The rise and rise and rise of podcasting

Over the past few years, there’s been an explosion in the popularity of podcasting with thousands being produced annually.

Some are achieving monster success with downloads in the millions, while other podcasters are happy with their band of loyal listeners.

Here in Australia, broadcasters and media companies have jumped on board with all manner of content from ‘true crime’ to comedy to lifestyle.

Whatever the subject matter, SCA’s head of podcasting, Grant Tothill believes podcasting is helping us rediscover the art of story telling.

A good story is always a good story. Doing podcasting gives you the opportunity to tell stories that connect in a whole different way.

“And it’s really interesting that story telling, in the pure audio-sense, is being re-discovered. To a certain degree, it has been missing.”

Tothill says the key is to find the right people to tell the right story in the right way.

“We basically co-create and we work with whoever we’ve got so we can create a premium product. We’re really all about quality over quantity. So, we take time to assess the people who we want to work with.

“To me, podcasting is niche-cast, not broadcast. We get a lot of people who come to us and they basically come with a ‘concept’ for a Podcast, which might as well be a radio show.

But what we’re more interested in is to go ‘what’s the definitive intent. Tell us what your podcast is about? How are you going to drive an audience?’ And then you can sit down and scope it from there.”

The relationship with PodcastOne means Tothill’s team can afford to be selective with the product they produce and the time needed to create ‘premium content’.

“We’ve got two very slow burn projects in production at the moment that will take about 6-to-12 months to make. They’re absolutely fantastic stories and they’re very, very different to what we’ve done.

“The other sector we have been doing very well in is the business and tech sector and they’re a very different opportunity all together.”

The world of podcasting has been described as the “wild, wild west” where storytellers are finding a voice be it through slick production or with a simple mic and a pair of headphones.

Next week, Radio Today speaks with Jay Walkerden, head of Nova Podcast, who offers his own insights on the ever-expanding world of podcasting.

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