Podcasts exploded in 2020, it is likely the third step change for podcasts.
1st Chapter:
The first was listening on the go on your desktop or your iPod.
2nd Chapter:
The second was around 2018 when there was an explosion in better bluetooth headphones (many suggest it was the AirPods that gave podcasts another explosion)
3rd Chapter:
The third, better tech, cheaper tech, actively choosing your own time while C19 happened.
Podcasts, in essence, are straightforward and simple tech, typically powered by public RSS and able to be syndicated across the world in a matter of minutes. Despite a more recent movement towards gated podcasts and private RSS feeds, we are seeing popularity spike.
Eyes Vs Ears
One point a few people have made is we are inundated with visual content (content for the eyes) but we can decide what goes into our ears (Aural content). Video requires two senses, audio tends to need only one.
Why Popular Now?
The joy of podcasts is often the conversation, the simplicity of Q&A and hearing people discuss topics as experts.
The audio space is expanding rapidly, voice notes, voice assistance, voice search, podcasts, vodcasts, music, radio, audiobooks (aka audible).
Podcast’s still divides people, you are either a podcast listener or you don’t like podcasts.
You will often know a podcaster as they will tell you or like me be able to recommend a podcast for any given topic. I can recommend numerous within seconds.
What Is Winning?
Daily’s and regular shows people can listen as episodes or look forward to, daily’s are based around the news or a very specific niche.
Daily’s are harder to create and require quick turnarounds vs longer editing times on longer shows. Charts like this will be a good guide
Vodcasts aka Video podcasts
Vodcasts grew massively across 2020, why? The technology shift, the ability to record and publish has never been so easy.
Why do we love vodcast?
It is how we are wired as humans, in 2020, we have had less interaction, but as humans we have a few safety measured baked into us to enable our survival. We look for cues, we look for how people interact and react and we feel a connection. These are all areas why vodcasts are having their moment.
Zoom for sure made it easier, but platforms like Instagram Live, YouTube, LinkedIn and Vimeo all made it almost frictionless to hit post and publish conversations between a few minutes and in other cases over two hours.
Business Casual Podcast – Gary Vee & Kinsey Grant
This is a great example of how what was a podcast has been turned into a vodcast by using tools like Zoom and Squadcasts.
Most known example: The Joe Rogan Experience is the most famous example of a vodcast, 2-3 hours of two people talking, moving over to Spotify is a clear sign of how popular a presenter and guest vodcast can be. Joe was smart in releasing it into snippet format, YouTube clips and also releasing the full audio version (podcast) for free.
FWIW: Spotify brought the exclusive licence to Joe Rogan’s podcast for north of $100m. It is Spotify’s most popular podcast but not everyone is happy about it, especially his fans. Exclusive is good for the podcasters/host not so good for the fans built on platforms.
Vodcast Over Podcast
Here is a brilliant example of when to put a vodcast out over a podcast. Rio Ferdinand appears on comedian and presenter Mo Gilligan’s podcast, you see the vibe, the energy and the connection when you watch this vs just listening.
Rio Ferdinand & Mo Gilligan Podcast
If you are looking to make the shift or start a few things to consider:
- In-person interviews with multiple camera’s works well
- Zoom can be messy if more than one talks at a time
- Guests can find it hard to answer questions with a camera, I struggle to focus in on the little green dot vs consider my answer
- Many creators or hosts struggle to edit so really consider if the quality is up there and right for a vodcast, video podcasts will be filtered in coming months, like almost everything, quality will beat quantity
Consider watching or listening to my recent appearance on Re:Signal’s zoom podcasts How to move from a specialist marketing disciple to CMO.
Re:Signal Podcast With Me & Kevin Gibbons