Latest / Business Podcasting: Production Strategy / Is a podcast still worth starting?

Transcript

Is a podcast still worth starting? · Business Podcasting: Production Strategy

• 0:00
  [Synthetic version of Lam Hoang's voice]
• 0:07
  This is Business Podcasting: Production Strategy, produced by WorkHacker.
• 0:13
  I'm your host, Lam Hoang, co-founder of WorkHacker.
• 0:16
  You're hearing a synthetic version of my voice.
• 0:19
  Each episode I take one question about making a podcast for your business,
• 0:23
  tell you what I would do and how solid the evidence is.
• 0:32
  Today's question: is a podcast still worth starting?
• 0:36
  More than a third of American adults who listen to
• 0:39
  or watch podcasts say they started in the past year.
• 0:43
  That's from an August 2026 survey by the trade group Sounds Profitable.
• 0:48
  But the share of adults listening held steady.
• 0:51
  So is it worth it?
• 0:53
  Yes, if two things are true for your business.
• 0:56
  There's a specific group whose trust you want.
• 0:59
  And you have something to tell them they can't easily get elsewhere.
• 1:03
  Hoping for a big audience, or ad money?
• 1:06
  Then don't start for that.
• 1:07
  Ad buyers usually look for far bigger audiences than a typical show has.
• 1:12
  And it isn't too late.
• 1:13
  The listeners are still there, and the field is less crowded than it sounds.
• 1:18
  Here's what you'll leave with.
• 1:20
  Whether people still listen, and how crowded the field really is.
• 1:24
  Then what ads would need from you, and what a podcast is good at.
• 1:28
  First: is anyone still listening?
• 1:31
  Yes, in steady numbers.
• 1:33
  More than half of the adults in that survey had
• 1:36
  listened to or watched a podcast in the past month.
• 1:39
  That's within a point of the year before.
• 1:41
  Pew Research Center sells nothing to podcasters, so it's an outside check.
• 1:46
  In 2025, Pew found listening up a little since 2022.
• 1:50
  So podcasting isn't dying.
• 1:53
  It isn't booming either.
• 1:54
  After two decades of growth, Sounds Profitable calls the audience large and stable.
• 2:00
  A new show can't count on a rising tide.
• 2:03
  What is changing is who's listening.
• 2:05
  The survey's own word for it: the audience keeps refreshing.
• 2:09
  That's good news for a new show.
• 2:11
  It isn't only chasing people whose habits are already set.
• 2:15
  Second: aren't there millions of podcasts already?
• 2:19
  Millions are listed, but far fewer are still publishing.
• 2:23
  In October 2026, one podcast search engine listed
• 2:26
  about three point eight million podcasts worldwide.
• 2:30
  Only about one in seven had put out an episode that year.
• 2:34
  And a single episode was enough to count.
• 2:37
  Fewer new ones are starting, too.
• 2:39
  In the first half of 2026, worldwide launches hit
• 2:42
  their lowest first-half total in eight years.
• 2:46
  That's one podcast-data company's count, reported in July 2026.
• 2:51
  Yearly figures for new listings point the same way.
• 2:54
  Some new ones aren't made by people at all.
• 2:57
  One tally of new podcasts in September 2026
• 3:00
  found that about one in four were AI-made fakes.
• 3:04
  That's its own judgment.
• 3:05
  And it counts feeds, not listening.
• 3:08
  Using AI isn't the problem.
• 3:10
  Putting in less work because you used it is.
• 3:14
  A show with real direction is easier to tell apart.
• 3:17
  What is a new show really up against, then?
• 3:20
  In Sounds Profitable's survey, the typical monthly
• 3:23
  listener regularly follows two or three podcasts.
• 3:26
  You're competing for one of a few spots.
• 3:29
  Not with millions of shows.
• 3:31
  That means being someone's best show on something specific they care about.
• 3:36
  Take a made-up company that repairs commercial kitchen equipment.
• 3:39
  A general business show would join one of the biggest categories listed.
• 3:43
  Now picture a show for restaurant owners about keeping a busy kitchen running.
• 3:48
