Podcast Perspectives is the Signal Award-winning show about the latest news in the podcast industry, and the people behind it. So far, we’ve had 46 industry leaders on the show to discuss the trends they’re seeing in podcasting. In this special episode, we tapped 19 of them to reflect on this past year and share how they’re feeling about the industry right now — how they feel about 2024 in hindsight, what innovations they’re excited about, and what makes them optimistic about 2025. We’re also sharing plenty of advice for creators and new podcasters.
2024 transformed podcasting in remarkable ways
It was a tough year by anyone’s measure that included a challenging publishing landscape in the aftermath of iOS17, an industry reckoning of how to measure its audience, industry darlings sunsetting, and massive layoffs from seemingly every company in podcasting. Even a bankruptcy for good measure. And yet…
We’re still seeing a vibrant community that’s seeing more growth than most other mediums. There are still blockbuster deals seemingly every other month, we’re still seeing podcast adaptations to other mediums, and we’re still exploring all new kinds of business models – for better or worse (plus whatever your views on AI in podcasting are). And we haven’t even mentioned that – true or not – there are a LOT of people who think our industry was a huge story in the 2024 US elections.
Our guests had some thoughts of their own. The below is excerpted from our Podcast Predictions episode of Podcast Perspectives – make sure to tune in to hear everything our guests have on their minds. If you enjoy this article, please subscribe to the show and our newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn.
1. Chris Peterson, Founder & CEO of DWNLOAD Media
Podcast Perspectives episode: The Bull Case for Podcasting with DWNLOAD Media’s Chris Peterson, February 21, 2024
Chris’s podcast reflection is all about the future of political podcasting: “Look at the U.S. 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.”
2. Fatima Zaidi, Founder & CEO of Quill Inc and CoHost
Podcast Perspectives episode: Quill and CoHost’s Fatima Zaidi on the Future of Distributing Branded Podcasts, November 15, 2023
Fatima was impressed by the use of podcasting in the recent presidential election: “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.”
3. Bradley Davis, CEO & Founder of Podchaser
Podcast Perspectives episode: Building the IMDB of Podcasts with Podchaser’s Bradley Davis, September 6, 2023
Bradley predicts that podcasts will become part of many political strategies: “I think this 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.”
4. Amber Smith, Director of Audience Development for iHeart Media’s Custom Podcasts
Podcast Perspectives episode: iHeartMedia’s Amber Smith on What is Ruby?, October 18, 2023
Amber predicts that innovations in podcasting will be a hot topic in the coming months: “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.”
5. Eric Barnett, Director of Sales and Marketing at Supporting Cast
6. Brady Sadler, Co-Founder & CEO of Double Elvis
7. Michele Cobb, Executive Director of the Podcast Academy
Podcast Perspectives episode: The State of the Audiobook Industry, January 3, 2024
8. Jessica Cordova Kramer, CEO & Co-Founder of Lemonada Media
9. Sharon Taylor, SVP of Triton Digital
Podcast Perspectives episode: What Do Podcast Hosting Companies Actually Do? With Sharon Taylor, August 9, 2023
Sharon is looking forward to some of the new business models cropping up, but has a few concerns: “For next year, I’m exciting to see subscription models and contextual targeting take off a bit more. And I’m still a little concerned by walled gardens and how that may affect revenue for podcasters. For any podcast creators listening to this, I think that it’s harder and harder now to launch new shows and find an audience, and so my advice is to strengthen any of the marketing muscles you’ve got in the year ahead.”
10. Matt Shapo, Director, Digital Audio and Video at the IAB
Podcast Perspectives episode: Should Podcasters Care About the IAB?, May 1, 2024
Matt is interested in the way we measure data in podcasting, especially for advertisers: “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.”
11. Ross Adams, CEO of Acast
Podcast Perspectives episode: The State of Acast with CEO Ross Adams, May 15, 2024
Ross predicts that RSS will remain important in podcasting:
“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.”
12. Will Pearson, President of iHeartPodcasts
Podcast Perspectives episode: How has iHeart Reigned Supreme? with Will Pearson, November 13, 2024
Will predicts that podcasting will remain competitive: “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.”
13. Dusty Weis, President at Podcamp Media
Podcast Perspectives episode: Running a Small but Mighty Podcast Operation with Podcamp Media’s Dusty Weis, February 7, 2024
Dusty is interested in the future of AI in podcasting: “The more AI generated hokum that’s out there, The more my work, my human insight, is going to stand above the noise.”
This article is excerpted from our Podcast Predictions episode of Podcast Perspectives – make sure to tune in to hear everything our guests have on their minds. If you enjoy this article, please subscribe to the show and our newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn.
14. Lisa Laporte, CEO at TWiT.tv
Podcast Perspectives episode: Navigating the Evolution of Ads with TWiT.tv’s Lisa Laporte, September 4, 2024
Lisa predicts that AI will revolutionize the way we produce podcasts: “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.”
15. Odile Beniflah, Head of US at Ausha
Podcast Perspectives episode: Bringing SEO to Podcasting with Ausha’s Odile Beniflah, May 29, 2024
Odile is interested in how SEO will make marketing podcasts easier: “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.”
16. Chris Colbert, Founder & CEO of DCP Entertainment
Podcast Perspectives interview: DCP Entertainment’s Chris Colbert on How Podcasting Can Move Past Lip Service, October 4, 2023
Chris predicts that AI may not be a solution, especially for minorities: “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.”
17. Harry Morton, Founder and CEO of Lower Street
Podcast Perspectives episode: A New Kind of B2B Podcasting with Harry Morton, August 23, 2023
Harry predicts that video may change the future of podcasting: “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?”
18. Bryan Barletta, Partner at Sounds Profitable
Podcast Perspectives episode: Sounds Profitable’s Bryan Barletta on Building an Audio Industry, November 8, 2023
Bryan is interested in the way technology will continue to change podcasting: “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.”
19. Molly Barton, CEO & Co-founder of Realm
Podcast Perspectives episode: The Audio Intrapreneur with Molly Barton of Realm, October 30, 2024
Molly wants to see where the next decade of podcasting will go: “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.”
What are your podcast predictions for 2025? Share your opinions on LinkedIn and tag The Podglomerate and use the hashtag #PodcastPredictions2025. We’ll like and share your thoughts!
This article is excerpted from our Podcast Predictions episode of Podcast Perspectives – make sure to tune in to hear everything our guests have on their minds. If you enjoy this article, please subscribe to the show and our newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn.
Have questions? Interested in working with The Podglomerate to help produce, grow, or monetize your show? Email us at [email protected] to learn more about our services.
