✊ Will discovery algorithms save (or destroy) podcasting?
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If there’s one complaint podcast creators have always had about the medium, it’s the lack of built-in discovery. Sure, most listening apps have some sort of curated recommendation lists... but there's never been a centralized discovery algorithm like on YouTube, TikTok, or most social media platforms. The result is that to this point in podcasting’s history, the onus has been on us as creators to go out and get exposure for our shows ourselves. But over the past year or so, things have been changing. For one, YouTube has quietly become the largest podcast platform people use to consume podcasts—with more and more creators following the attention and making YouTube a bigger part of their strategies. For another, Spotify has been tuning their own recommendation algorithms and integrating them into various aspects of their platform. Add in the countless other podcast-listening apps experimenting with their own discovery engines, and one thing becomes strikingly clear: The age of algorithmically driven podcasting is here. On the one hand, this might seem like fantastic news. Discovery algorithms, after all, are purpose-built to match content with the people who will enjoy it. Over the past year, for example, YouTube’s recommendations have led to 3,904 new viewers for my two shows, resulting in 6,795 total views. Some of these folks who discovered me through YouTube have even turned into clients and customers. Clearly, algorithms have an upside. But algorithms also have a cost. For one, algorithms have a way of widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots, leading to big shows getting bigger while the small shows get (comparatively) smaller. What’s more, algorithms tend to reward certain types of content more than others, which often requires us as creators to play games we may not want to play. You don’t have to look far to find YouTubers and influencers complaining that they can’t create the content they actually want to make because the algorithm won’t even show it to their subscribers—let alone new audiences. Finally, there are the bigger questions, like:
Make no mistake, the incentives and rewards of podcasting as a medium are shifting. Which means as creators, perhaps the biggest question of all is: What are we supposed to do? What are the opportunities? What are the risks? And is there a way to take advantage of algorithmic discovery while avoiding the traps it presents? In the first episode of Season 2 of Podcast Marketing Trends Explained, my co-host Justin Jackson and I are diving into the world of algorithmic discovery to debate how exactly podcasters should be approaching this new reality. And while there's a lot we agree on when it comes to what algorithms mean for podcasting—and podcast creators—our perspectives also on differ on what the best approach to leveraging these discovery tools is. You can add the episode to your listening queue in your favourite podcast app or watch on YouTube. Once you listen, hit reply and let me know how you’re thinking about the opportunities and risks presented by these discovery engines and how you’re changing your creative and marketing process in response.
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