Is Podcasting Still Worth It in 2025?

I can't believe I haven't answered this question before, but somebody asked it on Reddit.

Is it worth it to start a podcast in 2025?

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So I'm on Reddit.

Why?

Because I'm looking to see what people are asking questions about.

Because that way I take the guesswork out of.

I wonder if people are interested in this, because I know.

And so Intrepid Turnover 76 said, Is it worth starting a podcast in 2025?

And that's all we got.

And so part of it is might be fueled by, is podcasting still hot?

And I'll give you an example back.

I mean, 20 years ago, I was doing a show.

It was myself, Rob Walsh from Libsyn, Paul Culligan, and Gary Leland.

It was called Today in Podcasting.

And what was interesting about this, I remember we did an episode because Maytag the company had started a podcast, and we were like, all right, a big company sees the power of podcasting.

Yay.

Now, would that be a story today?

No.

Every company is starting a podcast.

It's almost like having a podcast now is like having a fax machine in the 80s.

Like, just everybody had one.

And so I'm not sure why he's asking that, but if he's thinking, hey, podcasting isn't as hot as it used to be, it grows every single year.

The audience gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and millions of people, and that's just in America, are listening to podcasts.

And so just because there may not be as many headlines about podcasting doesn't mean it is cooled off.

And so then I thought, well, maybe he thinks it's too crowded.

You know, there's already a bunch of shows about whatever your topic is.

And I thought about it, think about, and I'm going to talk about American football here, but in college, right?

Think about all the quarterbacks in college, while Tom Brady, considered the greatest quarterback of all time, was still playing.

There is no way that they will ever measure up to Tom Brady.

So why were they even attempting to play?

Like, why were they playing football now?

Also, we could say there is no way, because I'm sure Tom broke records of people that everyone thought, well, no one will ever break that record, so keep that in mind.

But I mean, Tom Brady, even if they make it to the NFL.

I mean, there's no way, you know, so they should quit, right?

What's the point?

No, these people were playing football because they loved the game.

And there was a chance, a small one.

We'll talk about that in a second.

That they might be drafted into the NFL and then even a smaller chance they would make a team and not get cut.

So I looked into this, and when I say a small chance, I mean a small chance.

According to a website called Career Village, the odds of a football player making it to the NFL are extremely low.

For high school players, the chances are pretty slim.

Roughly 1 in 133,333 football players eventually make it to the NFL.

7.3% of high school players go on to play college football.

So right there, you take that 133,000 and take 7.3%.

That's a huge cut.

That's whatever.

92.7% of high school players do not move on.

Of those college players, only 1.2% get drafted into the NFL.

Yay.

I'm in the NFL.

Well, nope, not.

Not so easy there.

If you're a five star recruit, you have about a 50% chance of being drafted.

And then they say a five star recruit, though, has a 39% chance of sticking in the league.

Meaning not only do you get drafted that you actually end up playing because there's a practice squad.

There's all sorts of different.

The fact that you're going to end up on the field again, 1 in 133,000.

It's kind of the same when it comes to podcasting.

The chances of being the person that makes a full time living.

And I don't have stats on that, but why are people still starting podcasts when there are some people that are already doing a show like yours?

And if you think that it's too competitive in podcasting, go look at YouTube.

Holy cow.

I mean, there's about right now around 250,000 active podcasts.

There's about 4 million of them, but only about 250,000 that are actually active.

And if you look at YouTube.

Oh, that's, you know, billions of people.

Millions and millions and millions of people.

So if you're worried about competition, well, you've got much less competition as an audio podcast versus a YouTuber.

So why are people starting podcasts?

Well, I'm getting ready to go to Florida and induct two people into the Podcasters hall of Fame.

I'm also doing a presentation.

This is all at Podfest.

I'll albeit booth 32 if you're there.

And so I'm sure, and I love listening to the acceptance speeches at the hall of Fame because I'm pretty sure most of those people did not get into podcasting to make money.

And the key word here is quickly.

They got into podcasting because they had to talk about a subject and they would do it for free.

They just had to talk about it.

They started podcasting because they needed to talk about something.

They needed to scratch a creative itch in some cases.

And it just so happened that the stuff that they created ended up being so good that people told their friends.

And that's the key if you want to monetize.

Step one is grow an audience.

You don't monetize a podcast, you monetize an audience.

And their content was so good that people had to tell their friends.

But also keep in mind that you don't have to monetize.

I've talked about this in the past.

You do not have to monetize.

If you just want a creative outlet, you don't have to monetize.

I ride my bike in the summer and I've never made a dime.

In fact, I pay for that hobby every year when I get my bike tuned up.

All you need.

And you know what I'm going to say, if you listen to the show, you need to know your why and your who.

That starts it, because that helps you.

If you don't entertain and educate the who, you're not going to grow an audience.

If you don't know, if you don't get your why, then you'll burn out.

And here's something else to consider.

If we go back to the football analogy, eventually Tom Brady retired and somebody has to be the new Tom Brady.

And if you've got that passion and you've got that need, that could be you.

And if you need help with this, you know where to find me.

School of Podcasting.com use the coupon code listener.

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And I'd love to see what we can do together.

I'm Dave Jackson.

I help podcasters.

It's what I do.

And I want to be your podcast consultant.