Celebrating 20 years of podcasts
It’s hard to believe but podcasts are celebrating their 20th birthday in 2025!!!! Yes, that’s right, we’ve been listening to podcasts for TWO DECADES.
What started out as a small, scrappy experiment and have grown into a mainstream medium that millions of people listen to every week.
How it started
The term podcast was popularized in 2004 after a column in The Guardian used a variation of the word. Around the same time, developers and early adopters like Adam Curry and Dave Winer were building the tools and workflows that made episodic audio simple to distribute and subscribe to. Those early technical steps turned blogs and recorded audio into a system that could automatically deliver episodes to listeners’ devices. The result was a new kind of on-demand radio that anyone could produce and publish.
Growth and audience size
Podcast listening is not niche anymore. By 2025, estimates put the global podcast audience at well over half a billion people. Industry trackers reported about 584 million podcast listeners worldwide in 2025, up from roughly 547 million the year before. That steady growth is part of a multi-year trend: podcast listening expanded from a relatively small group of tech-savvy listeners into a mainstream habit across many countries.
In the United States, research confirms that podcasting reached record levels of reach by 2025. Edison Research’s Infinite Dial surveys show year over year increases in both monthly and weekly podcast consumption. Those surveys also documented a rise in the amount of daily audio time that podcasts represent. The upshot is that more Americans are tuning in than ever before.
The rise of video podcasts and YouTube’s role
A key shift in recent years is the dramatic growth of video versions of podcast shows. Creators now often publish full video episodes, or clips, alongside traditional audio files. YouTube has become a major listening platform. Edison Podcast Metrics and other industry data show that a large share of U.S. weekly podcast listeners use YouTube to watch or listen to shows, and many listeners actively watch episodes rather than only hearing them as background audio. That visual component changes how creators plan and repurpose content.
YouTube also provides a clear monetization path for podcasters. On the platform creators can earn ad revenue through the YouTube Partner Program, run sponsorships and brand integrations, and use features such as memberships and Super Chats to monetize fans directly. For many podcasters, posting video to YouTube increases discoverability and opens multiple revenue streams beyond traditional podcast ads. Edison data shows YouTube is now a top platform for podcast consumption in the U.S., which helps explain why so many creators put full episodes or highlights on the platform.
The economics: ad spend and business interest
Advertisers are following the audience. Estimates from market analysts show that advertiser spending on podcast content has been climbing strongly. For example, forecasts in the mid 2020s projected billions of dollars in podcast ad spend annually, with double digit year over year growth in some years. As companies commit more ad dollars to podcasts, businesses and creators are finding it easier to make the medium part of a sustainable content and marketing plan.
Why businesses are adding podcasts to marketing plans
There are some practical reasons businesses are turning to podcasts as part of their marketing mix:
Long form attention. Podcasts let brands spend in-depth time with listeners. A well produced interview or narrative episode can build authority and trust in a way that short ads or social posts cannot.
Evergreen value. Quality podcast episodes remain discoverable for months and years. A single interview or topic episode can keep bringing new listeners and leads long after the publish date.
Repurposable content. An hour of recorded audio and video becomes dozens of assets: short clips for social, audiograms, blog transcriptions, newsletter highlights, and more. That efficiency makes podcasts an attractive content hub.
Owned distribution. If a business hosts its own podcast, it can direct listeners to its website, newsletter, products, and services without relying solely on third party algorithms.
These are not hypothetical benefits. Marketers increasingly see podcasts as a way to develop thought leadership and to give customers a deeper, more human connection with a brand.
What the shift means for creators and businesses
If you are producing content, the practical takeaway is simple. First, think about both audio and video. Many listeners now expect video clips or a full video option on YouTube. Second, plan to repurpose. A single episode can become social posts, short video assets, blog posts, email newsletter content, and even ad copy. Finally, track how you monetize. Ads remain important, but creators also monetize via sponsorships, subscriptions, live events, and direct-to-fan offerings that video platforms and podcast hosting make easy to combine.
From a handful of hobbyists tinkering with RSS feeds in the early 2000s, to a global audience of hundreds of millions today, podcasts have become a central part of the modern media ecosystem. For businesses, podcasts are no longer an experimental side project. They are a scalable, flexible tool that creates long form attention, repurposable assets, and multiple monetization pathways. If you are thinking about adding a podcast to your marketing strategy, now is a good time to experiment and plan for both audio and video distribution.
