ByGandhinagar: The podcasting industry has experienced a roller coaster ride over the past few years. As we enter 2025, a sense of cautious optimism pervades. CEO of Podglomerate ,Jeff Umbro, who hosts Podcast Perspectives, in a special episode, invited 18 industry insiders to reflect on the past year and share their current feelings about the industry, discuss their thoughts in 2024 in hindsight, highlight exciting innovations, and express their optimism for 2025.
Here are some detailed podcasting predictions made by industry experts for 2025.
Podcasting will continue its upward trajectory, steadily replacing traditional radio.
Podcasting is steadily gaining ground and is predicted to continue to displace radio, just like digital TV took over from cable. The ad market for AM/FM radio is worth 14 billion dollars, and podcasting is not getting its fair share yet. However, this is expected to change as podcasting becomes increasingly popular.
The US presidential election was heavily influenced by podcasting. The most talked-about appearances by the candidates were on podcasts, and one interview on Call Her Daddy generated at least as much buzz as an interview on 60 Minutes.
Growing a podcast audience takes time
Building real audiences takes time, so podcasting is a marathon, not a sprint. Alex Cooper’s marketing team for Call Her Daddy is brilliant and can be used as a real case study for success.
The increasing popularity of short-form videos of podcasts presents both benefits and drawbacks
While the creation and sharing of clips and short-form video from podcasts is great and can be used as an amazing distribution model, there is some risk that the nuance and context of the long-form medium will be lost.
Also, it is important to remember that most of the industry began with an audio-first approach, and podcasters should avoid spreading themselves too thin across too many platforms.
Immersive audio experiences are a key area for future innovation
There is still much to be explored in podcasting, and we are still in the early stages of its development. A key area for future innovation is immersive audio experiences. Although there are now video podcasts, audio feeds, social clips, and transcripts, the industry has an opportunity to take things further by making the podcast experience more immersive and engaging.
Podcasters should explore additional ways to make money from their work, as traditional advertising models become more challenging
As large podcasting deals and minimum guarantees become more difficult to secure, it is a good idea for podcasters to explore new income streams such as premium memberships and listener support.
Podcasters need to cultivate their audience and make them feel like they’re part of the creative process. A good example is PJ Vogt, who, coming out of Reply All, created Search Engine.
He offered premium content to subscribers, whom he called ‘board members’, early in the podcast’s tenure. He holds Zoom meetings with his members to discuss the podcast, answer questions, and get feedback. This helps him develop future episodes and makes his audience feel more invested.
Podcasters need to decide what role their podcast will play in their life or business, whether it be a hobby, a means of experimenting and sharpening a craft, a business, or a marketing or lead generation tool for a product, service, or paid community. Once podcasters define their purpose, they can develop ways to test and refine their vision.
The podcasting industry is showing signs of recovery after a difficult period
The podcasting industry has had a tough couple of years, but advertising dollars are starting to come back to the space, and there is optimism for 2025.
Podcasters should follow their creative impulses and discover ways to make their podcast pay
Podcasting is here to stay, and it is now very much a part of every American’s routine. Podcasters should ignore the challenging economics of podcasting and follow their creative impulses, getting their thing out there and figuring out the financial side of things later.
Podcasters need to provide better measurement data to advertisers
Advertisers need clearer data on audience engagement and the results of advertising campaigns. At the moment, there is a disconnect between the intuitive understanding that podcasting is an effective advertising medium, and the data to back it up. This data needs to be standardized and presented in a way that allows advertisers to compare podcast advertising with other media.
RSS distribution remains crucial for the future of podcasting
RSS is the foundation of the podcasting industry and must be preserved to ensure its future. It is important to think beyond the podcast; podcast audiences can be encouraged to follow hosts on other platforms.
For example, 80% of listeners follow personalities across platforms, almost three-quarters of podcast listeners will consider a brand promoted by their favorite hosts on social media, and 75% of podcast listeners follow a podcast host on YouTube.
The competitive nature of the podcasting industry has a positive effect, encouraging creativity and high standards
There is a lot of competition in podcasting, which is actually a good thing as it encourages podcasters to improve their content and come up with creative ideas.
