Podcast Annual Review 2024

YouTube: 

• More video will come and YouTube will raise its head even higher. We have direct data on this for our own productions, almost everyone wants at least some video component in their production, whether it's a short video, a trailer for a podcast or a full video episode. This development is helped by the discoverability offered by YouTube, the platform's investment in short videos, and the closure of Google podcasts. 

Good to know: 

• When Google podcasts closed, the episodes were moved to YouTube music. This is a big transition towards YouTube for podcasts. 
• YouTube is now the 3rd most popular podcast platform in the world (Cumulus Media and Signal Hill 2023 Fall report). 
• In Finland, YouTube has 4.6 million users. It has the potential to reach a large part of the total population, as well as specific niche audiences.

‍

‍Spotify: 

Spotify also wants to invest in the discoverability of the series. It has an estimated 1.8 million users in Finland, so there is a large audience to reach. The current challenge has been that it is difficult for consumers to find new and interesting listening material, even though there is plenty available for those who know how to search. 

Remember these: 

• Add keywords to headlines and metatext. This way, your production will pop up in the context of relevant keywords. 
• Measure your podcast impressions and their relationship to total listens. Make your covers and headlines as attractive as possible!
• Be sure to direct listeners to your podcast from all possible sources, from social media, newsletters, email sign-ups, sector-specific online groups, etc.

‍

AI Tools: 

Of course, the general development of artificial intelligence also has an impact on podcasting. There are a number of useful tools available, for example here is a good list of them: https://www.thepodcasthost.com/planning/ai-podcasting-tools/

Good to know: 

• The use of AI tools is increasing in different contexts. Examples of uses: subtitling and editing clips, cutting sequences to a certain length, correcting & editing the sound of sequences, writing copy of sequences, turning text into sound

• 66% of podcasters already use some form of AI tools (Headliner survey, late 2023)

‍

Advertising and money:

Podcasts continue to grow as a serious form of media, also from a financial perspective. 50% of marketers worldwide expect significant increases in budgets for podcasts (Acast survey, late 2023). At the same time, advertising revenues from podcasts are expected to increase by 43% in 2024 (IAB, 2023). 

Good to know: 

• There is no centralised advertising platform in Finland yet (one is being developed by the undersigned, as well as other production companies).
• Sponsored podcasts are still on the rise. Currently, podcast producers are very much selling advertising space for their productions themselves. 

Globally, podcast advertising is mainly dynamic: according to an IAB study, 90% of international podcast advertising money comes from dynamic ads. In Finland, we are lagging far behind in this development. 

‍

Audience numbers:

International listenership continues to grow. 40 million new podcast listeners are expected to join the world in 2024. (Insider Intelligence's Global Podcast Listeners Forecast 2023)

Finland lacks a central database of listener numbers, but Spotify has an estimated 1.8 million users in Finland and YouTube has around 4.6 million. These figures help to illustrate the differences between platforms in terms of maximum listener reach. 

‍

Short videos and TikTok

According to Krash's own data, almost everyone wants their podcasts to include short videos. The platforms they use include YouTube shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook, LinkedIn and X. So they can be used almost anywhere. The best impressions per clip we've seen are on TikTok, where it's not uncommon for a podcast clip to organically get over 100,000 plays from a channel with very few followers.

‍

Content types, what can we expect in 2024? 

An election year in Finland, as in the USA. Political podi content has already been produced and much more is on the way. Wars and other issues are also on the agenda in the pods. The flow of news and current affairs media into podcasts will continue to increase. 

There will be more fun in 2024. Comical and opinionated podcasts are on the rise and the unleashing has officially begun. This will raise the bar even higher for entertainment podcasts. 

This year will also see more ad-funded influencer-driven pods. Podcast ads will increasingly become a natural part of the offerings of influencers and influencer agencies. 

We can expect much better and more ambitious podcasts from companies. They will be targeted either at small, narrowly defined audiences in an expert-driven way, or at the masses in an influencer- and celebrity-driven way. Today, companies understand that podcasts compete with all other media and content, so their quality needs to be in line with the competition. This is where marketing teams, production companies, influencers and independent journalists have their work cut out.