Podcasts Boomed in 2019, But 2020 Will Be Even Bigger

The podcast boom shows signs of going thermonuclear in 2020, as major tech and content companies juice studios with hundreds of millions in investment and more A-list stars flock to the medium. While 2019 marked the beginning of the boom with Spotify’s acquisition of Gimlet Media, a surge in revenue and increasingly ambitious projects across the podcast space are expected as audio platforms compete for market share and ad dollars. Advertising revenue for the U.S. podcast market surged 53 percent from $313.9 million in 2017 to $479.1 million in 2018, according to PwC and IAB’s August 2019 report on the industry, and 2019 is projected to clock-in around $678.7 million. By 2020, PwC expects the podcast industry to reach $863.4 million and top $1 billion by 2021. This is big money, and big tech and Hollywood have taken notice. Also Read: Why Stand-Up Comics All Need Podcasts of Their Own “In 2016, we found it to really be a nascent industry, and advertisers were really testing the waters,” says David Silverman, co-leader of PwC’s national emerging company services practice. “People start listening to podcasts before it gets monetized. There’s a bit of a catching-up period.” While the early years of...

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