AI tools are valuable for increasing efficiency, but human creativity and insight remain important
AI has revolutionized production and workflow in the podcasting industry. It can be used effectively to automate tasks such as creating clips, generating show notes, and producing transcripts, but it can’t match human insight, connection, and creativity.
Podcasters can use AI to boost discoverability on YouTube, SEO, social media, and podcast apps. However, it is important for podcasters to remain focused on their goals and avoid getting caught up in the hype.
Concerns remain about the potential for misuse. For instance, AI can be used to impersonate people. Also, as the technology is often developed by white men, there is a danger that AI tools will not serve women or BIPOC individuals.
Merger & Acquisition (M&A) activity in the podcasting industry could stifle innovation, but new startups are appearing to take advantage of the gaps in the market
The podcasting industry is currently in a cycle where there has been a huge explosion in popularity, followed by a necessary recalibration and the emergence of lots of mergers and acquisitions.
As the dust settles, there is a risk that this M&A activity could slow innovation, especially with the rise of video and the increasing importance of AI in all creative fields.
However, new companies are emerging to navigate the future, for example exploring what video means for podcasting and figuring out how to use AI in the best way.
Podcasters should have faith in their own ideas and create content they are passionate about, regardless of whether they have external support
Nobody is going to be as invested in a podcaster as the podcaster is, so it’s important to create a show that the podcaster loves and believes in, even if nobody else is on board. The industry needs people who create just for the love of it, and those who treat it as a business.
Brands will adopt a more integrated approach to using podcasts, making them part of their overall marketing strategy
In the third decade of podcasting, brands will use podcasts as a key part of their marketing strategy. For example, franchise IP holders will integrate them in a much more integrated way.
There will also be more multi-format campaigns that incorporate podcasts alongside other marketing activities, and organizations will program podcasts in a coordinated way with newsletters, social media, and YouTube.
This sometimes means that a podcast will come first, with everything else being a cut-down or offshoot from the podcast.
Insights from Industry Experts
Look at the US presidential election. The most talked about candidate appearances were on podcasts. Call Her Daddy’s interview with Kamala Harris got just as much buzz, if not more as her 60 minutes interview.
Chris Peterson, Founder & CEO of DWNLOAD Media
It’s (podcast listening) very much a part of every American’s routine now. We’re seeing some of the biggest leaders of our time coming on podcasts to talk about their dreams, their policies, their challenges. We’re seeing some of the most talented people across different genres, wanting to get into audio in a variety of ways, for the first time in some cases. I was thrilled to see a Vice President candidate come on Call Her Daddy. Politics aside, I just love the fact that we’re trying to reach people where they are on their walks, in their cars, in their homes, and not just relying on traditional media.
Jessica Cordova Kramer, CEO & Co-Founder of Lemonada
AI is making it easier for podcast publishers to produce and promote their shows. You can have episode titles and descriptions generated for you with just one click. And on Ausha, they are even optimized for search engines. So really a big time saver there. My advice to creators heading into 2025 Lean into AI to help with discoverability across the top channels like YouTube, SEO, social media, podcast apps.
Odile Beniflah, Head of US at Ausha
My favorite podcast episode of 2024 is actually the latest Call Her Daddy episode interviewing Kamala Harris. I care less about the politics of it all, but I just think Alex Cooper’s marketing team is brilliant and it’s a real case study.
Fatima Zaidi, Founder & CEO of Quill Inc and CoHost
I think this (year 2024) was one of the more, if not the most significant years for the cultural importance of podcasts, mainly with it being an election year. I think presidential candidates are going on these podcasting circuits and this time it feels more like a critical strategy versus an afterthought from previous cycles.
Bradley Davis, CEO & Founder of Podchaser
How do we really innovate with our medium? And I’m excited to continue to answer those questions and really get audio everywhere. We have yet to hit a peak or a ceiling on any of our potential.
