20. FIVE Podcast Trends to Be Aware of in 2024

Spotify, Apple, AI — oh my! We're breaking down the 5 trends that we see for the podcasting world for 2024. Video podcasting is here to stay, AI podcasting tools are on the rise and Spotify is playing (and winning) the long game.

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1:11 Video Podcasting is here to stay
2:50 Spotify is coming for Apple
6:25 How podcasters connecting with fans beyond the listening apps
9:30 More people are listening to more shows
11:57 AI is on the rise

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Creators & Guests

Host

Kyle Cummings

Kyle Cummings is the CEO and Founder of Podcircle, a podcast production agency who partners with New York Times bestselling authors, Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs, influencers and everyone in between to produce high-impact podcasts.

Host

Mickenzie Vought

Mickenzie Vought is an expert podcast content strategist. She is also the Producer and Co-Host of the Living Centered Podcast, a leading emotional wellness podcast.

Editor

Podcircle

Premium podcast services for busy people and organizations. Visit Podcircle.com to learn more.

What is Podcircle Podcast?

Finally there’s a podcast for podcasters. Every week join hosts Kyle Cummings and Mickenzie Vought as they share the knowledge and expertise they've gained from years of launching, running, and promoting successful podcasts. Whether you're an aspiring podcaster or you've already got hundreds of episodes under your belt, these conversations dive into the topics that matter to every podcaster — from marketing and growing your podcast, to recording equipment and best practices, monetization, cutting-edge tools, hiring help, and much more.

[00:00:00] Mickenzie Vought: Spotify is getting really strategic about . Taking market share and they want to be a one stop shop for all things audio. they started as like a place you listen to music and now with one subscription, you can listen to all the music you could ever want, except for those artists that refuse to give to Spotify.

looking at you, Garth Brooks, You can have all the podcasts you could ever want a lot of times with exclusive content because they've been very strategic in creating exclusive partnerships with people and the third thing that Spotify has been doing is you can now get any audiobook for account holders, you can get 15 hours a month of any audiobook,

and they've made incredible deals with all the big publishers, to the Podcircle podcast, where we bring practical tips and insights for every podcaster.

[00:00:45] Kyle Cummings: you're just getting started or you're already a seasoned podcast pro, these conversations dive into all the topics that that matter most to you. So today we're gonna talk about five podcast trends you need to be aware of into 2024.

These are some things that we've been seeing this past year in 2023,

I think they're gonna be very relevant if not even more relevant next year. So we're gonna talk about 'em. The first one. Is video podcasting. This is the number one trend to discuss as we look into 2024 and video podcasting isn't going anywhere.

I know that we'vestarted video podcasts for several of our clients, this, especially the back half of this year, and arediscussing starting several more for clients going into next year. so 43% of listeners prefer to listen to podcasts with video, and 28% actively watch video while they're listening. and 29 actually play. Just let the video play in the background or minimize it on their device while they're listening. So this video thing is here to stay. I know several podcasts that Mackenzie and I listen to on Spotify. You know,

you can engage with the video when you want, or if you wanna turn your screen off so you're walking out the door, you, but still wanna listen to the podcast. There's a seamless experience there with Spotify, I think you're gonna see other apps move that direction as well. so if you're in the podcasting space or you're, you're curious about starting a podcast, specifically around starting a video podcast, go back and check out episode 11, uh, the Pod Circle podcast. Um, if you want advice onto when to start a video podcast and the things to consider around that, we always, people to start small,

uh, nine times outta 10, and that's with an audio podcast, still recording video for your social media assets and things.

But you know, the full on production of a video podcast is a lot to take on, especially at the beginning.

So start small and then maybe phase into a video podcast down the line. but if you wanna learn more about that, head back to episode 11 and you can get all the, all the ins and outs of that there.

[00:02:45] Mickenzie Vought: I think number two to really be looking at, into 2024 is where people are finding their podcast and the rise of Spotify. So Spotify has taken market share. But Apple is still in the fight. Spotify and Apple Podcasts are neck and neck as the market leaders.

Um, we did a whole episode on different podcast hosting platforms. as of February, 2022, Spotify had 32.5 million US listeners compared to Apple's 28.5 million. And it's projected that by 2025 the gap is going to widen even more as Spotify hits 42 million and Apple Podcast only grows to 29 million. So. One, I think there's two things we can take from that. apple who came in was the first in the game, is getting capsized because of, some specific things that Spotify is doing. So I literally have in my notes Mackenzie's rant about Spotify and so I have a lot of thoughts on this, but I'll keep them brief.

