A look at the crowded podcast market, where competition has made almost everything in the business more difficult, and some say no one is taking creative risks
It's been ages since the last blockbuster narrative show. What does that mean for the medium as an art form? Tweets: @jonquilynhill , @davechensky , @otherwilljames , @risj_oxford , @tonyamosley , @albanbrooke , @starleekine , @galenbeebe , @reblavoie , @jennromolini , @samerkamal , @revjohndelore , @bartona104 , and @stephenwilson See also Mediagazer Tweets: @jonquilynhill : “Your phone is full of podcasts, I'm sure, and maybe you've convinced a friend to add one of your darlings to their queue. But when was the last time a single title was being dissected by everyone you know?” Podcasting Is Just Radio Now https://www.vulture.com/... David Chen / @davechensky : An interesting article by @nwquah about how there hasn't been a new blockbuster podcast in awhile. My uninformed take about why this is: The rate of new podcasts has grown far faster than the rate at which new people are listening to podcasts. https://www.vulture.com/... Will James / @otherwilljames : I got into making podcasts in 2018, and things just felt... different than they do now. For a while, I've been struggling to articulate the sentiment in this quote. https://www.vulture.com/... https://twitter.com/... @risj_oxford : “When was the last time a single [podcast] title was being dissected by everyone you know?,” asks @nwquah, on the dearth of blockbuster podcasts like @serial https://www.vulture.com/... @tonyamosley : “For some in the business, the medium's diminishing ability to drive such moments poses an existential problem. What does it mean for podcasting as an art form if it rarely inspires widespread critical discussion?” @nwquah https://www.vulture.com/... Alban Brooke / @albanbrooke : true crime and celebrity interviews are the “superhero movie remakes” of podcasting. shout out to everybody who's trying to do something different. https://twitter.com/... Starlee Kine / @starleekine : Mystery Show wasn't limited run, it was cancelled. And @DeadEyespodcast is at least as big a hit as The Bear https://twitter.com/... Galen Beebe / @galenbeebe : This piece basically asks “what happens when podcasting stops producing [blockbuster shows everyone talks about]?” and also, has it stopped? Here's a thread with my thoughts. 1/ https://www.vulture.com/... Rebecca Lavoie / @reblavoie : Nick's piece is awesome. One thing to note: When downloads started getting counted via IAB 3 standards, *all* of our downloads took huge, huge hits as well, because it turns out a lot of them weren't actually downloads. https://twitter.com/... Jennifer Romolini / @jennromolini : .@lrmayer 's unabashed crusade against Big Podcasting — & its same kind of 'pivot to video'/ corporate media fuckery that happens to every good creative medium/thing — is so inspiring i could cry https://twitter.com/... Samer Kamal / @samerkamal : Between the ease of market entrance and old media jumping in, the podcast market lost its luster. Unless you're a big name or an early winner, creative is desperately needed to breakaway. https://twitter.com/... John DeLore / @revjohndelore : Gotta echo the headline: no hate to karaoke. But, yeah, I agree. And I think another presumption is that you can reverse-engineer a success & then make it with less resources than the original. Like it's paint by number. (No hate to paint by number) https://twitter.com/... Julia Barton / @bartona104 : Podcasting was always going to become “radio” because ads demand inventory and inventory demands frequency. But the competition for production talent is not going backwards to the days of broadcast's monopoly. Quite the opposite. https://www.vulture.com/... Steve Wilson / @stephenwilson : My take as someone who had the privilege of working on the hits, the content quality hasn't changed — it's actually increased. But, the platforms focus, strategies, and tactics have and are thus less effective at driving fame for any one show. https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer