A tool called Headliner is solving the discoverability issue in podcasting in a couple different ways, for both consumers and creators.

On the creation side, Headliner allows podcasters to upload snippets of their podcasts, which Headliner transforms into videos, complete with automatic captions and spiffy images or clips of your choice. The resulting files, called audiograms, can be uploaded to the social media site of your choice (unlike audio files, which no major social network allows to be uploaded).

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Podcasting is becoming the fastest growing audio platform in the world, with new shows created each week.

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The decision to implement a private podcast is a critical first step to improving your business communication, but there are a number of other important decisions you have to make before the show becomes a reality. In this article, we’ll focus on one unavoidable decision: what type of equipment should you buy?

The answer, perhaps unsatisfyingly, is that it depends. However, here are the questions you should be asking yourself as you begin the search for podcasting gear.

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Apple Podcasts reported to have 800,000 shows and over 30 million episodes as of December 2019. According to Edison Research and Triton Digital, there are currently 62 million Americans who listen to podcasts each week.

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Advantage: Convenience

With podcasting, you do not have to worry that your audience is busy offline when you make your sales pitch. A listener can download the file and replay it at whatever time is convenient for him, even while jogging or driving to work. If someone chooses to subscribe to your podcast feed, he can get any podcasts of interest downloaded automatically. If you want all your employees to hear what you have to say, podcasting is often easier than trying to get everyone together for one meeting.

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From a walk along Watling Street to exploring space or the music of west Africa, these podcasts will take you out of your living room and into another world

10 Best Travel Podcasts

Public media have a real lead in the podcasting arena — which is burgeoning. But can public media hold that edge?

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Like so many people throughout the country, we at NPR's Student Podcast Challenge are working from home right now. And after months of teaching students how to make a homemade podcast, we put our skills to the test: The latest episode of our podcast was recorded from our bedrooms.


Host/producer Lauren Migaki recorded a podcast from her home/pillow fort studio.

We used pillow forts (just like in our how-to video!), bulky headphones and special, professional-grade microphones. But don't let the equipment discourage you — with just a couple tweaks you can use essentially the same setup: Replace the headphones with earbuds, and the mics with a mobile device like a cell phone or tablet, and you are ready to go!

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Like blogs and social media, podcasts are democratizing the way people share their thoughts with the world, with the episodic audio series continuing to gain traction with listeners seeking both entertainment value and educational dialogue.

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Over the last five-plus years of my podcast, I have turned down a number of interview offers with artists who were not able to meet face to face. I know a lot of folks who do great podcasts remotely, and I have even done a few (relatively okay) ones myself. But there is really no replacement for being able to do an interview face to face. So much nuance is lost amongst the cloud compression algorithms.

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Podcasting accommodates individuals who prefer to passively consume information (meaning they choose what they want when they want it).

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Seventy-five percent of Americans aged 12 and older (about 212 million people) are now familiar with podcasting, up from 70 percent in 2019. Fifty-five percent (155 million) listen to podcasts in general while 37 percent (104 million people) listen to podcasts monthly, up from 32 percent (90 million) in 2019.

It is more important than ever that brands create content easily retrievable through voice as consumption of both podcasts and voice-operated assistants rise. Over six in ten Americans use some form of voice assistant technology and nearly one-third of smart speaker owners have three or more devices in their homes.

Other noteworthy survey findings include smartphone ownership growing to 240 million, smart speaker awareness growing to about 220 million and smart speaker ownership growing to 76 million. The mean number of smart speakers per household grew from 1.7 in 2018 to 2.2 in 2020. As smart speaker ownership increased, radio ownership decreased, as the mean number of radios per household went from three in 2008 to 1.5 in 2020.

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That podcasting is on the rise should come as a surprise to no one. But the Jacobs Media Tech Survey 2020 gives this trend some granularity. According to their research, more than one in four now listen to podcasts weekly, or more often.

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FEDERATED MEDIA has launched a podcast division, including a podcast network as well as production and marketing services, with 46 podcasts at launch, including original shows, branded podcasts, and repurposed radio content.

