Nearly every major media and entertainment company is pouring lots of cash into launching new podcasts. But many of them aren't making big money — at least not yet.
Why it matters: As is the case with most new technologies, when it comes to podcasts, consumer adoption has outpaced monetization.
Details: While many big companies and independent creators are trying to get in on the podcast action, most aren't seeing much traction. The top 1% of podcasts receive 99% of downloads.
How it works: The podcast ecosystem was built in a decentralized manner via RSS feeds. As more big companies invest in building their own podcast empires, the question of how to build an advertising market that works ubiquitously across lots of different platforms has yet to be answered.
The big picture: While podcasting is the fastest-growing advertising medium, it's still tiny. The industry as a whole still only brings in less than $1 billion in ad revenue, even though more than 90 million people listen to podcasts monthly, per Edison Research.
Yes, but: For the small number of people ad companies that are successful, podcasts can be lucrative.
What's next: Just as Google and Facebook bolstered the digital ad market by aggregating lots of digital tech companies together and creating an end-to-end supply chain, the same thing is beginning to happen in audio.
Go deeper: Podcast wars heat up
