At least one analyst thinks that podcasting may be about to finally live up to the hype. MediaWeek is reporting that an analyst with eMarketer sees explosive growth for the podcasting arena, due to a new advertising platform that Google is yet to create.eMarketer's James Belcher sees 500% growth in the podcasting advertising market over the next 4 years, from a base of $80 million in 2006, to $400 million by 2011. The catalyst for that growth, according to Belcher, will be Google's creation of an audio version of its AdSense advertising platform.
Steve Rubel makes the good point that most of that revenue will flow to podcasting networks and the more popular podcasters, thus missing many of the average casters. As I've said before, I think the bigger growth could come from simply making the entire creation process easier. Course when companies have the incentive to more easily monetize podcasts, they'll find ways to streamline the process and make it easier for wannabe podcasters to get started.
Another area that I think could be interesting to watch in the coming years is whether or not music labels will begin to move more or all of their catalogs into the 'podcast-safe' file. Giving podcasters the ability to promote their favorite music is of course a no-brain way to leverage social-media to empower music fans to become evangelists for their favorite artists.
Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Podcasting
4 comments:
Hi there, great post! I actually happen to agree that Podcasting is still growing and will definitely get to the masses in the near future.
If (or rather, when) the companies make the creation process easier, this will let many independent bloggers and non-bloggers alike to start producing audio casts.
With it (I believe), the change will bring many other issues to consider like the commercialization of Podcasts, music on podcasts (possibly -payola-), etc.
Thanks.. Keep up the great work,
Ron.
http://www.brandcurve.com
Great article, I just don't agree that podcasting will ever get that popular. Maybe I'm wrong, but to me it doesn't seem like most people have much time to listen to podcasts.
Although, I could just be sour on the whole thing because I don't own an iPod ;)
No ipod here in Marrakech either. And I have never actually listened to a pod cast. Sounds like I am missing out perhaps?
Judging by the 10,000 downloads I've had on my podcast, people do in fact listen. If you haven't listened to podcasting, I'd get busy finding some to listen to.
To say that it will never get all that popular when it's popularity is growing exponentially even as we speak is rather short-sighted and stodgy, if you ask me. Granted, I may never have a million listeners at once, but if I reach out to my community effectively and convey my message in a way that's constructive, then I've gotten the return I wanted, right?
Post a Comment