The first is Spotify is getting really strategic about . Taking market share and they want to be a one stop shop for all things audio. Um, I think they started as like a place you listen to music and now with one subscription, you can listen to all the music you could ever want, except except for those artists that refuse to give to Spotify.

Um, like looking looking at you, Garth Brooks, You can have all the podcasts you could ever want a lot of times with exclusive content because they've been very strategic in creating exclusive partnerships with people.

[00:04:15] Kyle Cummings: at you, d Shepherd,

[00:04:16] Mickenzie Vought: at you, Dax Shepherd,

[00:04:17] Kyle Cummings: Well, actually I think you told me that he's, they don't have an exclusive partnership anymore, but for a while they did with Spotify.

So you could only find them on Spotify.

[00:04:25] Mickenzie Vought: You could only find them on Spotify. I think it was like a two year contract and now you can find them in both places, but they still really heavily, um, market towards Spotify.

And the third thing that Spotify has been doing is you can now get any audiobook you want. So this is something that I think rolled out about a month ago.

They first tried it in the UK and now they're doing it, in the us. And for premium account holders, you can get 15 hours a month of any audiobook,

and they've made incredible deals with all the big publishers, and so they have like every audiobook you could ever want.

[00:04:58] Kyle Cummings: I was just telling McKenzie, so this year on Audible, I bought like four books that I haven't gotten to yet. I. Over on Amazon's audible.

I just signed in, uh, to my Spotify account the other day. All of those books are available included on my Spotify premium package now. So I'm like, what did I, I mean, Amazon or Audible is probably, I think it's like 16 or $17 per month and

I get one book credit. incredible value. So Spotify is really up in their game in the audio, just all things audio space.

[00:05:25] Mickenzie Vought: I think they're gonna go the way of Netflix, right? They're getting you in Amazon, they're getting you hooked on their product. And so now they're starting to upsell and it becomes not a luxury in your life, but a necessity.

Like how many of us are canceling our Netflix? How many of us are canceling our Amazon Prime?

think it's a really interesting, um, thing they're doing and from a podcast perspective. They are attracting more users because of their exclusive content. They're really focusing on video. talked a lot about them in our hosting episode where, uh, they've gotten really strategic with the different hosting, um, platforms that they

Have bought, acquired, and now used. And lastly, they even, um, so far this year, they have invested over a billion dollars in original podcast, And they made the largest deal ever in the podcasting industry by purchasing Gimlet Media for $230 million.

So let's keep our eyes on Spotify because I really do think we're gonna see a lot of things in that, space, and I also think they're gonna go the way of YouTube and really create discoverability. So we'll talk about that in another episode.

[00:06:25] Kyle Cummings: Yeah.

[00:06:25] Mickenzie Vought: The number three trend quickly that I think we should look at is

podcasts with raving fans and how they're caring for their their fans and meeting them outside those podcast apps. So some some of the ways they're doing that is live podcasting, I think we're seeing that increase again, something that's always kind of been there, but people are getting creative with that, especially in a turn towards having more virtual podcasts.

There are platforms that now you can charge an admission, to offer people to view your live podcast. There are people kind of that like . the Twitches of the world where you can kind of tune in. Riverside, our favorite virtual podcast platform. Um, you can give people a link so they can observe and watch.

I think this is a great way to tap into those really raving fans and give them access, whether it's your email list, whether it's your, subscribers, your Patreon. I think that's a great way to just really tap in. And these live episodes are often bonus episodes, and they're in the form of maybe an exclusive interview, a Q&A a, contest, a phone-in live coverage of an event.

I think we're gonna continue to see that in 2024. And just speaking of raving fans, in addition to live podcasting, I think we'll see an uptick in podcasters further mobilizing their social audience and monetizing listenership through subscriptions, merch, um, exclusive offers and coaching. And like we always say, betting on yourself.

Once you, someone has really, tapped into and loved your podcast and become a raving fan of you, that's a great way to switch them over to, becoming a paid fan.

[00:07:52] Kyle Cummings: thing you just made me think of on the Spotify front. Um, I know with artists, you can purchase their merch right off their page.

I wonder if Spotify hasn't already made, like, I'm thinking of armchair expert with Dax Shepherd and Monica Padman. Uh, I wonder if you can purchase, you know, their armchair merch right

off their page? Maybe you can, I, I don't know. I haven't checked in a while, but man, mean, McKenzie and I were talking before this episode doing some prep. I think that Spotify, It is just gonna become more and more of a discoverability platform rather

than just a podcast player. a lot of these apps that are just li they've just been listening devices for so long. They're just where you go

want to consume the podcast. I think that they're gonna become more interactive and they're gonna be places that we go to say, Hey, if you like this podcast. then maybe you'll like this one too.

