Is Podcasting the Future or the Past?

In this episode of Making Media, Matt and I speak with Bryan Barletta – the founder of Sounds Profitable. Sounds Profitable is a research group focused on the business of podcasting. They produce content, events, and research on all aspects of the podcasting industry. In our conversation, we explore podcasting’s growth problem; why there aren’t enough ad dollars in the industry, whether that will ever change, and how the industry will agree on seemingly simple things like what constitutes a download. We also talk from a podcaster's perspective about the best ways to monetize your show, how to implement subscriptions, and of course – I ask about marketing. Please enjoy this conversation with Bryan and stay tuned for our debrief. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.  ----- This episode is brought to you by Scribe. Scribe is the presenting sponsor of this episode of Making Media and the magic behind the Colossus transcripts. One of the best decisions we made at Colossus was transcribing all of our audio into a searchable transcript library. We had been using another provider up until the summer of 2022 but we were constantly having issues with accuracy if our audio was just the slightest bit impaired. Whether it's training sessions, internal Q&As, or for media purposes, the value of transcripts is huge. And we are not alone. Scribe is the transcription service that powers all of S&P Global - like CapIQ - and the client list includes our friends at Tegus. Go to joincolossus.com/scribe to unlock 150 minutes of free transcription and test their capabilities. ----- Making Media is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Making Media, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @ReustleMatt | @domcooke | @MakingMediaPod | @JoinColossus  Show Notes (00:03:21) - (First question) - His view of the podcast industry and the problem that Sounds Profitable is trying to solve (00:07:01) - Dealing with the mismatch between ad spend and listenership in podcasting (00:12:09) - How different platforms compare as avenues for growth (00:14:36) - Standardization, analytics, and the power of appealing to small niches (00:18:57) - How moving towards cross-platform analytics protocols could bolster the industry (00:20:04) - The complexities of download statistics and how publishers are gaming the system (00:25:23) - How market share between major podcast platforms can affect creators (00:27:48) - His thoughts on the current push towards video-based podcasting (00:32:50) - Addressing the pessimism around discoverability and barriers for marketing (00:39:31) - Reaching new listeners that don’t consume podcasts habitually (00:42:01) - His thoughts on subscriptions and paywalls for podcasts (00:46:18) - Their tech stack and systems they use for their podcasting endeavors (00:47:18) - The most unmissable events in the podcast industry that creators should attend (00:50:17) - De-brief