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In the final installment of our series of interviews with industry leaders about how 2020 impacted the podcasting industry, and what we can expect in 2021, we turn to Hall of Famer and School of Podcasting CEO Dave Jackson.
PBJ: How would you describe 2020 for the podcasting industry? Dave Jackson: The podcast industry continues to grow on both ends. The bigger companies are buying and selling each other trying to get themselves positioned for the future. The independent podcasters doing hyper niche shows continue to grow their influence by addressing underserved markets.
PBJ: What are a few of your predictions for the industry in 2021? Dave Jackson: I think we are going to see Android listening grow much faster than it has in the past.
I think you’re going to see countries outside the USA who started to pick up speed in 2020, really start to grow with podcasting.
The avalanche of new podcasters will leave listeners overwhelmed and new podcasters frustrated as their expectations (set by snake oil salesmen who venture into the space looking to cash in) do not match reality.
Some of the content made exclusively for certain platforms will reverse their path and put some of their content on all platforms in hopes of sucking people in. This is similar to the way Showtime channel puts one season of a show for free on Amazon.
The new podcasting 2.0 specs from Adam Curry and his team will be put into place by some hosting companies, but not all. This will leave many in the space confused.
THINGS THAT WILL CONTINUE BUT SHOULDN’T You will see even more companies designed to help you get booked as a guest on podcasts emerging, and yet none of them will actually do any homework. Instead, they will choose to scrape RSS feeds, and spam podcasters hoping to drum up business.
Podcasters seeking fast fortunes on Anchor.fm will continue to stop before 10 episodes adding to the mountain of “dead” podcasts in Directories. Many of these dejected podcasters will not cash out their $1.84 in earnings.
iHeart Radio will continue to write their unique history on podcasting by announcing they invented podcasting in 2012.
Soundcloud will continue to ignore the “new” tags that Apple implemented in 2017.
PBJ: What was the biggest story in 2020 (that had nothing to do with the pandemic)? Dave Jackson: The one that I still hear people quoting as a reason for people to start podcasting is the Joe Rogan Spotify deal for a reported $100 million. I always find it odd that the “experts” using Joe Rogan as an example never seem to mention that Joe started his career in 1980.
For me, the power of podcasting came with information surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement. This information enlightened this “middle-aged white guy” with the information I was never presented growing up.
Send Dave feedback by e-mail at schoolofpodcasting@gmail.com.
Check out Dave’s website HERE.
Our previous interviews Gordon Firemark -Podcast Attorney Danielle Desir - The Thought Card Neal Shore** – **Triton Digital CEO Todd Cochrane – Blubrry Founder Rob Greenlee – Chairman of The Podcast Academy Board of Directors Matty Staudt – CEO of Jam Street Media Jack Hobbs – CEO reVOLVER