By Cliff Dumas

The combination of mobility, immediacy, and intimacy makes the podcast audience increasingly valuable to both content providers and brands. Oprah, Russell Brand, Ted Talks, “The Message” by GE., “The Sauce” by McDonald's, #LIPSTORIES by Sephora Collection are just a few of the big-name brands and celebrities jumping into the growing world of podcasting. Podcasting has quickly evolved from niche pastime, to mainstream media.

Podcasting is not restricted geographically or format the way terrestrial radio and television is, podcasts are accessible everywhere! Unlike video, you can create a professional podcast with very little investment. Think of podcasting as a digital video recorder for the Web. As a podcaster, you make content available that people can get how they want, when they want.

Podcasts are what radio wishes it could be. 2019 became a huge year podcasting with the announcement of the $200M acquisition of Gimlet Media by Spotify, and the release of new subscription platforms like Luminary and Brew, the simple concept of the ability to stream content like talk radio on demand on any device over the internet has finally gained mass market appeal, more than 10 years after its inception.

Who is Listening? An estimated 90 million Americans are monthly podcast listeners, according to Edison Research’s The Infinite Dial ®, and 46% of those monthly podcast listeners are women (read full report here).

Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Podcast

• Decide on your content strategy (what will your podcast be about?)

• Purchase the correct equipment

• Choose a Podcast hosting platform

• Distribute your podcast to iTunes, Spotify, iHeart, Spreaker and others

• Be consistent with producing your content (once or twice a week, once a month etc)