Joe Rogan, host of the ultra-popular The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, recently signed a multi-year contract worth 100 million dollars with the multimedia platform Spotify.
This figure shows that the podcast economy is growing every day and is slowly approaching the branches of music, film, sports, video games... Podcasts are produced by commercial broadcasters, but also by individuals and companies that are not connected to the broadcasting of mainstream content. In fact, anyone who has something to say with a certain amount of money invested in equipment, which varies from a few hundred to a few thousand, can join this world. Content is generally produced cheaply, and thanks to the Internet, it is even easier to distribute. How influential Rogan is today is also shown by the fact that 650 people watched the live election in the United States through his platform on the YouTube platform, of which only NBC and ABC were more watched, and far behind such productions as CBS, Fox, Washington Post...
What exactly is a podcast?
The definition of a podcast is simple. It is a digital audio or audio-video file, almost always in the form of an interview, which is distributed over the Internet on various platforms (You Tube, Spotify, Mixcloud), and listened to or watched via smart devices.
The podcast was first described by Guardian journalist Bob Hammersley in an author's text back in 2004 as a combination of the intimacy of voice, the interactivity of a web blog, and the convenience and portability of downloading content.
The moderator of the Dekodiranje podcast, Nina Miranović, by expanding this definition, points out that what separates podcasts from other media forms is their spontaneity and freer approach.
"The idea of a podcast is to enable an open conversation on a topic that has relevance at some point or on topics that have a timeless character. So you can actualize or reactualize topics regardless of what the main news of the day is. The podcast has a more immediate note. In it, it can also happen that the interlocutor's phone rings, he makes a joke or he goes on a digression that is not common in other forms. It provides opportunities to ask the interlocutor what is not usual in a conventional interview", Miranović told "Vijesti".
The trend has reached the Balkans
In an interview with the BBC, Hammersley said that one should distinguish between technological and cultural upheaval for the development of podcasts. The podcast experienced a technological boom in 2012, when Apple produced a podcast application for its device, which, as a library where these contents are stored, proved to be very popular among listeners. All this was accompanied by the development of 4G and wi-fi networks, which allowed the audience to be able to view, stream or download the show whenever they want.
The cultural impact for the development of the podcast was made two years later. British journalist Sara Koenig's investigative podcast series about kiminal called Serial has been downloaded by more than 100 million people in a short time.
Today, more and more large media companies such as the BBC, the Guardian and others are opting for this type of form, and the trend is recognized in the Balkans. Looking at the region (primarily Croatia and Serbia), the podcast community is expanding rapidly. On the website podcast.rs, which gathers podcast channels from Serbia (but also some from Montenegro) in one place, their number exceeds one hundred.
In Montenegro, many media houses do not have podcast channels, and the matter is somewhat improved by independent productions, as well as by a few enthusiasts who are engaged in this business. Such is the Sve po spisku podcast, it goes live on the YouTube service, while in addition to several moderators, viewers also participate in the creation of content through comments. A podcast closely related to ecology - Naknadna pamet, the well-known show TBOK, which is uploaded to YT after its premiere on the radio, and several shows from the student radio Krš - Zinzula, Stevi podcast, Razigarvanje, which have their post-life on the Mixcloud platform.
The Dekodiranje podcast is a project of the KOD organization, in which guests are experts from various fields, such as Mladen Bojanić, Srećko Crnogorac, Sead Sadiković, Saša Radović...
"In Montenegro, the scene is significantly less fragmented, but there are developments that are worthy of praise. There is another relaxing thing about this scene: the new podcast is not a threat to you - it helps you to further profile yourself with your personality, and the audience that follows this form of presentation expands. It will definitely take time to build an auditorium there, but that process is unstoppable for a simple reason - people want to break the boundaries of convention, and the podcast was simply created for such a thing," says Nina Miranović, host of the Dekodiranje podcast.
What are the limitations?
According to research conducted in America, 2019 million people listened to podcasts in that country in 144, which is a 44% increase compared to last year, and most of these people are under 35 years old.
For Miranović and her organization, one of the challenges is to attract an older population.
"The audience is diverse, but according to YouTube analytics, the majority is 18-44 years old. The audience segment itself often differs from who is your guest - when a pediatrician is a guest - you expect parents to watch you, when you talk about marketing on YouTube you see that you are mostly watched by an audience aged 18-24, and when you talk about the phenomenon of politics, for example , there are viewers over 50 years old. The limitation of podcasts, if we look at it that way, can be that it has a harder time reaching the conventionally speaking traditional TV audience and that, due to its format, it can slip into extensiveness that is not necessarily interesting to the viewer," says Miranović. It is certain that a large market is also necessary for the development of podcasts, which is not the case with Montenegro. However, Miranović believes that no podcast can exist without enthusiasm and volunteerism, but that it is possible to achieve sustainability if you work in the right way.
"If you're getting into that story to 'make money' then you're on the wrong track. We expect that through various models - from donations to paid marketing options - we will achieve full self-sustainability in the future. The podcast will develop as much as you are ready to give it and as much as others recognize its importance", says Miranović.
She adds that "thanks to the system that did not contribute to Montenegro being ranked higher in the YouTube monetization system" it is not realistic to expect sustainability that way.
The emergence of new digital technologies has caused some traditional forms of journalism to move to the Internet, such as radio broadcasts or political talk shows. However, research data from the Digital Forensic Center (DFC) from March of this year show that 76,6% of citizens watch television every day, and only every other person under the age of 24. Then social networks follow with 64,7%. When it comes to trust, television still holds the lead with 32%, YouTube is at 28%, and portals and social networks are ranked much lower with around 15%.
"In our country, traditional media still have a huge advantage over podcasts, especially among the older population, but these trends are changing and it is certain that now traditional media will move more and more towards these forms as well. Of course, whoever thinks that it is possible to draw a clear border between these media and whoever thinks that there is no permeation is wrong," Miranović believes.
Miranović sees the development of podcasts in the future as a logical sequence of the technological development we are in, but he also notes its dangers.
"Certainly, the podcast is one of the 'most democratic forms' of interviews, but that is also its great challenge. Overall, I think that the time ahead is the time of different journalistic forms, and podcasts will have a certain large space there.
However, it is important not to fall into the megalomaniacal complacency that everything starts with you - it is a form that is innovative and developing, and that form in itself, if it is not based on the principles of truth and quality, can hardly have any deeper value. It is for this reason that we strive for the form of the podcast to open up a space for conversation, and not for it to be the goal in itself to record another show," said a member of the KOD organization.
The small market in Montenegro affects the fact that the income from advertising on podcasts is almost non-existent, while according to the estimates of the marketing agency Statista, in the USA this year about 831 million dollars were spent, and it is estimated that in two years that figure will reach one billion, which is still far from television, which annually earns about 70 billion from advertising.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
