The online space is becoming ever more visible as the internal workings of different markets that had previously been a little more obscure start to reveal themselves more and more – this has been seen across many different sectors, whether this be in online gaming markets as the characteristics of the best slots and inner workings of online operators become clearer, to the advertising tendencies of some of the biggest companies involved in media for our favourite applications and platforms. This is something that has become all to clear in recent months as the rise of podcasting as a platform has led to some interesting changes, but also to some developed drama too.
The big stories of this year have largely come from one personality and his podcast – Joe Rogan. Earlier in the year it was announced that he had signed a reported $100 million deal with Spotify for exclusive rights to stream his podcast on the platform instead of the direct service he had been offering prior, but the podcast is known to be quite outspoken, often with controversial guests that may not be the most appealing to many listeners – and this has taken its toll as many reports both externally from listeners and internally from staff have raised concerns around the content that is being produced and whether or not it can be considered suitable for the platform. It has shown that there is an internal struggle over these newer signings and that complications have been risen through the signing of talent.
It has also led to more transparency in other areas of podcasting too, namely in the advertising space. It was announced recently that there would be incoming changes to the way podcasters can operate their own ad-rolls during the show, placing intrusive ads in the middle of the show if they choose to do so as well as continuing to be able to place them in either the intro or outro of the show too. It had also been stated that in certain instances that even a premium subscription wouldn’t be able to bypass these ads and that even if you’re paying to use a streaming service you’ll still be open to receive these ads, something that up until recently had largely served as a guarantee that ads could be avoided. It is an interesting developing in a space that is seeing a huge amount of growth, but some growing pains at the same time with previously mentioned drama around new talent signings – with everyone able to jump onboard the podcasting train with many huge celebrity names doing so alongside the average Joe at home, it can be difficult to judge where to draw a line in the sand of what may be too obtrusive or offensive for a wider audience, or where a wider net needs to be cast to allow for a little more movement in the space. Given podcasting in the scale it currently is has been quite new, it was expected that there would be some early struggles, but they may now be more public than ever before.
