Essay on Podcast Viable Income

Mini-Literature Review

The potential of the podcast in the UK

The worldwide podcasting was valued to be USD 9.28 Billion in 2019 and research estimated an annual growth rate of 27.5% from 20120 to 2027. The rapid growth in podcasting with vast publisher podcasts has attracted a lot of attention from the bigger budgets in the United Kingdom. Podcasts have become a popular medium and the majority of performance-driven advertisers are utilizing the price favorable and results traceable. The podcasts have well be known to attract a cluster of bigger brands in the direct to consumer markets where giants have turned their attention to the format (Malecki, et al., 2019). In the U.K, there have been arguments if podcasting can deliver for business, but the issue remains on the demand on the roles of podcasts. Therefore, there is a need to understand the value equation between the listener to know how the revenue paradigm changes.

Accordingly, the research found out that more than 2000 podcasts are released weekly and only the top 5% of podcasts can generate six-figure audiences which attracts the advertisers. However, the low audience does not reflect on the time listeners spend on podcasts which sometimes are favorable for advertisers. The audience in the United Kingdom has been growing steadily reflecting an increase in podcast listeners. Recently, studies have shown that podcast is now the popular form of entertainment in the United Kingdom. They are majorly common among the youths whereby 40% of the UK listeners are between the ages of 26-35 who listens to podcasts on weekly basis. Smartphones are the commonly used devices listening to podcasts when it comes to the common podcast genre in the UK, the sports and comedy are leading with male listeners while comedies and music lead the genre preferred with female listeners (Rupinski & Rander, 2019).

Figure 1: Genres listened weekly

Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=podcasts+genres+&tbm=isch&ved

Podcasting has been evolving very fast when the numbers are something to go by. The listener s comprises of different demographics who attracts the sellers of the goods and services. Thus podcasts could make money from the sponsors and the organizations that are willing to pay to make the brands popular on podcasts listeners. For instance, podcasters can demand up to $40 for every 1000 listeners, looking back at the average advertising rates in the industry stands at $18 cost per listeners for every 30 seconds and $ 60 for the 1-minute ad. Besides, the podcast can get paid through crowdfunding or donations which goes to them directly and this encourages continuity in podcasts. Moreover, podcasters could increase their income by gaining new consumers on their services. This could be achieved through establishing trust which could play an important role in turning listeners into consumers. Therefore, social contributions that are vital to the growth of podcasting could include allowing listeners to engage in time-shifting by giving them space interdependence. The listeners also view traditional radios to have a lot of advertising and they get frustrated with the homogenous nature of radio programming.

Primary Research

Data collection

Data collection started by conducting an extensive literature review which helped in establishing the overview of the knowledge in the domain. The results of the review will be reflected in the secondary data to compare the author’s arguments. However, due to the vastness in the field, there was a gap when using the approach. Secondary data could be defined as the data collected by someone but not the primary user. The secondary data was collected from a wide range of sources to give an insight on the overview and at the same time covering the objectives of the research (Clark & Vealé, 2018). The collected data was finalized by evaluating different sources to evaluate quality and consistency.

The primary data

The purpose of the research comprised of data collected from 6 workers of a podcast platform and the manager in charge of sales at Bolton FM. The podcast was selected because I had an insight into the company and also the participants could be recognized as experts in the industry due to their vast experience in the media industry. The radio station Bolton FM was used to assess the reliability of the gathered data and also as a reference point. Given the nature of interviews and how they consume time, the qualitative research became limited when formulating the generalization associated with the findings. Thus, a total of 7 interviews was perceived to be efficient in providing sufficient overview. The main goal was not to outline the representative sample but to yield the sample that represents the organization. Through this technique, the sampling was done by self-selection process whereby experts were selected through different criteria that were significant to the study design. The determining techniques required the workers to have roles that are embedded in the company and their responsibilities to vary as well as their backgrounds. The sample of the interview can be shown in the table below.

Out of the 7 interviews, 6 were done through face to face interaction while the interview with the co-founder was done through the Zoom meeting call due to his tight schedule. Given the company context, the semi-structured interviews were essential in omitting questions that did not meet the subjects. The interview draft was utilized in guiding the conversation while the flow of the questions was varying accordingly and this ensured smooth conversational flow. The average interview time was 30 minutes where the longest took approximately 40 minutes while the shortest lasted for 15 minutes. Every interview was recorded as the participants allowed so and only important parts of the interview was transcribed. The table above represents the time each

participant consumed in the interview . The results will be analyzed further in the following chapter to establish the participant’s thoughts on the future of podcasting and its viability to income. During the interview, there is a need to keep in mind that data saturation should be met and therefore after the interview was done, it was concluded that the findings provided for the insight of the study, hence data saturation was accomplished.

References

Clark, K. R., & Vealé, B. L. (2018). Strategies to enhance data collection and analysis in qualitative research. Radiologic technology, 89(5), 482CT-485CT.

Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K. D., Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., … & Lalu, M. M. (2019). Predatory journals: no definition, no defence.

Malecki, S. L., Quinn, K. L., Zilbert, N., Razak, F., Ginsburg, S., Verma, A. A., & Melvin, L. (2019). Understanding the use and perceived impact of a medical podcast: qualitative study. JMIR medical education, 5(2), e12901.

Rupinski, L., & Rander, J. (2019, January). Telling Stories: A Case Study in Podcasting with Archival Resources. In Archival Issues: Journal of the Midwest Archives Conference (Vol. 40, No. 1).