Morgan Franklin: As of December 2024 in the past month, 47% of
Americans aged 12 and over have listened to a podcast. Isn't
that crazy to think about almost half of Americans over the age
of 12 last month listened to a podcast. That's the highest
number of active podcast listeners ever recorded. So
needless to say, 2025 will be the year of the podcast. We are
set to surpass every financial projection and listener Outlook
data. So what can you do as a podcaster to prepare for what's
coming and not get lost in the shuffle. Hello and welcome to
podcast for profit. My name is Morgan Franklin. I'm a Podcast
Producer, strategist and educator. This podcast will help
you create and grow a podcast that cuts through the noise of
social media and speaks directly to your target audience. If
you're ready to create a podcast that will align you with the
experts in your industry, position yourself as a trusted
leader and create another source of revenue for your business.
You're in the right place in this episode, we're going to
talk about my 10 predictions for podcasts in 2025 ranging on
everything from Episode length, to AI to YouTube, will cover
everything I think is going to change in podcasting in the next
year to help you succeed and make more money with your
podcast. First thing and just let me say, while everyone else
was out having fun and enjoying the last of their holiday break
and wearing out their out of office, auto responder. I have
been uploading and optimizing every podcast episode that I've
ever published to put on YouTube, and figuring out how to
start doing a video component for this podcast is my first
projection is YouTube is going to be the next major platform
for podcast listening. I mean, it's already here, but the total
takeover has been a long time coming. I mean, after Google
podcasts finally bit the dust in April of 2024 and consolidated
with YouTube podcasts, I knew it was only a matter of time before
we were forced onto YouTube and we had no other choices,
podcasters, I'll start with why I think you should take the time
to make a YouTube channel for your podcast, if you haven't
already, this is an investment in your brand and the growth of
your podcast. Think about how often you search for something
on YouTube. I jokingly call it YouTube university, but like you
know when you start watching a video and you click onto another
and another and another, if you aren't where the listeners are,
you will never get those listens. You have to be where
the listeners are, and you have to be where they are actually
searching for your podcast. I'd say that there's just as good of
a chance that someone is searching for your podcast on
YouTube as they are on Spotify, and if you aren't actively
posting, or you aren't at all on YouTube, you are missing out on
the chance to reach that listener. Another thing, not
everyone is going to take the time to do this, and this is
going to tie into my next point about making a video component
for your podcast, but there are so many lazy podcasters out
there, just because they make it past that seventh episode, or
whatever that statistic is about, when most podcasters quit
their show, that does not mean that they are putting out high
quality content. It doesn't mean that they're taking the time to
optimize episodes and to make sure that they're on all
platforms like YouTube, you have to be the one that's putting in
the work that other people aren't, so you can get the
results that they don't have one other thing on YouTube before we
move on. When I say video, I don't mean that you have to have
a live recording of you recording your podcast. You can
just do a graphic that you upload the audio onto. Now, will
that be as effective as having a live visual of you talking and
recording the episode? I don't think so, but it's better than
you not having anything. And if it's all you can do, that is
okay. I always say this, but doing what you can do
consistently is better than doing what you don't have the
capacity to do once in a while. But either way, you should find
a way to upload your podcast on YouTube. My next prediction, as
I said, is the importance of video components for your
podcast. This is one of the most asked questions that I get as a
Podcast Producer, and I'm gonna stand by what I've always said
on this podcast, Master Audio first and then worry about
video. If you don't have the time or money or knowledge to do
video, Don't pressure yourself into. Doing it. Take baby steps
as your podcast improves and grows and makes money. Don't let
that hold you back from making a podcast. However, if you do have
that said, time and money and or access to equipment and
knowledge to edit the video, you should be doing it. When I went
to the last virtual creator event for Spotify, I realized
just how big of a deal the video is about to be on Spotify, and
you know, that's probably gonna leak onto other platforms like
Apple podcasts. And do I like it? No, I do not. No, I don't
like it. I love podcasts because you can listen to them and you
can do something else. You can be multitasking while you're
listening to a podcast. I personally have no interest in
watching someone talk, but that's not what the platform
wants to see. And you know, really, that's all that matters.
