Podcasting, as detailed in our last article, has a long and detailed history which took many interesting twists and turns to get to the medium we know and love today…
We believe its future will be equally as intriguing!
Detailed below is our predicted timeline of where we think podcasts could go by the year 2030.
2023:
As artificial intelligence gets smarter, it will allow for audio to be transcribed in real-time. This will make it easier than ever to fact-check information live. This will lead to the suppression of fake news within podcasting as well as increased accountability and regulation for creators and their content.
Podcasting analytics will expand in a big way, allowing creators to see real-time information and a more in-depth breakdown of audience demographics; how many people are listening, when and for how long. Marketing and advertising decisions will be more confidently made with strong analytics data to back them up.
2024:
The amount of content being created saturates the podcasting market. This, alongside increasingly intelligent recommendation algorithms, the rise of smart speakers and waning audience attention spans will lead to podcasts embracing a short-form style and becoming more digestible, similar to apps such as TikTok.
2025:
Independent podcast creators and networks will find themselves competing with the proprietary apps (Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Google) and their increasingly exclusive content and licensing deals. These networks will introduce paid subscriptions, stronger embedded advertising and sponsorships as methods to monetise the influx of listeners and creators.
A pay-for-content model will be favoured and adopted by independent podcasters (as demonstrated by Twitch, Patreon, OnlyFans etc.) seeking ways to monetise their content with the aim of self-reliance and sustainability.
2026:
The diversification of the medium continues, and the conceptual boundaries of what a podcast is will expand. Vodcasts, live-streamed casts and sleep casts (among other variants) become more popular as big names like YouTube, Facebook and Netflix continue to push their way into and innovate the podcasting market.
The lines constituting what is and isn’t a podcast will blur, and the medium will face an identity crisis. The industry will need to re-consider ‘What exactly makes a podcast a podcast?’ and ‘When does it stop being one?’ This could potentially lead to Podcasting being re-named or thought about in a new light.
2027:
The suite of podcast production tools expands dramatically, introducing text-based audio editing, room tone matching, speaker identification and noise reduction technology. This will lead to a new standard of expected quality, making the industry less accessible to amateurs but more professional.
2028:
As A.I. technology gets better, the rise of artificial and digitally created voices will become implemented throughout the medium. A.I. voice clones will become commonly used by creators, initially for pick-ups and quick fixes when hosts are unavailable to re-record.
2029:
A.I. cloning technology will reach a point where you won’t be able to tell the difference between a digital voice and a real physical voice. This could lead to fully digitally produced podcasts which will forever change the culture of the podcasting industry.
Podcast influencers and celebrities will market and “sell” their voices to content creators. This technology will almost certainly spark a morality and ethics debate.
2030:
By 2030, podcasting could become the biggest medium on the planet, valued at $50 billion and potentially competing with television as the go-to source for relevant ’24 hour’ information.
Here at The Podcast Guys, we strive to push podcasting into the future, especially within the workplace! As a company, we constantly seek to push the limits of what a podcast is, does and can be.
Find out today how we can help you become pioneers in your industry through a world-class business!