And the way that YouTube has been such a great discoverability platform for people finding new podcasts, I just think you we're gonna see them become more algorithm algorithmically driven and a place to find more great podcasts.

So,

[00:08:50] Mickenzie Vought: So if you use Spotify for podcasters, you can create, q and As or questions to ask your audience right in the episode, So I think like what you were saying of like creating a space for you to interact with your listeners, kind of those two points going together, I think it's really interesting.

[00:09:06] Kyle Cummings: Yeah, if you, if you wanna say, hey, like what are some topics that you would like for us to cover? You can literally, when you go to post that episode on, um, Spotify for podcasters,

or if you use their more premium, uh, hosting platform called Megaphone,

you can create a poll. You can solicit listener questions. I really think that stuff is smart and I think we're gonna see more and more in that direction. It's just gonna become more social, I think.

the next one is that I found interesting is that more people are listening to more shows. So McKenzie actually found a study reported all time highs for people listening to podcasts at least once a week. So the numbers are still going up into the right in terms of podcasts, many people are consuming podcasts and how frequently. Um, so it went from 21% of respondents in 2019 to 33%. In 2023, a growth of about 12% over the past four years. That's, those are good, good numbers. Almost 20% of podcast listeners listen daily, listen to at least eight shows per week. Honestly, that's, that's pretty on par I would say with my

listenership,

[00:10:09] Mickenzie Vought: And I think we've talked about before, how more people, um, are consuming podcasts than they are television or people that are consuming more hours in quantity of podcasts than television because of the passive nature of it. Right? You can do it while you're folding laundry. You can do it while you're working.

I do it sometimes when I'm doing menial tasks at work. I just plug in a podcast and get going.

[00:10:28] Kyle Cummings: back to the whole Spotify conversation, is that you can dip into video and you can dip out

when you Also, If you are a YouTube premium subscriber, you can shut the video off and put the phone in your pocket and just listen to audio. So that's why I think that we're seeing, we're just seeing moves in that direction. Sometimes people wanna engage with the video, but sometimes they can't. If they're driving, you know, whatever they're doing. Sometimes you just wanna consume the audio and dipping on the video. I think we're gonna see a lot more of that in 2024. so how can you take advantage of this trend? Number one thing that McKinsey and I talk about all the time is

just to create a consistent show. Be consistent

from week to week. It's easier said than done, but it's a really, really important thing to grow your show. give your listeners a reason to tune in every week.

Create quality content that people are interested in that's serving your audience. if you have a niche topic or a niche podcast, where's your audience living online? Um, how

do you get in front of them? that's one of the things that we talk to clients about all the time in our strategy sessions that we have. Where are your listeners? Where are your viewers? Let's go find them and get in front of 'em.

quality audio, podcast production, or just quality sound? Mackenzie told me, I think you said that's like the number one reason that people like dip out on a podcast is because they just, they're like, the audio production, the quality just isn't very good.

We can't hear the host and the guest and the mixing isn't very good. So that, seems inexcusable to me. 'cause that's like my, that's what I do.

[00:11:54] Mickenzie Vought: I bread and butter

[00:11:55] Kyle Cummings: that's my bread and butter. So, we can't do this episode without talking about AI

and the different tools and things that are coming on the scene and have come on the scene in the past couple years, uh, in the podcasting world.

So, um, on the audio video and the copywriting front, Riverside is obviously one, and the way that they, they're recording online

conversations like the one McKinsey and I are having right now. And they're taking those and they're transcribing them for you. Um, they also have a way for you to edit your audio and video, although I'll be very honest and say I think it's

It's pretty primitive

and very limited.

[00:12:31] Mickenzie Vought: a good word for it.

[00:12:32] Kyle Cummings: Yeah.

It's, gonna get you, in my opinion, like 20 or 30% of the way there. If you just wanna trim

the ends off your episode like the dead space. But as far as like editing, like mixing in music and having a lot of flexibility there, it's just, you know, again, it's, it just feels very primitive. Riverside will do things like create episode summaries and write show notes for you if

you're out in that level, um, package with them.

[00:12:55] Mickenzie Vought: Yeah. It's a

[00:12:56] Kyle Cummings: But.

[00:12:57] Mickenzie Vought: package.

[00:12:57] Kyle Cummings: it is, it's, it's basically a chat, GPT, like they're feeding that into like a chat GPT, that's spitting out

like key takeaways, episode summaries, which I think can be very, very valuable

for kind of a value-based. Podcaster. So I,

I'm not, squatting on these things. I do think they're very valuable, but it's only gonna give you as much value as it's gonna give you. know, it's not gonna learn your brand voice kind of thing. And it is gonna sound like a robot wrote it, you know what I'm saying?