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What are the biggest digital marketing and branding trends shaping the year ahead? How will marketers approach increasing brand awareness, attracting new customers and growing revenue in an always on digital world where the only guarantee is change?

2020 will be like nothing we have seen before in the digital landscape.

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As the global COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the globe, it appears more people are turning to podcasts for news and scientific information as much as a distraction.

Acast, one of the world's largest podcast hosting and analytics companies, said new listening figures for March 21-22 saw a 7% increase in listens globally, equivalent to more than 750,000 podcast plays.

Although some categories experienced declines, podcasts in the education, entertainment, science, medicine and health genres were all up more than 10%.

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Podcasts have transitioned from niche to mainstream. As Deloitte, Edison, and Nielsen, etc. all agree, audience growth for podcasts has been nothing short of phenomenal over the past year.

The global podcasting market will grow by 30% in 2020 to USD 1.1bn, Deloitte predicted, topping the billion-dollar mark for the first time. Now, a podcast producer can pull in revenue any number of ways, as the same report pointed out; advertising, content marketing, subscriptions, contracts for branded podcasts, events, and so on. All this hinges on audience reach, and a surefire way to widen that is, naturally, to go multilingual.

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There are now more than one million podcast shows on Apple Podcasts, according to Apple.

Let me reiterate: we do not mean episodes. We’re talking more than one million individual podcast shows: As in the shows which then release their episodes. That’s a lot of podcasts.

Apple confirmed in an email to Mashable that Apple Podcasts hit more than one million podcasts and that this milestone was reached on Monday, April 20.

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Podcast marketing is on a roll in 2020 with many companies releasing audio content to build trust, connect with their audience on a personal level, and boost brand awareness.

1. Ease of production
2. Low entry costs
3. Language is no barrier
4. Repurpose your blog and video content as audio
5. Less competition than blogging and YouTube
6. Easier to grow a following as a podcaster
7. Successful podcasters make millions of dollars a year
8. Build connections by interviewing influential guests
9. Showcase your speaking skills
10. Build high-DA links back to your website

With commuting on hold and everybody Zooming all the time, podcast consumption has taken a bit of a hit as listeners look for new ways to fit shows into their daily routines.

Last month, the analytics firm Chartable released research suggesting that podcast downloads were 10% lower on March 25 than they were on February 26.

Those numbers deserve to be taken with a grain of salt. Chartable, like Podtrac and other podcasting analytics services, is an opt-in analytics service, and many different podcast networks, ranging from Entercom to Vox Media, showed increased listening last month.

Storytelling is powerful.

With the influx of media—both social and traditional—getting consumed in a 24/7 news cycle can be overwhelming and optional. The concept of time seems irrelevant lately leaving our fingertips free for endless scrolling, a particularly slippery slope for mental health during this global pandemic.

Individuals, families and communities worldwide are learning how to grapple with the effects of a changing social paradigm, seeking ways to stay connected and safe.

Adaptability during this new paradigm is key and many tech companies are stepping up to the plate to perfect, iterate, and improve on products to keep up with a new normal and compete in an evolving landscape.

There are early signs that media will be one of many industries to take a huge blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, with sharp declines in ad revenue and significant layoffs. Podcasting is unlikely to be an exception; Podtrac recently reported that downloads have fallen 10% since the beginning of March, while unique listeners fell by 20%.

A different picture emerged when I spoke to Ross Adams,  CEO of podcast advertising company Acast, which works with both bedroom podcasters and large publishers like the BBC and PBS NewsHour.

Adams said listenership is not down — it’s just that audiences have changed when they are listening and what they’re listening to, with Acast  seeing its largest weekends ever in recent weeks. And plenty of people want to start new podcasts; signups for the Acast Open platform increased 49% month-over-month in March.

If the music industry is worried about podcasts eating into music’s share of the American audio diet, new survey data suggests that such worries are unfounded: Podcasts’ share increased at the expense of music a couple of years ago but has held steady ever since. Instead, the rising number of podcast listeners are coming from AM/FM radio. That’s what the numbers in new research from Edison Research, Triton Digital and National Public Radio show.

