Hear and now: It's boom time for podcasts

Today, there’s an aural gold rush, especially in India. From true-crime to dramas to stand-up comedy and bare-it-all interviews, the Indian listener is spoilt for choice.

Sneha Maselkar, a marketing professional at a technology company, was returning from a work engagement when her boss suggested she start listening to podcasts. His reasoning was simple: You need to be updated about technology. Curious, Sneha decided to give it a shot. And that’s how Sneha started her journey into the podcasting world. Sneha joins India’s estimated 57.6 million monthly listeners who tune into podcasts each month.

India’s podcast market is growing and how. The country now has the third-largest listener base globally, just behind the US and China. A PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook study expects this number to rise to 17.61 million by 2023.

Podcasts have been around in India for years. But it’s only recently, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, that podcasts have seen this remarkable increase in popularity. Pandemic and screen fatigue led people to seek out an old favourite: audio.

Deepika Arun, the founder and narrator of the popular Tamil audio podcast Kadhai Osai, believes that repeated lockdowns gave people the time to experiment with new things. “Everyone could have a voice and be heard!” she says.

And there are many voices.

Chartable lists The Mythpat Podcast as top of the charts, followed by Joe Rogan’s ‘The Joe Rogan Experience,’ and Ranveer Allahbadia’s (BeerBiceps) ‘The Ranveer Show.’ The Mythpat Podcast is a Spotify Original hosted by gamer Mithilesh Patankar. In weekly episodes, Patankar entertains and educates his listeners through interviews with top gamers and influencers. Ranveer enjoys a phenomenal fan following, and ‘The Ranveer Show’ is India’s first Spotify exclusive podcast with content in both English and Hindi, featuring guests such as Priyanka Chopra, Kunal Shah, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sadhguru.

“I feel the Indian podcasting scenario is rich in quality. In terms of knowledge, information, and importance, Indian podcasts are right up there with the very best, but I do believe that there is more scope for improvement in terms of guests,” Ranveer says. The podcast guru says he chooses his guests carefully, looking for insight and communication skills. Raj Shamani, who runs the top-rated ‘FiguringOut', a podcast on growing businesses and brands, has a slightly different approach. “Your podcast is about you more than it’s about the guests. So, have fun and don’t get intimidated as your guests might lure in the audience, but they stay and come back because of you. Podcasts are conversations, not interviews, so be equally involved and don’t think the guest has more power than you or is bigger than you,” he advises.

One of the reasons there are so many podcast creators is that starting a podcast is fairly easy on the pocket. Nansi Mishra, who co-founded the 100X Entrepreneurs, says they initially started shooting with a basic phone. Even a simple mic and pop filter can well come within a budget of Rs 5,000. Hosting is free on many platforms, making it easy to distribute podcasts to a diverse audience. The Indian startup Hubhopper aims to disrupt this space, creating a space for hosting and creating your podcast. “You can always start with what resources we have and eventually improve your quality as you grow in resources,” explains Nansi. Costs also vary depending on the format of the podcast. “If it’s a chum cast — where two friends are talking — you can get started with as low as Rs 5,000. If you have a scripted show with interview excerpts and background music, it can go up to as much as Rs 50,000.”

The rise of podcast platforms

All this increased interest in podcasts also means that there are now many hosting and podcast production companies that work with creators. Maed in India, which was started in 2018, calls itself a boutique audio content creation agency. Its founder, Mae Mariyam Thomas, herself hosts an indie music podcast also called ‘Maed In India,’ which covers the vibrant Indian music scene. Mae says that her company’s approach is to build communities and nurture under-represented voices in society. “We spend time talking to our clients to understand what they want to communicate and create a solution that takes the form of a podcast concept. We also do our research to make sure that we are representing the client or the subject matter they want to cover.”

Seeking under-represented voices is also how Padma Priya, the co-founder, describes her platform, Suno India. “We launched because we saw a gap in the audio market for podcasts on issues that need to be spotlighted and also for narrative, reported podcasts,” says Padma. Suno India says it has 24 shows with nearly 600 episodes with over 10 different hosts and also multiple independent journalists.

In August 2020, Sochcast burst onto the scene as a platform to empower women in audio. Garima Surana, the CEO, says more than 500 creators are on the platform now with 500,000+ minutes of content. Platforms like these and others like Hubhopper offer podcasters a wider reach and plug in the gaps in creation, distribution, and monetisation.

