What's It Going to Take to Get You Into a Podcast Today?

We have come a long way from the days before and the early beginnings of iTunes. Back then only the smartest of the smart knew how to create a feed to post a show, and even fewer knew how to find that show and listen. With podcasting becoming prevalent I believe we are still a long way away from it becoming mainstream.

What are the biggest barriers to entry? What would help the lay-person understand how to listen? How much easier can we make this? It seems to me that Stitcher and TuneIn have done a lot in this regard to making it easier to find quality content and to quickly get up and running with playing that content, but it still takes someone who is intuitive enough to download the app and search for the content they want to listen to... then to hook it up into the car or wherever they plan to listen to make it happen.

Is it purely an awareness issue? Out of all of our industries I haven't seen a campaign put together by podcasters to make awareness of the benefits of enjoying podcasting. Be it a TV commercial, YouTube pre-rolls, etc. It feels like we all work together on making our shows better (albeit Andrew and the IAIB seems to stand alone in that regard without any of the major stars wanting to be a part of it), but we, as an industry, have done a poor job of raising awareness to the general public on the benefits of podcasting and even how to accomplish listening to a podcast.

Thoughts? Or am I alone in this line of questioning and thinking?

It's probably a generational thing. My daughter has no problem listening to streaming audio through the sound system in her car using her phone. My wife would not be interested in figuring it out.

At this point, I think it's more still a matter of exposure than anything else. We are still in the very early days of podcasting, although it might not seem so to us, Many people still have no idea what a podcast is.

I think for many in the early days of Podcasting it was belonging to a community. The Podcasting space was very small and it was easy to create a relationship with other viewers and the hosts. Its a bit different now.

I think discoverable content is still an issue for most people. They just dont know how and where to go to find a podcast. The big guys stand out the average podcaster is getting pushed to the side

For me its the quality of the content and audio. There are so many shows out on itunes that I have attempted to listen to but it was hard to understand what the host was saying.

Here's my two cents:

I think it just depends on the person. My wife listens to streaming music at home and in the car on her phone. She's co-hosted podcasts for work and has friends that host podcasts, but she's never listened to a podcast in her life. She know's I've been listening to podcasts since 2005 or 2006, but has never shown any interest in listening to what I'm listening to, apart from asking "What are you listening to?"

I think those people who truly want to listen to something will find it. They'll Google "Days of Our Lives fan internet show" or "bald men self-help internet show" or "Doctor Who podcast" or whatever topic they're interested in. They'll find youtube shows, various podcast players, itunes and libsyn links, etc. Those that really want to listen or watch will find a way.

As far as people making their own podcasts: I think those that want to already are, are trying, are planning to, or have tried and have podfaded. New podcasts are popping up all the time. I think of a new topic I wonder if there's a podcast about that I might like to listen, Google it, and bam! I've got ten or more possibilities.

--Kev

Sometimes I wonder if we need a Podcast equivalent of YouTube, a platform with a critical mass where everybody can easily go there to find, watch and upload podcasts. There is still a barrier of entry in producing and publishing a podcast, compared to how easily anyone can take a photo or record a video on their phone and upload the media onto social media or youtube. We are lacking a central directory like Youtube where people can find podcasting content under one roof as opposed to going to different platforms or even iTunes. (Despite its status as a major player, not everyone is using or have access to iTunes on their computers or phones)

While podcasting is becoming increasingly popular in US and Europe, the rest of world has not caught up on it yet. Right now, podcasting is still seen as a niche. We probably need to encourage more people to get into podcasting, including big and influential names and brands, before podcasting can become mainstream.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tomboy Tarts

Sometimes I wonder if we need a Podcast equivalent of YouTube, a platform with a critical mass where everybody can easily go there to find, watch and upload podcasts. There is still a barrier of entry in producing and publishing a podcast, compared to how easily anyone can take a photo or record a video on their phone and upload the media onto social media or youtube. We are lacking a central directory like Youtube where people can find podcasting content under one roof as opposed to going to different platforms or even iTunes. (Despite its status as a major player, not everyone is using or have access to iTunes on their computers or phones)

While podcasting is becoming increasingly popular in US and Europe, the rest of world has not caught up on it yet. Right now, podcasting is still seen as a niche. We probably need to encourage more people to get into podcasting, including big and influential names and brands, before podcasting can become mainstream.

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You may be on to something there. It is really hard to identify new podcasts. A central location would be helpful.