Podcast turns 20 and faces professionalization challenges – 03/16/2024 – Tech

In 2004, American radio and TV presenter Adam Curry aired a program similar to a radio show, but broadcast via digital devices. In the same year, British journalist Ben Hammersley coined the term podcast — a combination of iPod, Apple’s now-defunct digital music player, and broadcast in English.

As it turns 20 years old in 2024, so-called podcasting seems to be experiencing, especially in Brazil, challenges similar to those of growing pains.

After the great euphoria in the country with the format, between the middle and end of the last decade, and new peaks of interest during the pandemic, is the national podcast market experiencing a reflux? Would it be at risk of decay? Or, on the contrary, is the phase following the boom one of consolidation and strengthening?

Two movements by big tech in relation to podcasts raised a warning sign regarding the strength of the format: the announcement of the end of Google podcasts, the player created in 2018 by the American giant, which will be extinguished in April, and the retreat and redefinition of strategy from Spotify.

After spending millions of dollars to produce its own content, buying companies and creating very expensive originals from stars such as couples Michelle/Barack Obama and Meghan Markle/Prince Harry and Kim Kardashian, Spotify — the world leader in audio streaming — hit the brakes on of consecutive losses and investor outcry.

It is estimated that the Swedish company has spent at least US$1 billion (R$5 billion) in recent years to become a global powerhouse in podcasts, an amount that included the acquisition of large companies in the sector, such as producers Gimlet and Parcast and the Anchor platform, and the hiring of exclusive programs with celebrities.

Faced with lower-than-expected returns, the company reduced investments, ended contracts with Harry and Meghan and the Obama couple and carried out mass layoffs.

However, he maintained his most expensive and controversial hire, former comedian and former MMA fight commentator Joe Rogan, whose podcast is probably the most listened to in the world — despite the presenter’s prejudiced profile (or who knows why same). The Joe Rogan Experience, born at the end of 2009, would serve as a model for videocasts around the world, such as the Brazilian ones PodPah and Flow.

Without responding directly about losses and reduced investments, Spotify’s head of podcasts in Brazil, Camila Justo, says that the company learned a lot from its partners about the future of the format.

It says it is aware that creators “want improved discovery to help them grow their audience” and “more options and flexibility in terms of monetization.”

As the next step in Spotify’s strategy for the sector, she cites the quest for “more creators in more places to achieve success” and the expansion of analytical resources, with the expansion of Spotify For Podcasters — a platform that provides data about programs. It also lists the return of Radar Podcasters, “to highlight emerging voices”, and the opening of a studio for creators, Seu Espaço.

In the case of the closure of Google Podcasts, both the company and market members dissociate the movement from a possible crisis in the sector, presenting it as a decision to concentrate the full potential of the format on YouTube.

One of the symptoms of the change in strategy is the announcement that it will soon be possible to follow podcasts via RSS on YouTube Music even if the creator does not publish it on YouTube itself.

In a note, YouTube defines the current moment as “the golden age of podcasts” and, without revealing values, states that in 2024 the company’s investment in the format “should be even greater”.

It says that, with the end of Google Podcasts, it will help its users migrate to YouTube Music.

“Listening to podcasts on YouTube is already a common behavior among Brazilians: according to a survey by Offerwise [encomendada pelo próprio YouTube]69% of respondents surveyed in the country have YouTube as their main podcast/videocast platform.”

Rodrigo Tigre, head of audio at the digital advertising multinational Adsmovil and author of the book “Podcast S/A: Uma Revolution em Alto e Bom Som”, considers the end of Google Podcasts as part of a strategy to unify all types of formats on YouTube RSS audio feed. “It’s a good move, which shows YouTube starting to look more at audio,” he says.

Tigre sees “a moment of organization and professionalization of the market” and points out as signs of strength in the sector the increase in the number of podcast listeners in Brazil detected by Kantar Ibope’s Inside Audio 2023 survey and the growth in advertising revenue from podcasts in the United States revealed in an IAB study.

“There is a lot to grow, we are halfway there. Amazon is fighting to enter a market in which YouTube and Spotify are more consolidated”, says Tigre.

At the end of 2020, Jeff Bezos’ company paid US$300 million to podcast producer Wondery, and is already active in the sector in Brazil.

It’s a vision similar to that of Carlos Merigo, founder and publisher of the production company B9, one of the country’s pioneers. “Like everything on the internet, [o podcasting] There are moments of foam, lots of people producing, euphoria, promises. We are experiencing a relocation, in which little by little only those who know how to do it will remain. Those who came in as a fad are seeing this now,” she says.

A reflection of this purification: a representative from another production company mentioned the case of a truck tarpaulin company that approached them wanting to do a podcast. Given the obvious lack of commercial viability, the company was convinced that it was more business to advertise within an already consolidated podcast.

Merigo notes that, although professionalization is a path of no return, the podcast is a format with the advantage of being a “cheap and democratic medium” for those who want to start.

The president of Abpod (Brazilian Association of Podcasters), Andreh Jonathas, comments that, as of 2018, a new generation of producers has better resolved issues related to dissemination and profitability.

“This new generation is much better at marketing than the previous one. The necessary caution is to ensure that this does not make the format ephemeral and that the startup culture does not trivialize the media, making it unsustainable and irrelevant.”

A significant part of new Brazilian listeners are actually video viewers. In Merigo’s words, consumers “of products made to go viral from cuts [edições de pequenos trechos] on the social networks”.

In this area, Podpah and Flow reign in Brazil, two of the most listened to/watched podcasts in the country — there is no independent measurement of audience in the sector, each platform has its own metric —, both born as videocasts.

Podpah CEO, Victor Assis, says that the format shows no signs of reflux. “The path is exactly the opposite. We were the most listened to podcast in Brazil for two years in a row. On YouTube, our audience and subscribers are increasingly robust.”

Assis celebrates the “internationalization” of Podpah, with foreign interviewees and the production of programs abroad, and states that the company plans to invest in new content in 2024, still in the creation phase.

He notes that Podpah, having been born on YouTube, has always been watched more than listened to, but that Spotify, with whom they have a contract and a program together, “is also extremely important for us to reach other audiences”. “The videocast does not cannibalize the audio-only podcast. On the contrary, I believe it expands its reach.”

When contacted, Flow did not respond to the interview request or respond to the questions sent by the report.

American John Sullivan, professor of Media and Communication at Muhlenberg College (USA), bets that, after the mountain of money invested by big techs with no return to match, the objective of these companies will now be to “intensely monetize (through targeted advertising) and promote remaining podcasts to maximize their audiences and, where possible, monetize intellectual property for other media (such as film and TV) in an attempt to achieve profitability.”

Sullivan has just launched the book “Podcasting in a Platform Age – From an Amateur to a Professional Medium” in the USA, in which he shows how the great interest in the format, both by traditional media and digital vehicles, has incorporated a corporate and professional logic into an originally amateur activity.