The money in the pod

Despite the ease of creating, many creators used to struggle to make money from their podcasts. Is that changing? Rojita Tiwari, who hosts the Drinks and Destination Podcast, India’s first audio show on drinks and travel, admits that monetising is one of the biggest challenges for a content creator.

Podcasters typically build up a loyal social media following before venturing into creating sponsored shows or branded content. Nansi suggests another option: a paid version where listeners can listen on a separate feed, without ads and other perks. However, India is still a nascent market for gated content. But there’s promise.

“Podcasts in India are just about turning the corner for monetisation. Podcasts make money through ads, listener support, and sponsored podcasts. At Suno India, we rely on listener support and commissioned podcasts, among other revenue sources such as grants,” explains Padma Priya. Rojita also notes that monetisation depends on the subject matter of the podcasts, target listeners, and popularity. “The more popular your podcast becomes, the more you can charge the brands to buy a slot during the episode.” Sochcast has a creator marketplace called Podcash to help podcasters monetise their shows. “Advertisers are starting to leverage the power of the spoken word to drive communities and retain a strong brand resonance through audio,” explains Garima.

And there’s one emerging trend that savvy podcasters are quickly latching on to.

The future is regional

Podcasts were considered elitist, where Indians needed to know English to consume the content. But that’s rapidly changing now. Sochcast says it already has a content library with podcasts in nine languages. And the future is definitely regional, agrees Ranveer, the host of The Ranveer Show. “The numbers are insane, especially for Hindi. Even in Tamil, we have audiences in Sri Lanka and North America. As a result, these two have a lot of potential. For Bengali as well, because there is an audience in Bangladesh and around the world. And, of course, Punjabi, but at its core, it's all Indian languages, and things are looking up.”

Deepika Arun started Kadhai Osai because she realised that good-quality Tamil audiobooks were scarce. “We have created around 150+ hours of content, including Kalki’s Ponniyin Selvan, Sivagamiyin Sabatham, and other short stories, novellas, and novels,” explains Deepika. “The buzz is definitely going to get louder!” she adds. Other home-grown platforms are also building a rich repository of regional content while many apps offer audio content in many regional languages.

Blurring divides

Podcast superstars like Ranveer, Raj Shamani, Amit Verma, Mithilesh and Mae Thomas are powerful creators who are changing the way we choose to consume content. Innovative, creative, and imaginative, India’s podcast scene is blurring divides and creating newer horizons. Audio is the way forward, says Sochcast’s Garima. “I predict on-demand spoken-word audio going astronomically big in the next couple of years.” She may well be proven right.

Top podcasts in India

* The Mythpat Podcast
* The Joe Rogan Experience
* The Ranveer Show
* The Stories of Mahabharata
* Chanakya Niti

Source courtesy: Chartable

South-Asian women ruling the podcast world

Sangeeta Pillai, who is based in London, started ‘Masala Podcast,’ another Spotify Original to have feminist conversations and break taboos around female sexuality, pleasure, menopause, the Kamasutra, mental health, and periods. Masala Podcast won the British Podcast Awards in 2019 and 2020, and the show has more than 70,000 downloads with listenership from the UK and, increasingly, India.

Across the seas, in the US, Ami Thakkar has built up a sizeable following with her ‘Tuckered Out’ show. The weekly podcast interviews trailblazers, experts, and prominent voices from the South Asian diaspora. “I started this podcast because frankly, I was tuckered out from all the big moves due to my husband’s job (7 in 13 years), from being a mom of two, but mainly, from determining what my true calling was after working in numerous industries. So, as a first-generation South Asian born in the US, I decided to interview the diaspora of South Asian trailblazers around the world to hear how they figured it all out, to share the South Asian story, highlight all the fantastic contributions the community is making in various industries, and to laugh. As much as possible.”

‘Tuckered Out’ has over 100,000 downloads and over 35,000 unique listeners, with the second-largest audience from India. Both ‘Masala Podcast’ and ‘Tuckered Out’ echo a deep vulnerability, initiating frank, open conversations brimming with authenticity.

“Authenticity is the key to podcasts,” says Sangeeta. “It’s what I seek. Hosting a podcast means that you have to be vulnerable too, exploring painful spaces.” Ami agrees. “As the host, I truly believe the only way to get to know my guests is to be vulnerable myself and create a safe space for them to open up. Podcasting is the one platform that allows you to do that; it is a very powerful way to share stories.”