And it's

gonna need to be edited a bit. So is it a great starting

place

ab.

[00:13:31] Mickenzie Vought: Yeah.

[00:13:31] Kyle Cummings: Absolutely, no doubt. Um, another one I wanna talk about is Descript, which I really like Descript. I use Descript. for some clients it just kinda depends on the situation. actually have some audio enhancement tools that I think are really great, um, podcasters that don't know about audio leveling, eq, compression, limiting, all these things that I've,

you know, Done my whole life, basically. they have some valuable tools. There are they buggy and do they work all the time? Yes, they are buggy and no, they don't work all the time.

So it's like if you have like a perfect setup going in, then you'll have maybe a better product coming out. But. d script is a really good, like, you can edit the transcript, so you

can kind of remove, like search and remove all your filler words, your ums, your uhs, your pauses.

You can shorten your pauses, and you can do that across your whole episode. Really, really cool. Does it work great all the time? No, it doesn't. It just doesn't. making improvements, but it's still, you can still tell sometimes when they made a cut and an edit and so

I'm still team. Have a human edit your podcast. I still pretty squarely in that boat until the technology gets better,

but they're just not there yet. So we've got episodes planned in 2024, all about AI and its role in

podcasting from Transcribing writing, copy chat, GPT, Riverside descript, otter.ai. There's a lot

of

tools.

[00:14:55] Mickenzie Vought: social posts for you. All the things.

[00:14:57] Kyle Cummings: Exactly. There's, there's AI for all of it, but it's, what you pay

for, in my opinion. So, and it's why you're not gonna see any of your, your favorite podcasts they're not going there yet. They might use

these as tools, but they are not end all, be all solutions to having a really high quality product.

[00:15:14] Mickenzie Vought: I think what my biggest encouragement and takeaway would be for you on this point is work smarter, not harder, but also be really intentional. a tool is only as good as the person

using it. And I think even when we think about chat, GPT, like the people that are gonna win in the next, uh, iteration of work is those that are gonna know how to adapt the tool.

So how do you, what do you, can you do to teach yourself to work within the tool and . Outsourcing weaknesses. If you don't wanna learn how to interact with ai, probably you should get a human who can do it. Right? Right now, that's where we're at. It's not the end all be all yet.

[00:15:47] Kyle Cummings: I'll say like going back to D script just really quickly here,

I'm gonna start training some of my, on how to use D script. 'cause I think it's

I think it's gonna be a powerful platform. It's good at what it's good at and

they're still figuring out some of the other kinks.

But we still, for 99% of our podcasts use Pro Tools to edit

the audio, use Adobe Premier to edit our video podcasts. know, we're still using some of those tools 'cause scissors far superior. But I've got

my eye on some of these AI tools. I'm not

gonna call them AI solutions, I'm just gonna call them tools.

And I love what they can do well ' we're gonna use whatever's best

for the client. is the bottom line there and what's gonna give them the best result? And like you said, McKenzie work work smarter, not harder.

[00:16:28] Mickenzie Vought: All right guys. Well, we are so excited to go into 2024 with you. We are gonna be with you every step of the way, so continue to show up here every week. We will show up and we would love to have you as a listener and we would really love it if you would subscribe. Leave us a review that helps more people find the podcast, and we have a couple of things to really help you in your journey as you go into 2024.

First and foremost, you can go to podcircle.com/start to get our complete podcast starter kit. Um, if you are ready to start your podcast ready at a launch, we are gonna be with you and give you the step-by-step process to do that and to launch well and sustainably and consistent. and the other thing that I wanna talk about.

If you're looking at 2024 and feeling a little overwhelmed about, just showing up consistently, having a good show, maybe you've hit a lull. We love to do strategy sessions with podcasters. It's been one of my absolute favorite things to do with Kyle because we get to get into the nitty gritty of your podcast, bring an outside perspective and really simplify it.

For you and say, here's your plan, here's how you can win. Um, we're gonna do that in about 30 minutes with another client, and really look at the next quarter of her podcast and line it all out for her. So all that she has to do is show up, sit down, press record, and do what she does best.

[00:17:44] Kyle Cummings: Yeah, speak from her, her knowledge and expertise, her 10,000 hours,

'cause she's got a lot of it. we're gonna make that so simple for her to where only gonna spend a couple of hours a month on her podcast. um, excited about that. you're an audio podcast listener of this podcast, we also have the video version on YouTube. So go check that out. Happy New Year everybody.

We're excited to be back with you next week for some more great practical and advice for every podcaster. See you next week.