Podcasting’s Late-Night Appeal
Sounds ProfitableJuly 25, 2025
Taylor argues there’s a part of the story being left by the wayside whenever narratives about video’s growth are discussed: just because video podcasting is growing doesn’t mean the rest of the industry will succumb to atrophy. A quote from Taylor:
“My cautionary tale — which I’m obviously trying not to frame like I’m Henny Penny saying the sky is falling — is this: as the video audience grows and the audio audience remains, my message to the industry is, ‘Hey, don’t forget that you’ve got a ton of people who love audio.’”
Taylor compares the video surge in podcasting to the widespread distribution of audiobooks in the 2000s and 2010s. As audiobooks became cheaper and easier to produce and distribute, more writers have started making audiobooks as a regular part of their publishing process to create an additional revenue stream out of existing content. Video podcasting, she argues, is a similar path. Much in the same way there was always an audience who’d listen to a book if given a frictionless opportunity, YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the internet, full stop. There’s an audience segment that has been consuming online video for over a decade who would have been watching video podcasts the entire time if they’d had the chance.
The trick will be appealing to that audience without over-correcting and turning audio-first podcasts into pure video productions that ignore their original audio roots. Much in the same way simply uploading audio to video platforms does not innately make good video content, the reverse remains true. Ignored/underserved audio audiences can’t be taken for granted. As Tom Webster hit on in his piece The Podcast Preservation Paradox, the onus is on the podcasting industry to remember what made the medium appealing in the first place. It’s important to preserve and support those audio specific roots that make up the foundation the wider industry rests on.