The Infinite Dial from Edison Research and Triton Digital is an annual survey that has been published for over 20 years. It originally covered listenership to digital radio such as Pandora and Sirius XM, but it has expanded to include other types of streaming music services, social media, podcasting and most recently esports; it has also tracked trends in consumer ownership of devices such as smartphones and smart speakers. The Infinite Dial is highly respected because of its methodological rigor and its year-to-year consistency over a long period of time. The 2020 edition of the Infinite Dial was released last week.

The podcast industry as a whole is expected to produce more than $1 billion by 2021, according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

With that much money floating around, you have to wonder what is stopping you from getting your share.

Since many people are still stuck at home, craving connection and entertainment, there is really never been a better time for podcasting. And, contrary to what you might think, getting your own podcast off the ground is not just possible, it’s quite easy thanks to resources like

New Sony venture. Sony Music Entertainment announced another podcasting venture today, this time in the shape of a partnership with U.K. audio company Somethin Else. This continues a recent run of Sony investments in audio — previous examples include Jonathan Hirschs Neon Hum Media, Adam Davidson and Laura Mayers Three Uncanny Four and Renay Richardsons Broccoli Content.

Fifteen years after Apple first offered 3,000+ free podcasts on iTunes, the medium has become mainstream.

Basic Facts: According to Edison Research and Triton Digital, there are now 62 million Americans listening to podcasts each week, up from 19 million in 2013. One reason for the growth is the number of choices podcast listeners have today. There are now over 800,000 active podcasts with over 54 million podcast episodes currently available worldwide. Because of a low cost of entry, in the first ten months of 2019, a record 192,000 new podcasts have been launched.

Podcast Advertising: Another reason for the growth in podcasting is the potential income a popular podcast can earn from selling advertising. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PriceWaterhouse, ad revenue is expected to reach $679 million this year, increasing to $863 million in 2020 and over $1 billion by 2021. Popular podcasts can charge advertisers between $10 to $50 for every 1,000 listeners, approximately two or three times the ad rate for broadcast radio.

Megaphone, a podcasting hosting and advertising technology provider, has signed a lease at Comstock’s Reston Station.

The company will take up roughly 10,000 square feet in the first office building at the mixed-use development, the tower designed by architect Helmut Jahn at 1900 Reston Metro Plaza.

With 165,000 square feet of leased space, Google is the anchor tenant of the building. Other tenants include Rolls-Royce North America (18,000 square feet) and infrastructure management firm Solar Winds (16,349 square feet) and digital identify firm Certipath (7,500 square feet).

In order to understand how to start a podcast for your business, there are a few key elements to keep in mind.

Podcasting is a disruptive technology that has found acceptance in the present-day global digital market. From storytelling to interviews, there are podcasts for everything. And, if used correctly, podcasting can give your business a major boost by ensuring better customer and market reach, showcasing your industry expertise and forming extensive networks.

The popularity of podcasts is universal. In the U.S., about 40% of Americans above the age of 12 listened to a podcast in the year 2017. Imagine the potential channels and benefits the medium of podcasting can create for you if used correctly.

However, starting a successful business podcast is not a piece of cake. You need to be appropriately prepared before venturing into this project, especially if you plan on doing it without the help of a professional podcaster. There are certain technical and other related requirements you must take care of before you can even air your first podcast episode. But fret not; here are the crucial steps to start a podcast for your business.

So you want to get into podcasting? By now, you have probably had a few friends launch their own podcasts and read a handful of articles on what it really takes to start a successful podcast. Our company has bought roughly a half a billion dollars worth of podcast ads over the last decade. We know a thing or two about what makes a podcast special.

