To Make Real Money, The Podcast Industry Needs to Stop Calling Them Podcasts

Podcasts are big business. At least that’s what the articles keep telling me.

Indeed, there are a number of podcasts which make big money, and almost 100 percent via brand sponsorship dollars. But, for podcasts to really develop as a market the industry needs to find a way to integrate the “listener pays” models into the business. Whether it be at the show or series level and or the “Hulu for podcasts,” subscription model.

What’s Blocking This Evolution?

One Barrier Is Terminology

There are classes of podcasts which need to stop calling themselves “podcasts,” and angle towards something like “series and episodes,” or “shows.”

Why? We’ve been trained that podcasts are FREE and highly substitutable. When a term becomes synonymous with “free” it’s very hard to convince people to pay.

Millions of people are happy to pay for a digital “book on tape,” which is a story you listen to. Is Serial not a “story you listen to?”

Look at author’s James Patterson’s attempt to create ~150 page or shorter “books.”