014, the highest number on record. And according to iTunes, that number is growing by the millions.
What's happening? And why now?
There are a few reasons for the resurgence:
1. Better content. Most podcasts used to be pretty amateurish — two people talking about sports for an hour, say, or a businessman ad libbing MBA lessons. And some still are. But today's top podcasts are full-scale productions with real staff, budget, and industry expertise behind them. Even the conversational, panel-format podcasts sound like produced radio.
2. Compelling economics. Producing an average podcast costs far less than producing a TV show or a radio show. And the advertising rates on a successful podcast are big enough to pay for the costs many times over. Podcasts can charge higher ad rates because of the personal nature of the single-host format — as an advertiser, it's far better to have "Serial"'s Sarah Koenig reading your copy out loud than to burst in with a prepackaged ad that nobody will pay attention to.
3. Car Technology. Most new cars sold in the U.S. these days come with the ability to play smartphone audio over the car's speakers, either through Bluetooth connectivity or through a USB or auxiliary plug. And connected cars (which will have direct access to the internet) are rolling out rapidly. Even the non-connected cars of today provide radio listeners with a bevy of on-demand options at their disposal, directly from a driver's smartphone.
4. Podcasts are now easy to find and download. In 2012, Apple, whose iTunes provided the launching pad for most early podcasts, gave podcasts their own, non-deletable app on the latest version of its mobile operating system. And several slick third-party apps — Stitcher, Overcast, and Castro among them — have popped up with more robust functionality.
All of these factors have combined, making it possible have made it possible for people like Roman Mars and Alex Blumberg (whose podcasting start-up has raised more than $1 million to date) to make a living doing podcasts. And this combination of fundability and diversity of content is why so many public radio stations are investing in podcast start-up units.
- Adapted from The Intelligencer from New York Magazine