What the podcast industry gets wrong about YouTube
In the pursuit of "making podcasts more discoverable," the podcast industry has welcomed YouTube with open arms.
It makes sense: audio podcasting is a slow and steady medium. Listenership grows about 10-15% yearly; even the most viral podcast episodes will only get ~500,000 listens. Those are small numbers compared to what a successful video podcast on YouTube can garner (10 million views).
The size of the YouTube audience is enticing! We're talking about a platform that 85% of all US adults use:
However, I believe the podcast industry is fundamentally misdiagnosing YouTube's role in consumers' lives and overestimating the benefits we will get from the platform.
We are turning to YouTube, treating it like another distribution channel (like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Pocket Casts). Creators want more people to discover their content, and advertisers want better tools and tracking.
The reality? YouTube doesn't care about "podcasting" as an industry. To YouTube, "podcast" is just a label, a useful keyword consumers recognize. It sits alongside other keywords like "comedy special," "how-to video," "documentary," and "music video."
Podcasting is merely becoming a small slice of YouTube's vast content empire.
YouTube is eating the world
YouTube occupies an enormous footprint in people's lives.
When kids wake up and have five minutes to kill, they go to YouTube. When people come home from a long day at work, they sit on the couch, and open up YouTube on their TV.
More and more folks are choosing YouTube for their TV watching (over Netflix, cable news, Amazon Prime):
And people are also increasingly choosing YouTube over other forms of media. This includes books, games, and, yes, podcasts.
YouTube is also a tremendous aggregator. Think of all the types of content people can find there:
Traditional TV content
Full-length stand-up comedy specials
Complete documentaries
Cable news
Full-length movies
Sports
Concerts
Music videos
How-to videos
Podcasts
This is what podcasts are up against.
Podcasting is just a tiny province in YouTube's vast kingdom.
This isn't about "video podcasts" – it's about the dominant video platform
Responses from the podcast industry, such as "Maybe we should do video in RSS," miss the bigger picture.
Consumers aren't looking for a place to watch podcast videos! They already know where to find videos from their favorite creators: YouTube.
YouTube occupies a space in the consumer's mind and habits that smaller platforms can't match. My friend Jeremy Enns put it perfectly:
People have been conditioned to pull up their phones and reach for the red YouTube button. You go to YouTube to be served something – YouTube tells me what to watch.
This fundamentally differs from traditional podcast consumption, where you are served the latest episodes from the feeds you subscribe to.
That's a key distinction: podcasting listening requires intention, while YouTube thrives on passivity.
What makes YouTube particularly effective at capturing attention is how its algorithm works. When I watch a podcast on YouTube, the following video that gets recommended may not be a podcast. In fact, the next five videos I watch might not be podcasts.
YouTube has mastered something no other platform has: the ability to keep you watching no matter what type of content you initially came for.
The generational pull towards YouTube
A big reason I listen to podcasts in a podcast app is that I am 44 years old. When podcasts were added to iTunes in 2005, I was 25. I was also in the sweet spot for getting into podcast listening: I had a long commute and an iPod.
But for younger generations like Gen Z and Gen Alpha, their formative media experiences have been shaped by YouTube. They've grown up in a world where visual content is the default, and they turn to YouTube for everything from entertainment to education.
These younger generations haven't developed the habit of opening Apple Podcasts; they instinctively go to apps like YouTube.
The challenge for the podcast industry isn't just competing with YouTube – it's introducing an entirely different mode of content consumption to people who may never have experienced it.
How should the podcast industry respond?
We need to get real about what audio podcasting excels at and double down on those strengths.
James Cridland has this great quote:
Podcasts are entertainment for your ears while your eyes are busy.
That's a powerful positioning strategy.
For younger generations like Gen Z and Gen Alpha, we need creative ways to sell them on audio podcasting:
"Hey, your brain needs a break. You feel like you've had too much screen time – like you've had too much sugar. Here's an idea: Put your AirPods in, go for a walk, and listen to this show. It's going to be like a companion for you, talking about issues and feelings that matter to you right now."
We could position podcasting as the calm alternative. When you need to get out of the house, go for a walk or drive, do the dishes, your eyes are busy. Here's something you can put in your ears that can educate, inform, entertain, but in a way that won't make you feel sick.
The ultimate question isn't whether podcasting will survive YouTube—it's how we can preserve what makes it unique while adapting to a YouTube-dominated world. By focusing on audio's unique strengths, we can ensure that podcasting continues to thrive as a distinct medium.
Cheers,
Justin Jackson
PS: Ironically, this post started as a YouTube video. You can also listen to it as a podcast: