Podcasts: Infinite Choices?

 How far back does this go?

Did you ever do this as a kid? It takes two mirrors facing each other. The reflections seem to go on forever. I often wondered how far back into the the past (or future) I could look. There had to be an end point or beginning, right?

It's kind of like the philosophical question about what came first. If there is infinity, are there beginnings and endings? 

What does Aristotle say about infinity?

Aristotle postulated that an actual infinity was impossible, because if it were possible, then something would have attained infinite magnitude, and would be "bigger than the heavens." However, he said, mathematics relating to infinity was not deprived of its applicability by this impossibility.

What?

What does this have to do with podcasts? Nothing, really. According to the latest statistics there are 2.4 million podcasts and 66 million downloads. 177 million people listen to podcasts. It just seems like there are an infinite number of podcasts. The top podcasts according to Riverside.fm are:

#1 The Joe Rogan Experience

#2 The Daily

#3 This American Life

#4 Stuff You Should Know

#5 Pod Save America

#6 The Ben Shapiro Show

After dropping below the top twenty, or perhaps 50 podcasts, there's the rest of us.

Measuring Success

According to improvepodcast.com, 5,000 listeners per episode almost guarantees a successful monetization. This is where a lot of interesting things start happening. Having more than 5,000 listeners per episode makes a podcast over 29 times more likely to be monetized successfully.

Slamagency.com predicts Less than 20% of the podcasts that have launched this year will make it to next year. Most podcasts fail. 

If most fail, why go there? Improvepodcast.com came up with 21 reasons you should start up a podcast. Here's a few:

• 1) You’re passionate about a topic or have something to say
• 2) Podcasting Is an Easy Platform to Create Content
• 3) You Can Create Long Form Content
• 4) Podcasting Can Help You Build a Personal Brand
• 5) Podcasting Can Become a Second Income
• 6) You Can Develop Multiple Different Skill Sets
• 7) There Are Minimal Start-Up Costs
• And for public media? You're on the platform used more often by a potentially younger audience.  Most podcast users are between 12 and 54.