I’m 26. I grew up listening to podcasts. They came delivered in the form of an iPod on the school bus to high school. Even back then, I remember how early podcast adopters would talk about the watershed moment for podcasting that was just around the corner. Almost a decade later, it’s a little disheartening to see just how untapped the world of audio content continues to be. Podcasting is still that niche culture and despite leaps and bounds in technology, most of the same headaches of podcast-listening from my days of the school bus are still here over a decade later. Finding content remains mired in word of mouth. Support systems for content makers are still weak. Public radio continues to be ambivalent toward digital distribution. The term “wild west” still feels apt. The truth is that podcasting, despite having a wholly unique value proposition in the world of content, has moved like a change resistant snail compared to other digital platforms. When looking at the rest of the world of content, audio remains overlooked.

We need more people figuring out the problems holding the industry behind. We need more listeners demanding organizations like Apple do something with goldmine under their feet. We need better methods of support than “kick in a buck” and “please use my promo code.” We need voices away from the best interpretations of public radio. Podcasting is older than Snapchat, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook, yet entire self-sustainable industries have bloomed on less intuitive content platforms. If the internet has taught us one thing, it’s that content continues to be king. So why has podcasting continued to be so slow in addressing the constraints holding it back? The audio industry has squandered an opportunity for the last decade, but it’s starting to feel like people are waking up. Let’s take a dive into the ways podcasting can finally begin turning the corner into an industry.