Welcome to the Streamlines Podcaster, a podcast that shows you how to put the right systems in place so you can stop spinning your wheels, focus on making great content and see your show grow.

Because there's nothing worse than putting a ton of effort into your show to see very few benefits and even fewer downloads.

My name is Joe Casabona, and I know you're strapped for time.

So let's get into it.

Hey, everybody, Joe Casabona here today.

I want to go through my favorite points of the independent podcaster report 2025.

I will link the entire report below.

So I'll start with kind of methodology and limitations for what they did.

And then I'll hit my most interesting points.

I'm not going to go through the whole thing because I think that's boring for you to hear me talk about the whole thing.

If you want to hear me talk about the whole thing, let me know.

Leave a comment over a streamlined podcaster comm that's also where you can get the report This report was put together by the podcast host and ala to it has 558 creators and the number of people who took it largely probably overwhelmingly from the podcast host and ala to audience slash customer base so You know, they say represents a sample It reflects their own audience may not capture the full range of backgrounds I've always had in my head that like a thousand is significant significant statistically significant, but again This is a limitation.

I think there are still some interesting snapshots here.

I went through and I highlighted some things so I'll walk through these I'd love to hear your thoughts on it again over a streamlined podcaster calm I do want to say right off the bat, I didn't highlight this, but 47 % of people are aged 50 plus.

And this is either like younger generations don't want to take polls or surveys or just the podcast host has been around for a very long time and maybe their audience is aging with them.

So just an interesting point.

The first thing I highlighted.

was the primary goal.

What is the ultimate goal of your podcast?

31 % said help, support, or motivate others.

20 % said personal enjoyment or creative outlet.

12 % said raise awareness about a cause or topic.

11 % said establish a main income source.

The rest, I think there's like a hodgepodge here that could probably all be grouped together.

Establish a main income source, develop or promote a business or brand.

build my authority on a topic, create a side hustle, accounts for 33%.

I think those could kind of all be lumped together, but they're not.

They're broken up.

I assume they have a reason for that.

So 31 % though, help support or motivate others.

I think that's very interesting.

I think this is the best place for small business owners to be, right?

If you're listening to this, you likely are a small business owner or want to be.

And help, support, and motivate others is a very important aspect of a podcast for us, right?

I've been telling people what is your, you know, and I help people launch their podcasts.

I say, what is your positioning, packaging, and promise?

Who are you serving?

How are you telling them you serve them?

What are you promising them when they listen?

And usually this is how do I help, like who do I help and how do I help them?

So that's the positioning, packaging, and promise.

I think this aligns very well for small business owners.

Now if we look at what the biggest challenge is, and quick caveat here, 19 % of survey respondents said that they are pre -launch.

And so, For any questions about, like, what's your current problem, struggle, income source, whatever.

That's only for people who currently have a podcast.

So, 558 minus 19 percent is 400, let's say 452, 451 .98.

So, let's say 452.

So, any of these questions I'm going to cover now, likely 452 people responded to.

Biggest challenge, growth and discoverability.

72 % of people said that.

This makes perfect sense.

Growth and discoverability are very hard.

I usually tell people, hey, a podcast is for strengthening your relationship, not for getting discovered.

And your workflow, your system and process should be around creating great content and then putting it out there in the world.

You can't just publish a podcast episode and hope people find it.

I mean, you can.

You should hope people find it.

But job's not done once it's published, right?

If you want your podcast to grow in that way.

And my friend Courtney Elmer talks about podcast SEO a lot.

This is really important.

You need to focus on that.

You need to think about that.

I think this is one of the few places where like AI could help you here.

appreciably help you.

We'll get to more of that in the survey.

But yeah, growing a podcast is hard.

There's no algorithm for podcast discovery.

There's no single algorithm.

It's not like YouTube.

Or it's not like any social network.

Yes, there is maybe an algorithm in Spotify, but not really.

There's no real recommendation engine, so that's really hard.

A distant second is making money at 39%, and audience engagement is 32, and then rounding out the 30 or more percent of respondents.

And they could pick more than one.

Time commitment and burnout, which is my jam, right?

So 30 % of the people here in this survey could likely benefit from how I help people.

So that is biggest challenge if we scroll down a little bit I highlighted this because I think it's interesting.

I've always thought about like podcasts and how they make money 85 % said they are not making money their podcast does not make money I'm a little I didn't take the survey.

I'm a little curious if they mean that they're not generating revenue or if it means that they are generating revenue and their costs just exceed the revenue they're generating.

The caveat here in the survey is like the low yes numbers maybe because majority of participants don't see monetization as a driver or priority just yet.

