The Podcast Industry is Too Big for You

Last week the podcast industry reported that there are now two million active podcasts, up from one million a year ago and up from the ~190,000 that existed when I started podcasting 8 years ago.

Are you about to get drowned out?

Podcasting is too big for you

Two million is a lot of podcasts. Right?

Sure it is. And while it's brilliant for the industry (read: money in the industry) it's a statistic that is terrifying for the independent, day-to-day podcaster like you and I.

Think about it: content production companies in podcasting are springing up everywhere at a rate that I've never seen before.

Many of them are funded and can move quickly by hiring teams to create stunningly produced content and more importantly, invest money into marketing that podcast very, very heavily.

These companies are media companies, not just podcasting companies and they're focussed on creating amazing content for brands that want to get into the space or they're focussed on building original content with the intent of selling that IP to studios to be made into TV shows, movies, books, graphic novels, merch and so much more.

They're advanced, too.

They make money right away from sponsors thanks to dynamic content, monetising their entire episode inventory and bagging a range of stars to voice their stories.

They invest in high concept artwork, photography and don't just sound great, but look wonderful too.

In short: they're crushing it and they began crushing it pretty darn quickly!

Remember: Factfulness

One of my favourite books is Factfulness by Hans Rosling. It's a delightfully data-driven book that looks at how much the world has and continues to get better, overall, without dressing up the fact that bad things still happen.

The main takeaways from that book for me were that 1. the media only reports on stories and 2. the real stories are in the breadth of data, not the extremes that get the headlines and the clicks.

That happens in podcasting, too.

It's much more useful to the industry overall for the headlines to be about the latest acquisition, major show launch or startup faux pas than it is for the industry to hear "Mark's Star Wars Show Hits 100 Downloads Per Episode!".

But it's those data that make up the vast majority of podcasting!

The significant majority of the podcasting industry is made up of people like you and I who create content because we love doing it and who love engaging with the real people who ALSO love what we produce.

When we, the day-to-day podcast enthusiasts, see big headlines about the podcasting industry it's so easy to become disheartened but remember: we're the soul of podcasting and our podcast is something very special. Your show is something special.

Your podcast is a scalable personal experience that connects like-minded people from all over the world through a shared love.

Our job as podcasters isn't to worry about the size of the industry or to try to emulate the headline-grabbing projects.

Our job as podcasters is to continue on our own path and to keep producing content that connects people to the things that they adore.

By staying in lane, focussing on what we do well and what we can control, podcasting will continue to work for us, regardless of what else is happening in the audio world.

Podcasting anxiety is a reality!

I get so many emails from podcasters who do great work but who feel disheartened every single time they hear about a new "big" development in the industry.

They get disheartened because they worry about how they can compete; they're concerned about how they can