Will podcasting survive?

How do we make podcasting futureproof? What needs to be done to challenge the industry to innovate and produce daring content? In this column titled “Revelations”, Meera Kumar pokes and prods the audio industry and its creations before revealing the shows worth listening to and their place in the zeitgeist…

The podcast waters have been especially choppy in the past couple of months. A few of the bigger ships have cut their crews in half, others appear to be sinking. But, I think bigger waves are on their way. As a freelancer, my only option is to innovate, upskill, and try to catch a tube ride. To that end, this Revelation is a reflection on all of the columns I’ve written this year and how they might help us stay afloat.

In my very first column, I advocated for a one-year moratorium on the production of true crime podcasts. I felt the genre had morphed into something slightly grotesque – trauma porn. But the genre is lucrative and companies are never going to stop making true crime shows, so for the industry to survive ethically it felt like time for a pause. A chance for storytellers to find fresh angles and narratives. I see hope in shows like Short Cuts ‘Small Victories: The Gouging’ in which a thoroughly hilarious investigation is conducted into an unforgivable crime, Please Protect Abraham which explores the flaws in Britain’s witness protection system, and I Am Not Nicholas which investigates whether a convicted sex offender had faked his own death and moved to Glasgow. Could these true crime shows attract the same budget as the more violent stories, and save podcasting? Not on their own, but it might be a step towards repairing the industry.

My second column highlighted the growing number of celebrity-fronted podcasts. Whilst some talent choices make sense, spending half the budget on a celeb host purely in the hopes that their existing following will flock to the podcast does not. Often this celeb-first-approach results in a show where the host is going to ‘talk about anything and everything with my celeb friends’ – a format that is not only lazy but also boring. The budget might be better spent on funding more development time or paying the production team better wages, resulting in more nuanced narratives and innovative formats that elevate the medium…and in turn attract more advertisers. Love + Radio and Have You George’s Podcast being perfect examples of genre-bending, innovative podcasts that are pushing and evolving the medium.

We’ve lamented this creative stagnation, but alas we were recently hit with some bad news that I fear will only send us further down this path. A few of the creative avant-garde podcasts, such as Invisibilia, have recently been axed despite their acclaim and dedicated fan base. Production company Somethin’ Else recently handed back a few BBC contracts ‘amid concerns of diminishing commercial returns’ and quietly cancelled the podcast High Low with EmRata as Sony laid off podcast staff for a third time in two years. Following the news of cuts and layoffs at WNYC, the CEO of New York Radio pointed to Edison Research’s statistics showing that AM/FM radio’s reach is three times greater than that of podcasts, and so they will be focusing less on podcasts.

That doesn’t mean that podcasts are dead. They can still be wildly successful, but I wonder if these future successes will come from independent creators. Creators who are unencumbered by bureaucracy and company politics, who have full control over creative decisions, ownership over their IP, and a genuine connection with their audience. (Just typing that sentence brought me a flutter of excitement.)

To reiterate, podcasts are here to stay. Many times they were just used incorrectly, rinsed for profit (we’ve seen it happen in many industries), and often the people in charge of making the big decisions have never made a podcast or built an audience. So, I am trying to view this period of time as a difficult rebirth of the medium. An opportunity to make something different.

This creator autonomy and financial independence might be achieved through subscription platforms like Substack and Patreon – a concept I examined in my most recent column. The essence of podcasting lies in the connection between creators and listeners. When creators are empowered, it leads to more authentic and engaging content. Which is why I’m particularly interested in Patreon’s app overhaul. Patreon provides creators with tools to build a dedicated following and cultivate stronger bonds with their audience with features like direct messaging, exclusive content, and live chats. And of course there’s the added benefit of not having to worry about your show being axed out of the blue. In combination with other sources of financial support, a show could be more stable independently. A great example is Drunk Women Solving Crime, which is now being adapted for television!

I’ve been using this column to try and reveal the shows worth listening to and if you (like most listeners) engage in podcasts mostly through listening platforms, you might think that the shows that are featured in your favourite app are the best shows. Some of them are, some of them just had a good PR strategy and a big marketing budget. But hopefully I’ve shown that the best podcasts aren’t necessarily at the top of the charts, they aren’t always fronted by a celeb, and they may not have been produced by a podcast company. Sometimes, the best podcasts are the ones that are a little bit wild and a little bit accidental.

Of course, as creators, there are many benefits to building your show with a company – their network and existing relationships, a team of talented creatives to create with, access to a knowledge/skill pool far greater than your own, a legal team etc. But the truth is, there’s a lot of guesswork and experimentation behind company doors too. I’ve seen companies publicly dissect what an independent creator is doing well and retrospectively apply a strategy, but in reality there wasn’t a 45-point plan behind that creator’s success. They were small and independent and they tried something and it resonated with other people who came back for more, take Madeline Argy for example.

So, paddling out into the podcasting waters alone might seem terrifying and it might be harder and take longer to get out there but you might end up being more successful than you ever expected.

Useful Links:

In my second column, I called for the new age of audio to begin. Something that inspires me is looking outside of the podcasting industry. Recently, I was blown away by Los Santos +3°C – an experience that turned a server of GTA Online into a climate change simulator. I’ve also referenced VICE’s The Unfiltered History Tour in a previous column but it’s too good not to mention again.

I also wrote a column about audio and incorporating video into projects. I personally can feel a little bombarded with everyone using video in a similar way but projects like this one about the true story of Pocahontas inspire me to think outside the box.  [Ed. for more on that project, check out this episode of Stuff The British Stole]

Meera’s Recommendations:

Short Cuts – Series 33 – Small Victories

The Gouging sees a true crime being investigated – an academic conducts a study into missing forks and three friends search for the right note. The Gouging is Produced by Steven Jackson, Original music by Steven Jackson and Cue Shop, a music library and scoring co-op.

Please Protect Abraham

In Hackney, 2007, 15-year-old Abraham saves a stranger from a brutal attack. That split-second decision and act of astonishing bravery changes his life forever. Journalist Sam Holder has been following Abraham’s story for years. Together with Abraham’s friends and family, they retrace how this young boy finds himself in fear of his own life. Listen here >>

Invisibila

Invisibilia—Latin for invisible things—fuses narrative storytelling with science that will make you see your own life differently. In their final episode, Invisibilia searches for the right way to say goodbye. Listen here >>

Love + Radio

Nick van der Kolk’s Love and Radio features in-depth, otherworldly-produced interviews with an eclectic range of subjects, from the seedy to the sublime. Get inside the mind of a rogue taxidermist. Listen here >>

Have You Heard George’s Podcast

In Have You Heard George’s Podcast?, spoken word artist George The Poet joins producer and composer Benbrick to create this narrative-style podcast where the narrator, George, delves into different themes and topics. Find out the best way to start listening here >>