If you think you’re launching a podcast, you’re wrong

Opinion

Around 27,000 new podcasts launched every day during the last quarter of 2025, and that figure is steadily climbing. Formidable’s co-founder assesses what it takes to succeed.

The podcast industry isn’t just growing. It’s accelerating. Ad revenues continue to climb, video consumption is exploding, and major talent agencies, streamers, broadcasters, and brands are circling the space like it’s a converted farmhouse in the Cotswolds. And the next phase? Consolidation, increased commercialisation, and the emergence of true cross-platform media brands.

In other words: this isn’t a side hustle anymore. The Podcast Index shows that an average of 27,000 new podcasts launched every day during the last quarter of 2025, and that figure is steadily climbing.

So the marketplace is becoming increasingly crowded, and with the average podcast listener only tuning in to five podcasts per week, everyone is competing for their share of the audience.

Another major challenge podcasters face is around sustaining momentum; according to Apple, the number of global podcasts reached 4.58m as of January this year, but only around 15% of these shows are still active. In fact, podcasts that don’t last the distance are so common that the industry coined the term ‘Podfade’ to reflect the phenomenon. So while plenty of new shows are appearing on the scene, only a small percentage of these go on to become popular and well-known.

But here’s the thing, podcasting still has no rulebook. There’s no universally accepted creative formula, no production orthodoxy, and no single path to success.

Take Begin Again with Davina McCall. It blends big-name interviews, clickbait-y promo edits and production values inspired by Netflix. Then look at The Rest Is History – it’s just two historians, usually sitting remotely in unpretentious home-office settings, winning purely on their depth, authority and chemistry. Competence plus connection, that’s where the magic happens; both are wildly successful. Both break “rules” that don’t really exist.

Which brings me to the point: if you think you’re launching a podcast, you’re wrong.

What you’re actually doing is building a multi-platform media brand, where the podcast episode is simply the flagship long-form expression of that brand. It’s the anchor and the mother ship from which all the other channels are born.

But on its own? It’s not enough

The shows that scale build content ecosystems, weekly machines in which long-form becomes short-form, insight becomes clips, debate becomes social conversation, and it all plays out across as many platforms as are relevant. The brand exists wherever its audience exists.

And increasingly, that means video. Spotify highlighted an 88% uptick in podcast video consumption according to its most recent Fan Survey report.

Audio-only podcasts aren’t disappearing overnight, but they are becoming the exception rather than the ambition. Video doesn’t just add another format; it multiplies discovery. It fuels Shorts, Reels and TikTok, increases watch time, deepens parasocial connection, and creates better commercial inventory.

Crucially, YouTube is now effectively the world’s largest podcast platform, with Coleman Insight’s The State of Video Podcasting 2025 report showing that around 70% of podcast consumers use YouTube to watch or listen to podcasts. Not Apple, or Spotify, YouTube.

That single fact should change how you think about your “podcast”. Because you’re no longer competing in an audio niche, you’re competing in the attention economy against creators, broadcasters, streamers and everything else in someone’s feed.

This means brand positioning matters. Audience strategy matters. Marketing and PR strategy matters. Commercial strategy definitely matters.

If your show isn’t backed by a corporate marketing budget from the get-go, you need to treat monetisation with the same seriousness as any publisher.

Monetisation strategies

Programmatic advertising can generate meaningful revenue at scale, but it’s rarely the whole story. Strategic brand partnerships and integrations? Lucrative. Premium subscriptions or paywalled bonus content? Powerful if the value is clear. Merch? Possibly, but it doesn’t create worthwhile returns for every brand. Live shows? Often, the most profitable vertical in the business. Deals with streamers or broadcasters? Potentially a transformational ‘level up’.

None of this happens accidentally, and yes, it’s a lot of work. Because you’re not “just recording some chats”. You’re building IP, cultivating a community and engineering multiple revenue streams.

You’re launching a brand that needs to show up consistently, week after week, across platforms, with a clear identity and a commercial backbone.

That might sound like a lot. (It is.) But it’s also why podcasting remains one of the most exciting spaces in media. The barriers to entry are still relatively low, the upside remains significant, and the audience’s appetite continues to grow.

But the increased competition means winners are no longer the accidental successes with a great idea and optimism. They’re the ones who understand the bigger picture.

So if you’re thinking about launching a podcast, enjoy the ride, but keep in mind that you’re actually launching a media brand. And if you treat it that way from day one, you give it the best possible chance to grow into something meaningful and sustainable.

Nik Selman is the co-founder at social-first creative agency Formidable