Hey there. Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I am so excited that you’re here. In today’s episode, we are addressing the topic of “Is podcasting dying?”
Now, I know that is a pretty bold title for a podcast that is specifically for podcast service providers but I have been seeing a lot of articles the past couple of months alluding to this so I wanted to address it.
ListenNotes recently published a stat that shocked me a little bit that said the number of new shows created dropped by nearly 80% between 2020 and 2022.
After hearing that statistic, I’m sure you might be a little concerned about the future of podcasting which is totally understandable.
But not to worry, I feel like everything has a big boom and then slows down a little bit but that doesn’t mean the medium will completely disappear. I remember the blogging boom in the mid-2000s and then less blogs were being created but the platform is still alive and well.
To put that into numbers for you, In 2020, 1,109,000 new podcasts were launched. In 2021, that number dropped to 729,000. And in 2022, it cratered to just 219,000.
There were so many podcasts that started in 2020 due to the pandemic. People were spending a lot more time at home and were able to commit to starting the podcast they had been thinking about for months or even years. In 2021, things were starting to get back to normal so if people didn’t launch their show in 2020, a lot of people didn’t end up doing it at all. Then last year, the numbers seem to have evened out a bit to 219,000 new podcasts created which is still not a small number whatsoever.
I have noticed a lot of these articles are talking about the spending for ad sponsorships is decreasing due to uncertain market conditions, which doesn’t really impact most podcasters.
I have found that most podcasters that podcast managers work with have a podcast as an extension of their business to help them continue to build brand awareness and sell their own products and services, and they usually don’t focus too much on ad revenue.
So even though the number of new podcasts being started has dipped a bit, that doesn’t mean that there is not enough work to go around for all of us. Of those 219,000 podcasts even if half of them hired help with their podcast, that would be 109,500 shows that need support so think about it from that angle instead.
109,500 shows. That is certainly not a small number and think about it – you likely only need 5-7 clients to be booked out so don’t stress yourself out. I promise it will all work out.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’ve read any of these articles over the past few months, did they make you nervous? Let’s chat over in the DMs on Instagram. My handle is jenny.suneson.
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