Amber Smith, Director of Audience Development for iHeart Media’s Custom Podcasts
I think a lot of companies and networks have learned how to make sustainable shows, ones that will thrive long term, and then ultimately will keep this medium and this technology that we love going for, as long as we can possibly make it a thing. Your job as a creator, I think, is bigger than ad sales, right? It’s about finding your audience and building around them.
Eric Barnett, Director of Sales and Marketing at Supporting Cast
My advice is to get really clear about what role you want your podcast to play in your life or business, and then develop experiments to test and help refine your vision.
Brady Sadler, Co-Founder & CEO of Double Elvis
It’s kind of been a hold on to your hat and hope that you can make it through kind of year.
Michele Cobb, Executive Director of the Podcast Academy
I’m very mindful of the fact that a significant portion of the buying community, while extremely bullish on podcasting intuitively, intellectually, emotionally… there’s still a question sometimes in their minds about how they can effectively use the powerful measurement tools that do exist in podcasting to truly understand the outcomes that they’re getting in their marketing. In ways that they’re used to doing with some of the data signals that come from other media channels besides podcasting.
Matt Shapo, Director, Digital Audio and Video at the IAB
I do firmly believe that RSS is the foundation, the backbone of our industry and needs to be preserved to ensure the future of this podcast space.
Ross Adams, CEO of Acast
It’s a very competitive space, but I look at that as a good thing, because it makes all of us step up our game and realize you can’t just depend on being able to throw a show out in the world and be able to give it a lot of promotion and know that people are going to listen to it. People have choices and it’s great that people have choices as to what to listen to.
Will Pearson, President of iHeartPodcasts
The more AI generated hokum that’s out there, The more my work, my human insight, is going to stand above the noise.
Dusty Weis, President at Podcamp Media
The best podcast innovation for our network for 2024 was simply adding AI to our workflow so that we can produce clips, show notes, transcripts, et cetera, so much faster than just doing it. It used to take us four to five hours to publish a show just to come up with all of this information, and now it takes us 20 minutes. But let me be clear, it’s AI with human intervention. AI is really nothing without a human reading it, so you still have to read through it, but this literally has saved us so many hours on editing and cut downs. So I just really want to see that continue to increase in 2025.
Lisa Laporte, CEO at TWiT.tv
Different types of AI, like brand safety and suitability, these things that are created by people who may just be white men, and I’m just going to single that out as a particular demographic, if it’s made by white men, it might not serve women, it might not serve BIPOC individuals, and not because there’s any malice within the coding, It’s just when it’s made by particular people, it comes with a certain set of thought processes, in terms of how the technology is used, how it’s analyzing people. And if it’s not being created by a diverse set of individuals or tested on a diverse set of individuals, then unfortunately those AI tools can be detrimental to other communities. Like I said, women, LGBTQ people with disabilities, BIPOC individuals. So that’s where I’m a little bit worried about the AI, but ultimately I do love that AI is going to help a lot of us.
Chris Colbert, Founder & CEO of DCP Entertainment
I think with the rise of video, and of course the increasing importance of AI in, in all creative fields, I think it’s really important that we keep up with that. But the good news is that with M&A, the sort of necessary reaction to that is new companies starting up and creating really new and exciting things. So I think we’re going to see some really interesting deals being done this year. Some really cool new startups being started this year to sort of help us navigate the future of what does video mean for podcasting?
Harry Morton, Founder and CEO of Lower Street
Red Circle’s OpenRAP… has been really exciting. I think that has really delivered on promises that many in the space have pushed for in the past, but this proved it out, and I’ve been very impressed with what they’ve accomplished, and the brands that they’ve been able to pull into the space with this type of technology.
Bryan Barletta, Partner at Sounds Profitable
My podcast industry predictions for 2025 kind of connect back to the way that I’ve been thinking about this third decade that we’re in of podcasting. If the first decade was creator driven, the second decade was platform driven with Spotify and Amazon putting millions and millions of dollars into podcasting into the industry. This third decade, we’ve all been joking at Realm, this third decade is the get real decade, reminiscent of the late aughts when large companies were starting to really grapple with how to use social media.
Molly Barton, CEO & Co-founder of Realm
