Podcasting, the New Radio

In my rather uninformed opinion, I think that podcasting has stepped in to fill an itch in society which was only partially being scratched by the radio: targeted background noise.

When people listen to music or the radio, they do it for two reasons. One, to enjoy, or two, for white noise. The issue that people have is that many wish to have white noise which is pleasant. I like to listen to rock music in the car while I drive to and from college. I'm not following every lyric, often I am talking to my passenger, but I would feel weird to have no noise. Here is where podcasting kicks in. Podcasts give you something to listen to beyond just music, so you're engaging your brain as you listen to a conversation. Myself and my girlfriend both like to listen to other media while we play video games (which aren't necessarily story-driven.) I mostly use YouTube, but Skyler likes to listen to podcasts. In effect, we're doing the same thing. As discussed in class, there is a podcast for everyone. Wherever you look there's hours of content which you can consume. If someone wishes to listen to a topic of interest in the background while they do house chores they can easily find days worth of content from pleasant hosts. 

The amount of podcasts in existence continues to rise as podcasting is an easily-accessible form of media as well as being very easy to get in to. With a small investment of perhaps only $30 you can get started talking about a topic of your own. Now, I don't think podcasting is a bubble, but it seems like there's echoes of YouTube in the 00's. Everyone had a YouTube channel, everyone wanted to be a YouTube star. This is of course not attainable, but the hope to be a breakout hit means that now more than ever you may just happen to know several people who run a podcast. 

Podcasting will continue to grow as radio stations seek to expand into the space. Who know, perhaps we may even end up with radio stations devoted to podcasting? I doubt it, though, as streaming is much easier!

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