With video podcasting’s momentous rise in popularity, Riverside’s Annual Reportdives deeper into this impactful medium. As the 11th of an 11-part series, this article looks at where video podcasting is going in the long-term future.
What’s in it for me?
By the end of this section, you’ll have key insights on the following points:
Key predictions about video podcasting beyond 5 years and well into the future
How will video podcasting evolve in the long term?
We’ve made our short-term predictions for video podcasting, and they were pretty ambitious. Now we’ll look at even more grandiose scenarios for the medium. These are our key predictions for video podcasting on a longer spectrum of at least 6 years from now.
Social for podcasting will finally get solved
This is potentially the largest blocker to podcast growth in general. The social and community features for podcasting are currently not built-in, accessible, or helpful in growing shows. In the future, we should expect to see a social media and community component to podcasting that makes it far more compelling for brands and creators to grow on.
Social media will be embedded into existing listening or watching apps for podcasts. Consumers will be able to have real-time discussions about their favorite shows in a more convenient way than exists currently.
New apps with a social media focus on podcasting will be built from scratch. These apps will make experiencing shows more natural and social.
Companies will be able to use this new technology to connect and engage with their audience like never before. The distribution of episodes and conversations about them will no longer be fragmented.
As a result, audiences will become more loyal, helpful, and invested than ever.
Podcast analytics will become robust
Speaking of social media, many of these apps are getting increasingly strong at providing detailed analytics. Podcasting in general has very little in the way of analytics beyond simple engagement metrics.
In the future, companies will be able to measure everything for their podcast that they can currently get in YouTube (which is far more robust).
In fact, companies will be able to get metrics on:
Retention
Bounce rate
Common leave times
Engagement
Best time frames for episodes
Most listened clips
Best episodes by different metrics
A/B testing in episodes
Test intros and hooks
Test CTAs
Test ad spots
Brands will be able to make real decisions about the show based on proven data.
Discoverability will be solved
This is the biggest problem to be solved for video podcasting. Looping in platforms like YouTube and TikTok into the podcasting game inherently improves discoverability. But it can go much further.
Apps like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts will crack the code for helping you discover new shows. This will become increasingly intuitive and natural, to the point where most new shows you try out are strictly from recommendation engines.
New engines will be created to help make this possible. They will integrate with these apps to give you quick access to new shows.
If you see a clip on TikTok you really enjoyed, and forget it — other platforms will be looped in and give you the recommendation to that very show the next time you go into your podcast app.
Searchability and filters will also be enhanced. You’ll be able to find any show, with any format, for any topic, at any episode length — and you’ll be able to integrate it within your calendar to consume it at the right time.
Read more from the 2023 Riverside Annual Report series:
This article will provide you with actionable steps to select the right video podcast software to record, edit, and publish your wonderful video podcast.
Riverside.fm is an audio-video tool that collapses the pod/broadcast studio experience into your browser. The service captures lossless audio and up to 4K video locally, syncs it, and uploads as you go.
Riverside.fm is an audio-video tool that collapses the pod/broadcast studio experience into your browser. The service captures lossless audio and up to 4K video locally, syncs it, and uploads as you go.
Riverside.fm is an audio-video tool that collapses the pod/broadcast studio experience into your browser. The service captures lossless audio and up to 4K video locally, syncs it, and uploads as you go.
“YouTube has the infrastructure to introduce audio hosting and origination, and match it to video with all the rich analytics it already provides. A seamless creator experience, plus SEO marketing tools, plus the benefit of being a platform most have been conditioned to equal. Give it a turn-key opportunity to activate a more cohesive strategy around both video and audio, to the benefit of all parties.”
A.J. Feliciano | Head of Podcast Network
“People are working from home more and more. Audio-only is not as in-demand because the need to multitask while commuting is no longer there.”
Stone Roshell | Head of Podcast Production
“Live streaming may become the biggest way to grow using video for your podcast.”
Stone Roshell | Head of Podcast Production
“With major platforms like Spotify, TikTok, and YouTube putting more resources into video podcasts.. now is a uniquely opportune moment for smart creators to harness that energy by investing in video for audience growth.”