Why is the Podcasting Business a Bubble?

Everyone and their mother seems to be jumping into the podcast business these days. And while the podcast listening audience has tons of…

Why is the Podcasting Business a Bubble?

Everyone and their mother seems to be jumping into the podcast business these days. And while the podcast listening audience has tons of room to grow (a relatively small slice of the world regularly listens to podcasts), the podcast advertising business appears to be dangerously inflating.

Why?

There’s a Lack of Podcast Advertising Inventory

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There are No Good Podcast Media Metrics

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The One Metric that Exists Measures Downloads, Not Plays

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There are Two Outcomes, Both Not Great

There’s a squeeze coming. 

  1. Podcasting finds or creates and sells-in a media metric that allows ad buyers to validate their spend. This metric will not live up to current spending demand.
  2. The ‘Shiny Object’ phase of podcast media buying will end before an accepted podcast media metric arrives.


Why do I believe podcasting is a massive bubble?An interesting tension in the podcast market is the lack of ad inventory (because listeners tolerate relatively few slots in podcasts), which leads to more podcasts, which are fighting for the same ears, leading too