  It has far fewer rivals for their time.
• 3:51
  Third: can ad money make it worth it?
• 3:54
  Don't count on it.
• 3:55
  The money itself is real.
• 3:57
  By the ad industry's own count, American podcast
• 4:00
  ad revenue grew about eighteen percent in 2025.
• 4:04
  But that's a market total.
• 4:06
  It says nothing about what a new show will earn.
• 4:09
  So what does a show need to get some of it?
• 4:12
  One podcast ad company's guide from July 2026 gives the usual bars.
• 4:18
  The lowest is for automatic ads.
• 4:20
  Those need about a thousand monthly listeners.
• 4:23
  Ad networks typically look for one to five thousand
• 4:26
  downloads an episode, in its first thirty days.
• 4:29
  Direct sponsors usually want more, for a general-interest show.
• 4:33
  The guide adds that niche business-to-business,
• 4:36
  finance or professional audiences can land sponsors far earlier.
• 4:40
  Now set that against one large podcast host's
• 4:43
  own figures, across every kind of show.
• 4:46
  In September 2026, its top five percent of shows started
• 4:50
  at about a thousand first-week downloads an episode.
• 4:54
  A week isn't a month.
• 4:55
  It's a loose comparison.
• 4:57
  Outside that niche exception, ad money still needs
• 5:00
  an audience far above what a typical show gets.
• 5:03
  So plan the show around a different job.
• 5:06
  Any sponsor is a bonus.
• 5:08
  Last: if not ad money, what's a podcast good for?
• 5:12
  Depth with the right people.
• 5:14
  As the episode on starting a podcast put it, a business doesn't need a crowd.
• 5:19
  Podcast maker Jay Acunzo said in 2018 that
• 5:22
  podcasts suit depth and resonance, not reach.
• 5:26
  In his words, "a podcast is intimacy that scales."
• 5:30
  One podcasting coach asked in May 2026 whether
• 5:33
  the world really needs another podcast.
• 5:36
  Not another general one, he said.
• 5:38
  His better question: would a specific group of people be
• 5:42
  better served if you consistently shared what you've learned?
• 5:45
  He says a podcast can build trust before the first sales conversation.
• 5:50
  It can help referrals understand how you think.
• 5:52
  How much is that trust worth?
• 5:55
  Here, confidence runs ahead of measurement.
• 5:58
  One podcast production company surveyed eight hundred
• 6:01
  and sixty-one marketers in May 2026, mostly in Europe.
• 6:06
  Almost half of those using podcasts rated the return as strong.
• 6:10
  The report itself says those ratings often rest on engagement, not sales.
• 6:15
  About one in six of those marketers tracked the return formally.
• 6:19
  So treat the confidence you hear about business podcasts as a feeling.
• 6:24
  Not a measurement.
• 6:25
  If you start one, take your own measurement from the first inquiry.
• 6:29
  The podcast producer Niall Mackay's advice is to ask
• 6:32
  everyone who gets in touch how they heard about you.
• 6:35
  Then note whether the show came up.
• 6:38
  Later episodes dig into what a show pays back in clients and money.
• 6:42
  So should you start one?
• 6:44
  If you know whose trust you want and can tell
• 6:46
  them what they can't easily get elsewhere, yes.
• 6:50
  Timing matters less than those two things.
• 6:52
  Don't wait for a better moment.
• 6:54
  Want a crowd, or ad money?
• 6:57
  That's the wrong reason to start.
• 6:59
  Before you decide, try this.
• 7:01
  Search the subject you'd cover in a podcast app.
• 7:04
  Play a few of the shows that come up.
• 7:06
  Which ones have published in the last few months?
• 7:09
  Then ask what you could tell their listeners that they don't.
• 7:12
  Not ready to start your own?
• 7:14
  The next episode asks: should you make a podcast, be a guest or advertise?
• 7:19
  And that's it for today's question.
• 7:21
  Thanks for listening.
• 7:23
  The written version is on workhacker.com,
• 7:25
  with every source, and a place to send us your questions.
• 7:29
  And if you want a podcast like this for your business, WorkHacker makes them.
• 7:33
  See you next time.