Way more thrilling than profitable “World’s Greatest Cup of Espresso,” Edison Analysis revealed that as of This fall 2025, Individuals spent extra time listening to podcasts than spoken content material on AM/FM radio!
Discover that this is not monitoring the variety of Individuals or the variety of exhibits. This evaluates a very powerful foreign money we’ve as people: time. How we make investments our 24 hours makes a large distinction, and extra Individuals at the moment are deliberately selecting to take a position their time in podcasts.
The regular decline of AM/FM radio speak content material is staggering. In 2015, radio held 75% of spoken-word listening time. At this time, in 2025, it has dropped to 39%. Podcasts, alternatively, have been at a mere 10% in 2015. At this time, they account for 40% of the time spent listening.
AM/FM radio is dying
I not too long ago attended and spoke on the Nationwide Non secular Broadcasters (NRB) Conference. In a digital media committee assembly, somebody spoke passionately about their efforts to maintain AM and FM radio accessible in fashionable vehicles. I had a fierce inside debate earlier than lastly talking up. I joked that they may hate me or kick me out for saying it, however I instructed them that combating to maintain AM/FM radio is a dropping battle. In the end, it is going to die. We have to make digital our main focus.
I see AM/FM radio dying in 4 particular methods:
- Availability is vanishing. AM radio causes interference in lots of electrical autos, so it is being actively eliminated. Have you ever purchased a tool that receives AM/FM alerts not too long ago? I have not in over 25 years. The one working radio in my home is my unique teenage stereo, and I solely maintain it as a result of the connected audio system are higher than my TV’s built-in sound.
- The content material is dying. Terrestrial radio broadcasts the very same handful of matters throughout the board: sports activities, politics, information, funds, relationships, and faith. You are not going to seek out area of interest content material. Making issues worse, precise content material is more and more being pushed out by heavy promoting simply to cowl the station’s broadcasting payments.
- The need is dying. Why would I look forward to an appointed broadcast time simply to have another person determine what I ought to take heed to, solely to be interrupted by visitors experiences and climate on the fives? Individuals want extra management over their listening habits, which explains the large drop in listening time.
- The viewers is actually dying. There is no such thing as a delicate technique to put it. The common age of an AM/FM shopper is far older than that of a podcast listener, and that demographic is fading whereas youthful audiences select utterly other ways to devour their content material.
Podcasts are thriving
Podcasting would not have the costly restraints of conventional radio. We are able to speak about no matter we would like, make episodes as lengthy or brief as we would like, and skip the FCC constraints positioned on broadcast radio. Many extremely profitable podcasters are recording in a sizzling closet with a $50 microphone, getting audio high quality that rivals radio, and constructing a lot deeper relationships with their listeners.
Podcasts are thriving in the very same 4 areas the place radio is dying:
- Availability: It looks as if each gadget has a podcast characteristic now. Apps, sensible TVs, and fashionable automotive digital sprint programs have podcasts constructed proper in with out even needing to pair your cellphone.
- Content material: The content material has been thriving because the starting. Once I had a 90-minute commute again in 2005, speak radio was frying my mind cells. I wished to take heed to what I wished, once I wished to. You will discover a podcast about actually something, and if you cannot, you can begin one and join with an viewers desperately ready for it.
- Want: Listening to a podcast is an intentional selection. Years in the past, I used my mother and father as a social experiment. I by no means educated them on podcasts; I simply waited to see after they would want them unprovoked. After they lastly began telling me concerning the exhibits they have been listening to, I knew podcasting was mainstream. Individuals love podcasts a lot they even use “pod dashing” (listening at 1.5x, 2.5x, or in my loopy case, typically successfully 3x pace with silence discount) simply to devour extra of it.
- Viewers: Podcasting has enabled extra entrepreneurs than every other previous medium. A long time in the past, consultants offered their coaching on costly cassette packages for lots of of {dollars}. At this time, audiences can get that very same experience totally free. Have a look at John Lee Dumas with Entrepreneurs on Hearth—he desired content material to encourage his entrepreneurial journey, could not discover it, created it himself, and helped numerous others thrive within the course of.
Takeaway: embrace a distinct segment
So, how do you capitalize on this thriving medium? Sure, there are thousands and thousands of podcasts on the market, however far fewer are actively publishing. The competitors is not as massive because it appears. Your magic weapon is that this: embrace a distinct segment.
Your area of interest may be your precise subject material—like a present devoted purely to dinner recipes for busy mothers of toddler boys. But it surely would not must be.
Your area of interest may also be your method, perspective, or expertise. Years in the past, I hosted a podcast concerning the TV present As soon as Upon a Time. There have been loads of different podcasts concerning the present, however we survived all of them as a result of our area of interest was diving extremely deep into Easter eggs and fan theories. One other podcaster lined the very same TV present, however their area of interest was closely poking enjoyable and laughing together with the absurdities. Similar topic, utterly totally different niches.
Your method separates you from everybody else. Work out what makes your distinctive perspective particular and amplify it. You need to be the reply when a listener tells their buddy, “You’ve got gotta take heed to this podcast as a result of…”
Embrace a distinct segment so that you simply, your podcast, and your viewers can thrive!
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Disclosure
This submit might comprise hyperlinks to services or products with which I’ve an affiliate relationship. I could obtain compensation out of your actions by such hyperlinks. Nevertheless, I do not let that corrupt my perspective and I do not advocate solely associates.
