The story of podcasts suddenly being “back” strongly suggests, and mostly requires, that they had been big at one time and had since gone away. That New York Magazine article even cites a “bottom” time: 2010. But that never really happened.
Podcasts in 2010 were a lot like podcasts in 2007, which were a lot like podcasts in 2004, which are a lot like podcasts in 2014. There’s a lot of tech shows (and a lot of tech listeners), but most of the biggest are professionally produced public-radio shows released as podcasts, with other strong contingents in comedy, business, and religion, followed by a huge long tail of special interests with small but passionate audiences.
As I am both a podcaster, and an avid podcast listener, I highly recommend you take the time to read this. I particularly enjoyed Marco’s opening story about an interview for a story about “hipster culture” in his town. Reporter are pretty much not looking for the truth, there not here to report facts, they’re looking for an angle.
I’m glad that the story Marco is talking about ran as it just brings more awareness to podcasts than ever before, but Marco is absolutely spot on in all of his analysis here. Podcasts never left, podcasts are very much as they ever were, which is growing steadily since inception.
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