Is YouTube the next Apple Podcasts?
If I watch a podcast on YouTube, is it still a podcast? Or is it really just a talk show?
Lately, I’ve been seeing more podcasts come across my YouTube explore page (and my Instagram feed—more on that later!). I started wondering if YouTube is increasing in popularity as a podcast destination.
In 2019, The Verge reported that a growing number of top creators are turning YouTube into a “bonafide podcast network.” Creators have found ways to make podcasts work on a platform that “wasn’t designed for them, leveraging YouTube’s search algorithm to meet new audiences, make more money, and expand into a medium that’s expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.”
In that same year, a study from Futuri Media and the University of Florida found that 43 percent of monthly podcast listeners went to YouTube for podcasts in the past year. So what’s the deal in 2021?
I spoke to Jeff Ulster, co-publisher of the Canadian Podcast Listener study and Chief Content and Technology Officer at The Podcast Exchange. I got some insight into what the latest 2021 listener survey, conducted in fall 2020, says about YouTube as a platform.
“There’s pretty much a three-way tie for platforms used most often now by regular podcast users,” Ulster says, referring to Apple, YouTube, and Spotify. “Basically, they’re even.” And to the question, What platforms have you used in the last year? most podcast listeners list YouTube as their top pick.
I personally only watch one podcast on YouTube: Frenemies with Trisha Paytas and Ethan Klein, a show that racks up millions of views each week. The show is uploaded to Klein’s H3 Podcast channel, which publishes episodes of Frenemies, the H3 Podcast, and H3 After Dark. The channel has 2.93 million subscribers (and more than 547-million channel views, last time I checked).
For long-time YouTube creators, it makes sense to use their primary platform for distribution—they have a loyal subscriber base, they’re familiar with the platform, and they’re used to being on camera.
Frenemies is an interesting case study, because it plays up visual elements, pulling up screenshots and playing videos on-screen. Sometimes they wear costumes, too.
In episode #33 of Frenemies, they dressed up as Stanley Ipkiss and Tina Carlyle from The Mask.
Does the visual element give YouTube podcasters a leg-up on the audio-only traditional podcast?
Those who consume podcasts in the YouTube-verse may be a more visually-oriented audience. But for creators, it’s also a really good opportunity for cross-platform pollination and promotion. Short video clips can be clipped and distributed to reach wider audiences on Instagram and TikTok. Many YouTubers also upload short clips to secondary YouTube channels to highlight longer episodes.
So using YouTube as a platform for podcast distribution, whether it’s strictly audio or has a video element, is totally legit. But it can present a challenge when it comes to monetizing and securing ad sponsorships.
In H3 Podcast #130 - Did Lil Nas X Steal Old Town Road? from July 2019, host Ethan Klein opens up the show with this: "Guys, keep it up on the iTunes chart. Smash that review button. Because it's kind of embarrassing.
I know most of our views are on YouTube... but I mean, we're slacking on the iTunes chart... I know nobody even listens on audio, maybe some people.
It's a very visual podcast, it's a show really, cause we watch stuff."
Then Klein and his wife, Hila, discussed difficulties in getting sponsors on the show because advertisers only count audio streams and downloads. But Klein makes a very important point, which is that sponsors should be jumping at YouTube shows because there's an on-screen visual element, as well as a link in the description box where viewers can click directly to the product.
Though I think things have changed since that episode aired in 2019; Frenemies has sponsors which include the usual suspects like Quip, Credit Karma, and Stamps.com, while The Sarah Silverman Podcast’s latest YouTube episode description box has links to SimpliSafe, Helix Sleep, and MeUndies. Controversial YouTuber Logan Paul’s Impaulsive also has sponsors in the description.
“The monetization model on YouTube is very different,” Ulster says. “It’s its own beast.” That means podcasters on that platform have to create their own strategy for how to monetize their podcasts, whether they’re hoping people eventually subscribe as audio listeners, or whether they’re trying to adapt their content specifically for a YouTube audience. Like always, Ulster says it’s all about figuring out what you can do for your audience that’s going to meet their needs, make them happy, and get them watching.
So, is YouTube the next big podcast platform?
Sorry to be ‘that guy,’ but it’s hard to say. When looking at the stats, especially on primarily YouTube listeners, it’s important to keep in mind how many people who tick off “primarily listen on YouTube” are there for one show only: The Joe Rogan Experience. “He skews all of these stats so vastly,” Jeff Ulster says.
The long-running podcast has more than 1,600 episodes, and in April 2019, Rogan reported that his show gets 190 million downloads each month. It was regularly at the top of the Apple Podcast Charts. Though, with the exclusive move to Spotify in December 2020, the chart-topping has since changed.
“Okay, he's now left YouTube, and he's on Spotify. So what's going to happen to everything that we think we know about YouTube? How much of that has to do with Joe Rogan?” Ulster says, “Well, that's gonna be really interesting to find out in 2021.”
Interesting indeed. If the success attributed to YouTube as a platform is really just tied to one podcast, and that podcast has now left for greener pastures (sweetened with a $100-million+ deal), what does our expert think will happen in the YouTube-verse?
“With Joe Rogan off YouTube, we should be seeing Spotify making so many more moves. We should see Spotify continue to kind of explode. And we should see a softening on the YouTube side.”
…And is it even a podcast anymore?
A valiant effort and interesting question, but as Ulster puts it, it doesn’t really matter. “I would call them video podcasts to make it clear that there’s a video component,” he says.
Which will also become relevant on Spotify, as they add video elements.
“If they never released an audio version [to traditional streams], I would have trouble calling it a podcast. If they did release an audio version and a video version, I would call the video version, ‘a video version of their podcast.’” Consider it a bonus bit of content; a supplementary enhancement of the audio.
But if the show isn’t being uploaded to Spotify, Apple, or other audio-only platforms at all, it’s safe to say it’s probably not a podcast.
Five years ago, Ulster says people would identify themselves as podcast listeners, with further questions revealing that they were actually listening to live radio digitally in their browsers, but calling it a podcast. “In the end, people just call stuff what they call it.”
Well, there you have it folks.
