2022: The Year Podcasting Says "Hold My Beer!"

My Long Winter's Nap is over and the podcasting landscape has never looked brighter. And maybe a little different? No, a lot different. I'm convinced the changes are just getting started. Hold onto your butts!

Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

And speaking of that, welcome back to me. It's been a while, two months to be mostly exact. Thank you very much for sticking with me during the Long Winter's Nap. And if you joined recently while I was away on my Long Winter's Nap, welcome to the party.

So there've been some changes while I have been away, the biggest one being I am no longer an advisor to Captivate.fm, the hosting company. No, they didn't kick me out of the cool kids club. Captivate was acquired by Global, a leading UK media company. So a big, huge congrats to both Mark, Kieran, and everybody else on the team at Captivate.

This show, Podcast Pontifications, is and for the foreseeable future, at least, will remain hosted on Captivate. I am happy with the service very much, and I'm also very confident that the service Captivate is in great hands as it transitions into the Global umbrella. Mark and Kieran are staying involved, by the way, so everything's going to stay the same. If you're also on Captivate, you're going to keep loving it.

But with that acquisition comes an end to my tenure as an advisor for the company. And then also comes to an end the tenure of all the other advisors. So my friends James Cridland, Daniel J. Lewis, Jordan Harbinger, it's been a pleasure serving with you guys. Maybe we'll do something else in the future.

Speaking to that, if, in fact, you run a podcast-related service company and you're looking for a new member to join your advisory board, I no longer have any conflicts. Just sayin' - Brad.

And speaking of podcasting, I'm hosting yet another podcast about podcasting. I know, it's crazy, right? This isn't a brand new show, but I am the brand new host of the second season of this show. 3 Clips, a Castos original, is now hosted by this guy, me. The very first episode of the second season, with me as the host, will drop on January the 10th. So just a few days from now.

3 Clips, if you're not already a listener, unpacks the creative process behind groundbreaking podcasts by, well, can you guess the conceit here? That's right, we play three clips from an episode of the show and then break down why those decisions were made with the podcast creator. It's a lot of fun. And I think it's also a perfect companion for Podcast Pontifications. So 3ClipsPodcast.com to get subscribed so you don't miss out on that first episode when it drops in just a few days.

Finally, some changes coming to Podcast Pontifications. Now, yes, relax, it's still a four-times-a-week, short-form podcast that is focused on the ways that serious podcasters can make podcasting better. No changes there. But the process is changing. For example, I'm no longer recording, producing, and then releasing each episode in the same day. That was a lot of work. It still takes me about four hours in total per episode to do all the work, but now that work is spread out over time.

You see, I told you when I left you two months ago, that I'd be busy working on new episodes during my Long Winter's Nap, and that wasn't a lie. The results should be, I hope, better episodes since I'm not completely under the gun, having to get things published at a certain time every single day. But that also means two other changes, for better or worse, depending on your perspective, I suppose. One is that, much to the disappointment of Betty, Arlen, Kevin, and maybe three or four other people who have ever watched the live tapings, I'm no longer going live at 7:00 AM my time to record this show.

Look, I still think there's much value in podcasts letting their most ardent fans in on the podcast recording and the process of doing it all behind the scenes. But since I'm moving to a batch process, instead of recording and producing on the exact same day at the exact same time, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me to keep trying to do it that way so people can watch the process. It needs to be more flexible. So I'm very, very sorry to disappoint you, but hopefully the better episodes are going to make up for it.

So that's three really big changes, but that's just the start of what serious podcasters can expect to see more of in 2022. All of that that I just spoke to is just really a microcosm of what I think is going to happen to podcasting in 2022 as the year progresses. First of all, you should expect massive acquisition and consolidation. Heck, Spotify already said they have three and a half billion dollars to spend this year, and at the end of last year they came in and scooped up Aussie podcast hosting company and radio broadcast-to-podcast enabler Whooshkaa.

But it won't just be Spotify swinging around these big bags of money. Tomorrow, in fact, I'll get into why our industry looks so attractive to those on the outside.  

Secondly, perhaps because of the thing I just mentioned, you're going to see, I think, lots of your favorite podcast hosts launch or host new, additional podcasts. I already know lots of collaborations in the works and I may be a part of some, but I can't talk about those things right now. And I know gobs more exist underneath the surface. So maybe you're cooking a collaboration of your own. You can tell me. I can keep a secret.

And lastly, it's that pesky change thing. Look, I'm not going to say that 2022 is going to be the singularity moment for podcasting. But I do think that because of the two points I just mentioned, plus increasing ad revenues - we're going to break a billion dollars this year - plus, the changes that are rumbling through podcasting thanks largely in part to the Podcasting 2.0 namespace modifications, plus the creative world trying to claw back from two years underneath this pandemic that just won't go away? I think 2022 is going to be a wild year, podcasters. I hope you're ready for it.

With that, I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra. He's on a mission to make podcasting better. Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes section of your podcast listening app. A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected transcript, both created by Allie Press. Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. Find out more at Simpler.Media.

‍