We have to give them what they want so that we can perform
better on their platform. The truth is, you are gonna have
more opportunities to make money with your podcast if you have a
video component. I mean, Spotify has already said that they are
going to prioritize the native videos, which is meaning videos
that you take the time to upload in Spotify creator and podcasts
that are uploaded to their platform. So just keep that in
mind, they are not only going to be recommending those podcasts
more, they're going to be paying out more, and when I say more, I
mean it all because they are only paying out for content that
is natively uploaded to their platform. Specifically, you have
more material to chop up into marketing content. If you have a
video component to your podcast, when you have a video, you can
cut it up into clips and upload it onto social media and YouTube
and even Spotify, whereas if you aren't videoing, you don't have
that opportunity, you just don't have that content. Now, while I
don't think that just chopping up stuff and putting it on
social media is a perfect way to market your podcast, some shows
do that, and they have a great success, but I personally think
that your listeners deserve more than just chopped up clips of
your episode, so make sure that you're keeping that in mind too.
Is like if you are investing in video for your podcast, will
that also leave you with the budget and the time to be able
to do the other kind of marketing that you need to do to
drive new listeners to your podcast. My next prediction is
the rise of micro podcast episodes. Now this is what I
like to listen to 30 minutes or shorter before ads. So listening
to a three hour long podcast episode, to me and to many
others, is exhausting. You know, some people love it, or they
love it once in a while when there's a guest that they really
like, but I think that we're gonna see a really big uptick in
30 minute or less podcast episodes, especially as we see
the rise of YouTube podcasts and other short form platforms,
especially if Tiktok gets banned, there will still be a
place, of course, for those multi hour long episodes, but
retention and growth as a podcast, I think is going to be
those shorter episodes getting even more popular in 2025 next
interactive in person or immersive experiences. And I
think that 2025 is the year of bringing online offline, because
think about the online pop culture that went offline in
2024 when I think about this, I think specifically about things
like the brat tour and just brat in general. People wanted to be
part of the culture offline and to go to these events and to
wear green and to be brat, whatever that meant for you.
Listeners want to interact with your show in a mutual way. You
know, I'm thinking about a podcast I was listening to this
week that had a poll about what the next episode should be
about, and I thought that this was such a cool way to engage
with the audience in a way that like I don't normally see. And
this could be done a lot of different ways. You could just
link it back to your episode and have a poll there where people
can vote. But I'm predicting that listeners want more
interactions with hosts and podcasts in 2025 I don't
necessarily mean live recording, because live recordings really
aren't interactions. What I'm more talking about are listeners
having the opportunity to have in person community with other
listeners of the podcast, or to experience something immersive
that is provided by the podcast. Next is niche and edutainment
content. You can never be too niche. I feel like I say that in
every episode, but you can't be too niche. I remember I did a
podcast recording. It was probably about two years ago.
Now, feels like yesterday, but it was probably about two years
ago, someone that was opening a plant store. She said that she
listened to a podcast about how to open a plant store while she
was trying to figure out how to open her business. And I
thought, wow, that is really specific. And yes, it is, but.
That was what she was looking for. That's what I want to see
from you. I want people to come up to you and say, oh my gosh,
your podcast is literally the exact podcast I was looking for.
Let me give you an example. Let's say that you have a
podcast for women on dating in the digital age. I mean, that
seems pretty specific, right? But if I was working with you,
I'd say you need to get it so much more specific than that. I
want you to tell me that it's a podcast for women in their 40s
in the digital age, looking for Mr. Right instead of Mr. Right.
