How podcasts became the soundtrack to our lives

If you have any spare time on your hands, kick back and ask friends or colleagues, “what’s your favourite podcast?” You won’t be disappointed. In the beginning podcasts were pretty niche. Nonetheless, they’ve become a true phenomenon. But just how have they found this place in people’s hearts? After all, the world is certainly not short on entertainment. It seems that, like so many trends, they simply found the right place at the right time.

Podcasts are, effectively, public access broadcasting, which is certainly nothing new. America has had this on cable TV for what feels like forever, and it was immortalised in the 1992 comedy Wayne’s World at almost precisely the same time as the first personal blogs found an audience. This kind of ‘Confessional Media’, as it was known, set the scene nicely for a world that wanted a taste of something away from the mainstream. Audiences weren’t looking for polish, but purity. The authenticity of something unfiltered that was the very hallmark of those earliest online experiences in chatrooms and blogs.

Then, in 2001, something happened that was the beginning of everything we know today. A little white digital audio player with matching headphones that could hold “a thousand songs,” (as Steve Jobs announced when he launched it in a special Apple event). This obviously sounds hilarious today but look at the choice of word: songs. Steve’s famous crystal ball didn’t predict that his company would be the catalyst for a new form of media entirely.

Even the name, coined by journalist Ben Hammersley in February 2004, is a portmanteau of ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcasting’. By the end of the year, the iPod was on its 4^th Generation, with sales of around 10 million. And by happy coincidence, as sales of the iPod rose, the price of audio recording equipment dropped. In 2005, the Oxford American Dictionary named ‘podcast’ their ‘Word of the Year.’

Anyone who wanted to be heard found their way onto popular shows – or started their own. Its ‘access anywhere’ format gave the podcast a new status as the soundtrack to busy lives. After all, it fits neatly into a world that now multitasks as a matter of course (a few notable exceptions aside, most podcasts are the perfect length for a dog walk, commute or trip to the gym). But it was the social aspect to podcasting that really set it apart from other media. It gave audiences a connection and closeness that TV and radio broadcasters of the time just couldn’t replicate, no matter how hard they tried.

Fans were seen, heard and responded to by their hosts through hashtags, which also served to create communities which took to Twitter (as it was then called) to join ‘listening parties’. In a world simultaneously more and less connected, this experience felt warm, familiar and, most importantly, more authentic than just passively listening. Today, it’s estimated that over 500 million people worldwide listen to podcasts and the numbers just keep increasing. So, these communities are vast, bringing people together from all over the world in a shared love of an extraordinary number of subjects.

And there’s pretty much something for everyone. Comedy consistently tops the charts, followed by news and current affairs and, of course, true crime, which has a devoted following. However, that doesn’t mean that all podcasts in these genres are successful. Much has been written on the ingredients for a great show, but it distils down to a few basics: know your subject and stay with it (a good podcast can be described in a sentence), be consistent (new episodes arrive regularly), get to know your audience and, increasingly, consider whether you want your show to be audio, video or both.

Podcasts, by their nature, blur media lines. They are a space for open discourse that might never find its way into the mainstream, while still attracting similar numbers. And they can be recorded everywhere – from airports to armchairs – with a spirit of DIY that is, in essence, part of their enduring appeal. And, like audio before, the high-quality gear needed for recording video podcasts is now well within reach. “Just over four years ago we decided to launch Diary of a CEO in video, and it was one of the most important decisions we ever made,” explains entrepreneur and podcaster Steven Bartlett, speaking to Canon UK. “Really the growth comes from the video component when your show is cut into lots of clips and goes out into the wider internet, like a fishing rod, and pulls audiences.”

For Steven, who attracts over 50 million views and listeners a month, studio sets and cinematic production values are all part of his brand, but there are equally popular shows that have a far simpler set-up. Ultimately, it’s all about authenticity – meeting the expectations of your audience – and creating a genuine connection with viewers and listeners. Live podcasts too are becoming the norm, with listeners and viewers ‘tuning in’, as they might have done to TV twenty years ago – albeit with the added interactivity of chat, including the ability to ask questions of hosts and guests in real time. Does this mean that we have come full circle?

Demand is high and, right now, it certainly doesn’t look like podcasts are going to become any less influential. Hosts have celebrity status in their own right, and up and coming podcasts are a hotbed for new talent and ideas. Netflix is reported to be in talks with some of the world’s most popular podcasters and YouTube creators with a view to bringing their content to its service. Whatever the future looks and sounds like, one thing is for certain – if you ask for podcast recommendations, you’ll never come away empty handed.