Podcasting is one of the best ways to find and connect with your customers. Do it right and you’ll engage a growing community of loyal fans who hang on your every word and buy all your products and services. Do it wrong and you’ll end up broke. Most podcasters – some 85% – miss the opportunity to profit from podcasting while wasting precious dollars on fancy equipment. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

1. Be Your Own Sponsor
2. Reverse Engineer Your SEO
3. Know and Understand Your Audience
4. Incentivize Engagement With Gamification

In the wake of a seismic deal in the podcast industry that will see top host Joe Rogan bring his show exclusively to Spotify for a reported $100 million, Apple — which will lose distribution of Rogan’s show come 2021 — is revamping its own podcast approach.

According to Bloomberg, Apple — an early distribution platform for podcasts that is also the largest hub for the medium stateside — is now seeking an executive to lead development of original audio series. The exec would report to Ben Crave, Apple’s head of podcasting.

Humanity has been telling stories since long before the written word. Not to mention, audio fiction is a great choice when you can’t look at a book, like during a commute, while doing chores, or working out. And audio fiction is on the rise.

In comparison to other media formats, podcasting is still under-monetized, according to Tech Crunch. Short fiction podcasts still need crowdfunding backers and paid subscribers. Deep-pocketed newcomers bankroll high production value, or already have name recognition. But podcasting continues to have a low cost of entry, and the prospects for earning a little revenue may be improving.

Before the emergence of television and more recently smartphones as the primary medium for communicating sports news, radio was the main conduit for receiving the latest information. Those analog days have been converted into zeros and ones in our current digital age. However, the advantages gained by apps and channels have their drawbacks. The largest problem is that these digital mediums cant recreate the local community cultivated by radio anymore. Kevin Jones, a seasoned sports reporter, understood the gap between younger audiences and sports discussion and built Blue Wire to bridge the chasm. Blue Wire is a sports podcasting startup bringing together local creators to build a wider audience of fans. They have raised $1.2 million from a variety of investors.

The podcasting industry was shaken up this week with the announcement that JRE is moving exclusively to Spotify and it looks like it has caught Apple’s attention.

Bloomberg reports that Apple is looking to increase its investment in original podcasts, as well as buying existing ones, to augment its nascent Apple TV+ service. While its easy to view this as a classic case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, Apple seems to view podcasts as either a by-product of video content or as material that could then be adapted to video.

Apple effectively invented the podcast format, which derives its name from the pioneering iPod digital audio player, but the pre-eminence of iTunes as a podcasting platform is under serious threat thanks to this recent development. You have to assume Joe Rogan (pictured) spoke to Apple before recently committing to Spotify, so it would be fascinating to know what led him to ultimately reject it.

Podcast measurement company Podtrac has recorded mostly negative week-over-week download and unique audience growth since social distancing measures began. The declines were most severe in mid-March when major cities began shelter-in-place requirements and nonessential American workers began working from home. As of the week of April 27, however, weekly download and audience growth are slowly ticking back up.

But it is not all bad news: Podtrac found that for the shows it measures, year-to-date growth overall is still positive with major download growth in categories like news, comedy and business.

Podcastings growth took a dip during the pandemic as listeners adopted new routines guided by social distancing. Despite the drop, streaming and other music industry players that have made significant investments in audio entertainment–including podcasters themselves–remain hopeful that the decline is temporary, and that podcasts will continue to be a significant source of business growth.

Starting a new business can be exhausting. From crafting an effective content marketing strategy to making sure the whole SEO is perfect, if you do it all yourself without some guidance you will soon find taking the marketers role full time, and doing no actual work.

There is no denying that creating adding-value content like blog posts, videos, e-books, webinars, or anything that allows you to share your experience and knowledge, can surely help you jump-start your business. The options are seemingly endless, and there are thousands of pieces on the kind of content that works best for your specific niche.

However, there is one solid format that’s been proven to increase conversion, boost sales, and drive more qualified leads to almost any kind of website.

I am talking about podcasts.

Blubrry has released its new Private Internal Podcasting service for businesses looking to lock down their podcasts to protect them from public distribution.

The hosting service is offering three levels of security based on three hosting plans, simple (limiting private podcasts to 50 user-seats), standard (additional security and 200 user-seats), and enterprise (500 user-seats, most secure).

