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Get Primed For A Level Set: Three Lessons On Audio Marketing

Forbes Technology Council

Conal Byrne, CEO iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group.

Like any evolving medium, audio consumption is primed for a level set. Without a doubt, audio is having a resurgence and is one of the hottest mediums, accounting for 31% of all media consumption. But if you were to ask the average consumer or marketer, my gut tells me they wouldn’t know that audio makes up a third of the content people are consuming.

Now, where's that audio consumption happening? Although the podcast audience is spiking, 75% of ad-supported audio consumption comes through broadcast radio. And this is without factoring in the share of listening that's ad-enabled—as in, listening that actually has ads, providing a marketing vehicle for brands.

That means that if you want to tap into mass reach, broadcast radio is a great place to start. Luckily, radio is an innately influencer-led medium that naturally brings in high engagement. Yet, that’s exactly what people want from their podcasts, which is why we can’t dismiss the power of podcasting and the burgeoning reset it’s forcing in audio consumption.

Although broadcast radio outpaces the other audio mediums, podcasting continues to gain steam fast with listeners up more than 50% since 2006. Based on my extensive experience in the audio industry, here's a look at three key factors I see shaping the future of audio consumption in the podcast space.

1. RSS feeds flow economic power back to publishers and creators.

When podcast distribution was first brainstormed a few decades ago, podcasters borrowed RSS feeds—then mainly used for blogs—to launch their content fast and wide. RSS stands for really simple syndication, meaning the original content is distributed in simple ways to reach a mass audience—all according to what the creator decides. This made all the difference.

Using RSS feeds gives creators or publishers all the control, managing these feeds from the center wherever you listen to the content. That's unique to this medium. For example, if I were to launch a YouTube channel, I don’t really own that content—YouTube does. Same for an Instagram profile—Meta owns it. But in podcasting, the content is mine because the RSS feed—the distribution—is mine and at my discretion.

The creators—or publishers like us—choose where the podcast is heard and what apps it’s available on. This is key because, even if I decide to plug the show into services like Spotify or Apple to let them carry it, the data, ads and content all flow back to me. Creators lose nothing in distribution. So, if you want to buy an ad on a podcast—one that's featured on a distribution platform like, say, Apple—you must call the creator, or publisher. Creators and publishers hold the economic power.

2. Subscriptions won't fix a problem that doesn’t exist.

As podcasting grows more popular, the big evolution has been a rush to subscriptions in recent years. But here’s the first truth: The average American already has too many subscriptions, with the typical household subscribing to nine services. This leads to the second truth: Most Americans (84%) don't want to pay for a podcast subscription. That’s because podcasts are already widely distributed and free with a light ad load, often in the voice of the creator. There's simply no reason to upcharge consumers so they can remove that ad load.

In other mediums, when people started to pay for things that were previously free, it was because something glaring was getting fixed. That’s the basic rule of consumption. But as media companies are wanting to buck that trend in podcasting by unnecessarily turning to subscriptions, they’re trying to charge for something that's currently free. They want to fix a problem that doesn't exist, and you just can’t do that. It’s inconvenient to users who don’t see the value. The future of podcasting is in its accessibility to audiences, leading to growth in all markets.

3. The podcast audience is more diverse than you think.

At first, the typical podcast audience skewed younger, white and slightly more male. But there continues to be a shift in a more diverse audience, especially with Latinx and female listeners. In fact, the Latinx audience saw a six-time growth rate in the past decade, and female listeners over the past four years have increased by 76%. That’s not an insignificant shift, and as CEO of the largest podcast publisher globally, we’ve been paying attention.

It's important to recognize, though, that although the Latinx audience grew, some listeners left the space because they didn’t see themselves represented by the creators. The content wasn't appealing enough to seek more. That problem is easily fixable, and we can tap into higher audience retention by addressing it. Back when the podcast audience was more singular, at iHeart, we decided that we could help course-correct this medium before the challenges of underrepresentation took hold. That meant investing in platforms to showcase diverse voices, like the Black Effect Podcast Network with Charlamagne Tha God and My Cultura with Enrique Santos.

The driving force behind this course correction is mainly that it’s the right thing to do, of course, but it also makes the most business sense. If you want to reach a diverse audience, you need to have a diverse group of creators and content.

In summary, we have in this new medium a growing audience staying highly engaged—providing an opportunity for creators to tell their stories to fan bases at scale. But for this to become a sustainable business, it's important we recognize the fundamentals. Podcast economics flow back to publishers. Podcasts continue to trend toward widely distributed, ad-supported business models. And podcasts and the podcast industry can reach new heights when they support all voices from all diverse backgrounds.


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