The Steady Rise of Podcasts

If any further proof was needed that podcasts are a big deal, last year’s announcement of an exclusive deal between Joe Rogan and Spotify reportedly worth $100 million should have done the trick. The Rogan coup wasn't the first big-money podcast deal Spotify has made and it’s by no means the largest. In 2019, the company acquired podcast networks Gimlet and Anchor for $340 million, before shelling out $196 million for The Ringer, the podcast and media company founded by ESPN alumni Bill Simmons.

At the end of Q1 2021, Spotify had 2.6 million (!) podcasts on its platform as roughly 25 percent of its 356 million monthly active engaged with podcast content. “We continue to believe that our investments in podcasts will benefit the platform as a whole, and see an overall benefit to both usage, engagement, and retention across both Ad-Supported and Premium,” the company wrote to explain its sizeable investments in the medium.

Over the past decade, podcasts have seen a steady rise in popularity. According to Edison Research, 78 percent of Americans are now familiar with the term “podcasting” and more than 5 in 10 have listened to a podcast themselves. The format’s rise in popularity clearly coincides with a general increase in digital media consumption, specifically on mobile devices, but it was also helped by the fact that the selection of quality podcasts is virtually limitless these days. Covering anything from politics and sports to pop culture and investigative journalism, both major media organizations and independent producers are embracing podcasts as a way to reach a highly engaged audience with long-form content.