Over the last 18 months, Spotify has been pushing to expand its platform from a music-streaming service to all types of audio. Podcasting has been a major focus, and led CEO Daniel Ek to acquire companies like Gimlet, Anchor, Parcast, and The Ringer, as well as sign exclusive contracts with big names like the Obamas.

Spotifys latest deal could accelerate the growth of its podcast audience. The Joe Rogan Experience is coming to Spotify, and will be exclusive to the platform by the end of the year. That is a big blow to Apple, which sports the most popular podcast listening app.

Theres good news on the horizon for podcast revenue growth, and presumably for radio organizations that are active in that space.

With expected growth of 14.7% through 2020, the stage has been set for podcast revenues to hit $1.1 billion in 2021, according to the IAB/PwC report.

While it remains to be seen what long-term impact the pandemic has on podcast revenues, IAB/PwC still predicts a 15% jump in 2020. This comes after podcast ad revenues soared 48% between 2018 and 2019, a stunning growth rate.

Put simply, a podcast is a web series in an audio format. It can be downloaded by the listener or it can be streamed. The joy of the podcast is that you can listen to them wherever you are. Whether you’re in the car, in the house, on the train, or doing the ironing.

Many people find podcast series that they love and will avidly listen to every episode. Some podcasts have such great followings that they spawn live tours, books, and other merchandise.

Although podcasts have seen a meteoric rise in popularity in recent years, the root of podcasts actually goes all the way back to the 1980s when they were called audio blogs.

But it wasn’t high-speed broadband and the invention of Apple iPods and smartphones came along that the world was ready for the podcast. The rise in internet speeds that made downloading or streaming podcasts possible timed itself well with the perfect devices to listen to them on.

The dent COVID-19 put in podcast advertising hasn’t stopped the market from growing.

Revenues in the podcast advertising market are projected to grow 14.7% year over year to nearly $1 billion in 2020, according to the IAB and PricewaterhouseCooper’s full year podcast ad revenue study, released Monday. IAB surveyed 19 podcast publishers and ad networks prior to the pandemic and followed up in mid-April with another survey about COVID-19’s impact on the industry.

That 14.7% projection is a downgrade from the IAB’s pre-pandemic expectations of 29.6% growth in 2020, 55% growth in 2021 and 36% growth in 2022. Those figures were based on podcast advertising’s growth to $708 million in 2019 (48% year over year).

But 2020s decelerated growth is still a positive given how the pandemic has decimated other mediums, said Zoe Soon, VP of consumer experience center at the IAB.

After Spotifys recent string of podcasting deals, it is kind of weird to see a podcast acquisition where Spotify is not involved. E.W. Scripps has been shopping around its Stitcher podcast platform for a couple of weeks, and it looks like it found a buyer in SiriusXM.

Sirius will pay around $300 million for the unit. That is a hefty return for Scripps. It originally bought Stitcher in 2016 for $4.5 million, combining it with its $50 million Midroll Media acquisition from the year before.

Still, $300 million is a good deal for the premium podcast platform, a specialized podcast advertising network doing sales for over 300 podcasts, and the owner of two podcast content networks, Earwolf and Stitcher Podcasts.

That compares to Spotifys acquisition of The Ringer earlier this year, for which it reportedly paid between $141 million to $196 million.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is near a deal to buy E.W. Scripps Co.s Stitcher Inc. podcasting unit for around $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

The satellite-radio giant is working to expand into the rapidly growing podcasting industry, following similar moves by media and tech companies including Spotify Technology SA and iHeartMedia Inc.

Determine your topic, audience and format

Everyone has something they could talk about for hours on end. When deciding which of these things should be the focus of a podcast, you need to consider topics that you will never get tired of talking about. Brainstorm 52 show topic ideas, one for each week of the year. This will let you know if you have enough ideas to have a regular podcast of your own, or if you would be better off finding guesting opportunities on existing programs. Of course, a show does not have to be weekly, but it is a starting point.

