Will Indie Podcasters Survive the Podcast Boom

Author: Ona Oghogho

Have you noticed a new trend of large companies branching into podcasting? From Marvel to Netflix, it seems that everyone wants a piece of this multi-million dollar industry. But with all this newfound interest; I must ask, will indie podcasters survive this boom?

I ask this because most podcast within our community are not sponsored; hence, many don’t have the budget or any of the resources readily available to podcast created by large corporations. Some of the biggest challenges that many podcasters face is getting their audience to see that they exist; but with so many things vying for everyone’s attention can we afford for another hit to our market?

We already have to compete with celebrities trickling into the industry; and we all know regardless of the content, they will have the downloads and sponsorship dollars flowing in. The question we now must ask ourselves, is how will adding in corporate backed podcast change the landscape and what can we do to ensure that we remain relevant?

Now don’t get me wrong I do see the benefits to this as well. For instance, the exposure this puts on podcasting can really help expand our listener pool. As podcasting becomes more popular it allows for more exposure to the medium and in turn a new pool of listeners.

I don’t have the answers, but the question remains, will indie podcast be a thing of the past, or is this newfound interest by corporations temporary?