Now, divorcees, widows, single moms are all welcome see how
much more niche and specific that is. If you tell me it's
just about dating and women, I mean, that's like 10% of the
American population, right? How would I know if this podcast is
for me, you need to get specific, and this is exactly
what I created my one hour coaching session for if you need
someone to help you. Get specific like this, all of the
information for my exploratory call will be in the episode
description, so make sure that you check that out next. I think
that we're going to have a lot more opportunities for
programming sponsorship in 2025 and now, what do I mean by that
atrocious word? You know how dynamic ads are inserted into
your podcast at the beginning, middle and end, and they aren't
read by the host. They're just a it's kind of like on YouTube
when you click on a video and it plays whatever ad it is for a
demographic, but it just kind of plays an ad. That's what I'm
talking about when I mean programmic sponsorship. So
there's already options for this on Apple podcast and Spotify for
people with a large enough audience, and I think that
everyone is going to start getting a slice of this. Slice
of this pie in 2025 you can think of it like kind of a
creator reward program from Tiktok or Instagram, but instead
it's for podcasters. So start working on your number of
subscribers and your retention rate. Basically, pay attention
to any numbers that you can figure out about your podcast,
and start trying to improve those so when those
opportunities come available, you can be qualified for them.
Next, there's going to be a lot more competition between
podcasting platforms. So think Apple podcasts, Spotify,
YouTube, etc. They're going to want you to host your podcast
with them, and they're going to want listeners to want to listen
on their platform. And I think that this is going to make it a
lot easier to have exclusive content on different platforms,
and they're going to be offering creators different things for
hosting with them. So it's kind of like social media, if you
have enough attention, they're going to pay you to prioritize
their platform. So you need to pay attention to this and make
sure that you know where the majority of your listeners are
and what platform they're using, and that is going to lead me to
my next prediction. My next prediction is data driven
content for Far, far too long, US podcasters have been in the
prison of our own making, relying on downloads to tell us
somehow everything that we are supposed to know about the
success of our podcast this year is going to be the data
revolution for podcasters, especially now that so many
platforms are trying to get our attention and our listeners,
there is going to be listener data like you have never seen
before on all of these hosting sites. I predict that this is
going to be the most consequential year for podcast
data and listener analytics that we've ever seen. And thank you
to Apple podcast and Spotify for getting that ball rolling next
and I know that this has been relevant for a while, but it's
going to get moved up to the next level, with platforms all
trying to get in front of listeners like we talked about,
there's going to be so much more subscriber and exclusive content
in 2025 and so whether it's provided through a podcasting
platform like Apple podcast, for example, where you have a
subscriber subscription, or maybe even a third party, like
Patreon, I predict many more podcasters are going to be using
exclusive content to make money and to build community with
their audience, and I don't think that it's all about making
money. It's about being able to provide more content and a
better experience to listeners. So whether that's through ad
free listening or exclusive episodes or early access to
episodes, paid subscriptions are gonna be everywhere. Last but
not least, my final prediction for podcasting in 2025 is the
use of AI and whether it's helping you to write show notes
or optimize episode titles or just transcribe an episode, AI
is here to stay for podcasters and even podcast listeners, my
best advice to you as a podcaster is try to find small
ways to incorporate AI into your podcast workflow. Is like I
always say, AI will not replace you, but people who use AI will,
so make sure that you're taking advantage of all the things AI.
Can do. I actually have a free download with four prompts that
you can use on chatgpt. They're the prompts that I use every
week on my podcast. Oh, and I have a whole episode that is
teaching you about them and telling you how to use them.
I'll link that in the episode description. But look at your
podcast workflow and see what AI can help you with. Because while
you're spending hours and hours and hours doing this work,
someone else is using AI, and they are about to outperform
your podcast in every single area. If you want to know more
about how AI can be implemented into your podcast workflow, my
contact information for a complimentary exploratory call
will be in the episode description. I have a one hour
coaching package that will be absolutely perfect to show you
how to use AI in your podcast. That's one hour that will
literally save you hundreds of hours in the future. If you have
any other questions about what to expect for podcasting in 2025
please send me an email. It's Morgan at Morgan Franklin dot
media that will also be in the episode description. Happy New
Year, and as always, I can't wait to listen to your podcast.
Hey. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. If
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