Australia’s podcasting boom has finally arrived
With print publishers racing to get on board, consumers back in love and brands recognising it as the next frontier of native advertising, podcasting is the medium of 2015, argues Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes.
Back in 2012 I found myself at a gathering of a cult.
I joined hundreds of disciples gathered at Sydney’s Town Hall to worship at the feet of Ira Glass. Tickets to hear from the host of This American Life were so in demand that they put on a second late show.
With just an iPad in his hand to play audio clips and control a music bed as he talked, the presenter of This American Life gripped the room.
TPN didn’t die due to the GFC FYI and the source: I’m a former TPN podcaster.
Hi Duncan,
That assertion was based on a page on the history of TPN: http://thepodcastnetwork.com/?page_id=4674
“But then the Global Financial Crisis hit in 2008 and all of our advertisers disappeared almost overnight. We struggled on for a few more years but the TPN servers went dark on 19 June 2012.”
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
The Slate Culture Gabfest is almost always worth a listen. The Moth is pretty good as well. Monocle magazine have some good podcasts.
There’s some amazing work being done in this space by some really bright media minds.
Giant Dwarf (The Chaser’s Theatre) do a great short-form story-telling one called “Story Club”.
I’m working at Omny, we built Omny Studio here in Australia and we’ve been talking to people who want to be a part of this audio renaissance. The monetisation piece is not as difficult as it seems. There’s some great ideas coming through – watch this space.
Hi Tim,
An interesting article.
We began podcasts last year. Since then, the Mamamia Women’s Network has build a podcast network of five shows, all of which at some stage in their life cycle have been featured in itunes. We feature women, and a lot of them. From sociologist Susan Carland, to Dr Rebecca Huntley, former ABC presenter Sarah MacDonald, Mia Freedman and Jamila Rizvi, we cover everything from pop-culture to politics, to parenting.
Our flagship program, Mamamia Out Loud, has just eclipsed half a million downloads, and we’ve just partnered with Virgin Airlines to broadcast another one of our programs on their inflight entertainment systems.
For us, podcasting is a way to get more women’s voices on air, in primary roles, since commercial talkback radio seems so averse to it.
I’d be happy to talk to you anytime about podcasting in general.
Best regards,
Monique Bowley, Podcast Director, Mamamia Women’s Network
Hat tip to Andrew Sidwell. Aside from being a great guy he’s the brains behind Ray Martin for Collonial First State at Fairfax Radio.
Interesting, but no mention of the huge movements (in investment/revenue, company formation and talent poaching) happening particularly in East Coast USA? Serial, sure; but in its way, Serial is analogous to the lucky surfer riding a particularly favourable wave. Skill and expertise respected, but the wave was there too.
While it’s not really on the advertising/native/business side of things so much as the journalistic/storytelling one (though it touches on many aspects outside of the blogger-inspired, content marketing focussed approach – including the long-booming comedy podcast scene) … you can’t really can’t go past Nicholas Quah’s Hot Pod tinyletter and the (now-associated) Nieman Lab blog for real gutsy knowledge about this stuff.
Podcasting is now so popular We’ve started a business around it. Recorded and produced in a radio studio with an audio engineer, businesses can now have a professional sound fully produced and up on their own website for social media and marketing purposes.
2GB has been podcasting its shows since early 2006. In the early days the download numbers ranged anywhere from 100k-200k per month. Now in 2015, 2GB regularly passes 4 million downloads per month, the strongest being Ray Hadley and Steve Price.
The most exciting development for MRN is our new content like The Road Next Travelled and 60 Second Mentor.
Ugh. This is tired, uninspired commentary about the shittest aspects of a medium that is so multifaceted and fascinating. Typical of Mumbrella to have a million dumb comments about branded content and dickheads trumpeting that they were there first or something. So what if you’ve been podcasting shows? You don’t deserve awards for copying and pasting between formats. The best thing about podcasts is the creativity they can serve to a distributed niche, not the potential for any brand to now have professional sounding studios and staff dedicated to pumping out brand-friendly content to idiots/nobody.
If you think this type of shit has a single thing to do with the likes of Serial, you’re out of your fucking mind. But chances are you’re a dull ol’ dinosaur if you think this reading of podcasting holds any value anyway. Believe the hype if you want, what do I care?
Seriously, this is your article about podcasts? Almost as bad as Mamamia’s Ten Podcasts We Think You Should Listen To If You Liked Serial Because We Are Slightly Ahead Of You Vis A Vis ‘The Curve’.
Tim, you forgot:
http://www.theguardian.com/foo.....eafootball
This is the most popular podcast for Australian media buyers.
Australia’s own “Can’t Bowl Can’t Throw” is the world’s #1 cricket podcast.
I listen to the Bouris podcast. It’s good.
Cue announcement of Mumbrella partnering with one of the aforementioned brands to create a subscription model & branded content advertising options, which would make for a pleasant change than the usual ho hum…!
Great read and very true.
We’ve seen huge growth on our audioBoom platform here in Australia and NZ from not just major sporting teams, politicians, entertainers and radio stations but from teachers, small businesses and podcasters big and small who all see the benefits of audio in engaging with their fans. Time spent listening and user growth is rising and along with the multi-tasking benefit of podcasts, the opportunities for revenue growth are already present. We’re already monetising our content partners audio on our platform in a variety of ways as well. The most exciting thing is the massive range of quality podcast content now out there that listeners can binge on their mobile devices from professional audio producers to bedroom podcasters who are also creating exceptional shows. It’s an exciting time.
Has anyone noticed Australia’s owqn ABC RN has been podcasting for 10 years now? It’s not just a host for This American Life you know.
Everything from science guru Robyn Williams weekly travels around the science world, to the daily conversations of Life Matters, to the built radio documentary/podcasts of Background Briefing (investigative documentary) to 360documentaries, Earshot, Into the Music, and Hindsight. Off Track is a relative newcomer (environmental, but so much more) and is fantastic. Any health issue you care to worry about is podcast about by Dr Norman Swann on the Health Report. Then there’s Big Ideas, the Philosophers Zone… it’s a rich world out there.
Get with the RN program – most of their back catalogue is available online… you could die in 50 years and still not have heard everything they have to offer.
abc.net.au/rn
@Nick Meredith ignored because how can brands cash in?
I’ve been a listener to various Podcasts since the Pod (iPod!) brought them to our ears.
I think this resurgence is a trend.
‘On demand infotainment’ is not going away fast.
ROI will be tricky too establish.
That said, monetising it can only be done if and when reliable measurement of audience is available. A ‘Publisher statement’ of number of downloads is not going to cut it.
(I’m not aware of an independently verifiable report).
So quality of production, nature of content and (temporary) ‘category’ position on iTunes are all we have to value media value.
Listen to the intro to Tim Ferris’ Podcast to hear how he ‘manages’ integrating (fastforwadable) sponsor messages for example.
If any one is interested, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas is available for free through iTunes. ~24 hours of free provocative content.
Re podcast measurement: its linearly distributed to the ID of the platform, so its conceivably measurable but not necessarily a commercial priority for the app stores.
Don’t forget Australia’s first VODcast hosted by yours truly for the Collingwood Football Club back in 2005 – “The Weekend That Was”. http://www.collingwoodfc.com.a.....d-that-was
I am very, very proud to have been at ABC Radio National to help launch podcasting in 2005.