That could be true, right?

I think also if we dig deeper into revenue streams they've used, sponsorship and advertising and paid subscriptions are the biggest ones with 65 % and 48 % respectively.

Those are also the hardest ways in my opinion to make money.

I'm a sponsorship coach.

I am an evangelist for RSS .com where we give people a lot of opportunities to make money.

including paid ads, which is our dynamic instance for programmatic ads inserted dynamically.

You probably heard one or two at the beginning of this episode.

And it's still really hard to make appreciable money that way.

Paid subscriptions even more, especially because if you look at The let's see number of down that they ask number of downloads at some point Like how many downloads is your show getting?

I can't find it right now, but You know most are here.

We go.

How many downloads do your new episodes typically get?

50 % said less than 50 500 and more 16 percent total paid memberships is really, really hard if you don't have a big audience to make appreciable money.

If you have a small niche audience and you're considering your packaging, positioning, and promise, coaching, consulting, and mentorship, which 29 % said they've tried, and product sales, 27 % said they tried.

Those could be big revenue generators for you.

And I'm not saying easy, but easier.

So which revenue stream has been most profitable to you?

41 % said sponsorship advertising, 23 % said paid subscriptions, and 15 % said consulting, coaching, or mentorship.

Your most profitable...

I'd love to see raw numbers on paid subscriptions Because I want to know what the audience size in how much they're charging for paid subscriptions and if it's like like how different would the answer to this question would be If it was Which revenue stream has been worth it for you?

I'd be really curious about that So that's a this is not really making money I want to get into the meat, which now is video and AI.

And I'll get a disclaimer and a small rant out of the way here, because I think that video is an inevitability for podcasters.

But I think it's just worth noting that the last time I saw this survey, Allatoo, who put out this report, didn't have video support the last time I saw it.

And now they do.

I just I'm not saying.

If that means anything, I think like generally.

If you have a product and it adds a feature, your customers are more likely to want or you either put it out because your customers want it.

Or your customers are more likely to use it once you put it out.

So I think I just want to.

State that explicitly.

Honestly, video in podcasting is an inevitability.

There are more like if 72 % of these respondents are struggling with discover ability Having your podcast on YouTube and video with Spotify Improves the discover ability So it is an inevitability and I'll also just say if you're still saying your podcast isn't really a podcast unless it has an RSS feed or If you're only on YouTube, you don't really have a podcast.

Like, knock that off.

You are objectively wrong.

When someone says, I have a podcast, it's only on YouTube.

It is my job to say, have you considered a way to get your podcast in other apps like Spotify and Apple podcasts?

Because when you're just like, oh, that's not really a podcast, you sound like a dick.

Plain and simple, right?

And if you're trying to be some sort of podcast purist, then you can only listen to podcasts on iPods, right?

Because the word podcast is a portmanteau of iPod and broadcast.

So if you're really trying to be a purist, break out that old iPod classic and listen to podcasts there.

So video in podcasting is an inevitability.

And the data is showing this.

19 % of respondents say they don't make any video and don't plan to.

32 % say they don't but they're considering it.

And then the rest is they either use clips or post audiograms.

19 % says they publish full video episodes.

So I fall into the, I used to fall into the publish full video episodes.

Now I post clips or highlights but not full video episodes.

It just, it didn't seem worth it to me.

It's gonna be different for everybody.

So it didn't seem worth it to me.

That might change in the future, right?

I use Riverside to record and Riverside makes it easier to edit video.

But I don't, what I am creating, I don't, like this would not be a compelling video save for the fact that if you want to read this survey along with me, But like, are you going to sit in front of your computer and listen to me talk through a thing that you can much more quickly read?

No, you're probably in the car or on a commute or doing chores or at the gym.

You're probably not sitting in front of your computer reading this report with me.

So the video just wasn't compelling for me.

All right.

And now the big one.

Are you using AI tools in any part of your podcast production?

38 percent.

AI -generated transcripts.

33 % say they're not using AI at all.

That is the number two answer in this survey.

30 % say AI for content research ideas and planning.

30 % say AI -generated show notes and episode titles.

27 % say AI -assisted editing or sound enhancement.

21 % say AI for marketing.

Then So, okay, so what they did was they combined two here right the 33 % No, that oh, yeah number shakes out.

Okay, 17 % of those 17 % say I don't use AI and I don't plan to 16 % say I don't use AI and I'd like to 3 % say they use AI voice cloning or synthetic hosts.

I Would say here if you cannot speak and you want to have a podcast, a synthetic voice is a very, this is one way where like AI has made podcasting more accessible.

If you're just doing it for S &G's because you don't feel like recording, you should just not have a podcast.