Defining your audience will help to hone the direction of the show, as well. A show geared toward young mothers will sound much different than a podcast for mid-career professionals. Your audience is rarely everyone. Figure out who they are and talk specifically to them, their needs and interests. As you plan your show, consider what type of format will be most effective, as well. Will you host guests, have a co-host or fly solo?

Choose memorable, straightforward branding

When coming up with a title for your podcast, it’s best not to be too clever or obscure. Make it easy to remember and spell and also give some idea of what the show is about. Search potential names in Google and on iTunes to be sure your idea is not already an established podcast. You will also want to claim a custom URL and related social media handles. Again, searching for these items will indicate if the title is already taken.

Cover art for your podcast needs to be an exact square, sized at least 1,400 pixels by 1,400 pixels and 3,000 pixels by 3,000 pixels at the most. Remember that people will be viewing it on a small screen, so use large text for your show name and relevant artwork.

Assemble a digital audio workstation

Podcasting is a relatively small market, closing in on a $1 billion run rate. But the category is on fire right now. The New York Times scooped up Serial Productions for a reported $50 million this week in a creative and strategic alliance with sister company This American Life. Terms of the deal were not disclosed and depend on performance goals. The Times bought podcast studio Audm for $8 million in March and is hiring prominent journalists to host new programs. With Serial, the Times owns the 14th largest podcast production company with roughly 4 million listeners and the iconic Serial franchise that was the first breakout hit. Union Square Ventures also announced on Thursday that it is investing in the podcast studio and ad network Headgum.

In 2018, businesses spent $497 million on podcast advertising in 2018, and it’s estimated that by 2020, podcast ad spend will go up to a whopping $1 billion. So, podcasting is clearly big business.

How do you launch a business podcast?
So, there are a few steps when it comes to launching a podcast for your business – and it all starts with thinking about your aim.

What are you trying to achieve from your podcast? Is it to build trust with customers, or to drive more awareness with new prospects? In my case, I wanted to better position myself as a leader in the sales enablement space – so in addition to my blog over at Contemsa and posting on LinkedIn, I wanted to have a few different streams of content where my audience could gain insights about sales enablement.

With that aim in mind, it was important that my podcast was not about selling anything. Instead, it was about sharing insights and tips on B2B sales enablement topics such as How to Involve Sales Teams in Your Sales Playbook Process, for example. As you can see in this example episode, I am not selling anything: I am giving away useful tips and support for my customers and prospects.

1. Thou shall not do it for the money
2. Thou shall be a consumer
3. Thou shall reflect well on your brand
4. Thou shall be useful
5. Thou shall not be a salesperson
6. Thou shall note get personal
7. Thou shall create a consistent format
8. Thou shall release episodes regularly
9. Thou shall be professional
10. Thou shall be sociable

Podcasting is increasingly seen as a reliable channel for long-term ad investments, new data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) shows: Annual ad buys, where ads are bought for the entire year, nearly doubled in the US from 24% to 47% of podcast ad revenues between 2018 and 2019.

US Podcast Ad Revenue Share, by buy type, 2018 and 2019

Meanwhile, quarterly ad buys and scatter ad buys, where ads are purchased closer to the time they air, declined — making up 31% and 21%, respectively. According to the IAB, podcast ad revenues totaled $479.1 million in 2018 and $708.1 million in 2019.

This is a sign that more advertisers are including podcast ads in their long-term marketing plans, rather than just using podcasts to experiment with. It's a testament to the rise of the podcasting industry: Listeners are increasing rapidly — eMarketer expects US podcast listeners to grow by nearly 15% to surpass 100 million this year — and podcasting platforms have responded by working to meet the technological needs that advertisers have come to expect from digital formats.

It is estimated that 32% of Americans listen to podcasts on a monthly basis. And the podcast industry is expected to be worth around $1 billion by the end of next year. Being such a booming industry, it makes sense why so many people are thinking about starting their own podcasts.

Luckily, we are here to help you. So continue reading and we’ll walk you through everything you need to know!

1. USB Audio Interface and Recording Bundle
2. Adjustable Microphone Arm Stand
3. Podcast Recording Software
4. Podcast Editing Software