The podcast boom is over

The thing about podcasting is, unlike video, it is extremely cheap to host and distribute podcasts. The technology is old and well understood and can run from a basic website. The syndication format is RSS. Spotify and everyone else has trouble adding value to that. Also, podcasting is mostly about the guests and they can bounce around to different shows that are in the networks and outside them.

This article doesn't nearly live up to the ambitious headline. It didn't really have much to say. If anything, it doesn't even touch on the real problem facing most podcasts: the severe decline in podcast advertising revenue. Which doesn't have anything to do with Spotify.

Well now that Spotify has paused buying their competitors and making podcasts exclusive, maybe the rest of us will get better podcasts to listen to again.

The title sounds like a typical podcast line.

The podcast boom is only over if you consider the boom to be the money in podcasting. Of course investors aren’t too keen on podcasts seeing how many attempts have failed. Of course advertisers don’t want to pay to put their ads in podcasts when those ads are just skipped, and they can’t even reliably track downloads, listens, or anything of the sort.

But you know what’s not over? Podcasts themselves. There is still a huge audience of people that listen to podcasts. There is also still a tremendous amount of people who produce podcasts. Some of them keep it simple with just a Patreon or similar model. Many do it with no ads and no revenue whatsoever.

The fact that nobody has found a way to achieve wild business success with podcasts is actually what makes podcasts kind of great. They’re built with free, cheap and open technology. Proprietary platforms haven’t been able to compete with that. If you’re looking for the part of the Internet that isn’t tainted and enshittified, grab an RSS reader and try a podcast.

Any so-called "hits-based" industry, like entertainment, is at the make or break mercy of consumer whims. Technology is not going to change that anytime soon.

TechCrunch doesn't mention the interest rate hikes, but I'd say that's the primary underlying reason for the layoffs.

Everything i don't know about the podcast industry is the truth?

I know Spotify has been hemorrhaging cash and paying Joe Artist like absolute crap for more than a decade. Not sure what TC is trying to tell me?

i don't think that I'm alone is wishing very much that there was a setting to make spotify into a streaming music app. I hate having podcasts and now books shoved into my POV when I want to listen to music. It sucks.