Plain and simple.

If you don't feel like talking, don't talk, right?

Just like, oh, I have AI write for me.

Don't write if you don't want to write.

No one's forcing you to write.

So like, I just, I don't get that.

Again, if you are unable to speak and you want to have a podcast and this is a great way to do it, right?

That's great.

I think that's a really nice thing.

So I'd be curious to see how people are using the AI voice cloning in synthetic hosts.

So there's a lot to unpack here, right?

AI -generated transcripts, I think are a great way to use AI.

I still think you should have a human review them.

Like, I have AI -generated transcripts and then my VA reviews them.

Because transcripts, the point of a transcript is to make it accessible for those who can't listen.

And so you want accuracy.

And then the other reason is SEO purposes or discoverability purposes.

And again, you want accuracy there.

So I think AI transcripts are great.

If you're not doing transcripts at all, there's really no excuse to not have AI transcripts now.

But I still think you should have humans review them.

And then AI assisted editing or sound enhancement?

My hands are not clean here.

I'm AI hesitant.

My hands are not clean here, though.

I use AI assisted editing and sound enhancement.

If not on my show, as far as I know.

I mean, my editor edits my show.

For this one.

Don't know is isotope RX is that AI enhancement?

I Don't do anything it listens to my audio and cleans it up.

So I guess it could be And then AI editing like I edit via transcript what I don't do is say Hey Riverside edit this for me and then just put it out Or I don't say hey Gemini find the places I should cut and just blindly do that but I it's AI assisted.

So like, I think AI can be a really great tool.

I would beg you, I will beg you, don't let AI have the first crack at research ideas and planning.

Come up with stuff, use your brain and your critical thinking skills, and do it yourself first.

And then if you want to rubber duck with AI, if you want to get another opinion from AI, fine.

But don't give AI the first crack at creative work.

Just what I think.

What I think strong, not just what I think, I strongly believe this.

So I thought that was an interesting point.

And then The last thing I want to cover here is video versus audio production time.

So the study here, the report here says video and audio only podcasters spend similar time creating each episode with most and both groups falling into the one to three or four to five hour ranges.

The survey suggests that audio only creators are more likely to invest longer overall with 45 % spending more than six hours per episode compared to about 36 % of video podcasters.

That's super interesting.

But as they point out, audio creators often will follow a more traditional editing culture.

Whereas if you're using video, you're probably, I think the conjecture here is you're taking more shortcuts.

That is certainly true for me.

If I'm editing a video, I'm using Gling .ai or Riverside, both AI tools to help me edit.

And then the, so that's, that's interesting.

And then 25 % of respondents say they can, they've considered quitting because of lack of time.

21 % say they never considered quitting.

But one of the wrapping up here, There are two more notes on AI.

What's the biggest threat facing podcasters in the next three years?

25 % say increased competition and 25 % say AI.

They highlight that a noticeable trend was 28 % of the under 50 see AI as the biggest threat, while increased competition was seen by the as the biggest threat by people over 50.

I think that's very interesting.

I think people over 50 have probably been podcasting a very long time, and they remember when there was little to no competition.

And now they're seeing it's harder to be discovered and harder to keep people's attention.

Whereas under 50s, I would say AI is the biggest threat to podcasting.

because people are using it to take shortcuts.

They're forgetting the craftsmanship of podcasting and other content creation.

So really interesting.

It's an overall, a really interesting survey.

Five big takeaways.

The one that stood out to me is AI doesn't guarantee time saved.

They say there was no clear difference in time spent between podcasters using AI and those who don't.

But they also say it's difficult to draw firm conclusions, right?

Because it really does depend.

I would say if you are looking at AI to help save you time, the places to do it are with an AI -generated transcript, helping you edit, but not editing for you.

I would encourage you to read about the the autonomous system idea behind a human in control.

We hear about human in the loop all the time, right?

Like, oh, it'll do something and keep humans in the loop.

Human in control should be the way we approach creating stuff, including a podcast.

The AI doesn't do something unless we tell it to do something.

That's my biggest takeaway here.

is that as we struggle with discoverability and making money and we're looking to save time and places so we can spend it in the right places, AI is not a magic bullet.

And it's certainly not going to produce something worth listening to as much as you will.

Because you know your audience better than some robot.

All right.

Well, that's it for this episode.

I would encourage you to check out the survey.

It's over at alatoo .com.

I will link to it in the show notes as well, which you can find in the description below or over at streamlinedpodcaster .com.

Let me know what you think.

You can write in, leave a comment over at streamlinedpodcaster .com.

And until next time.

I hope you find some space in your week.