According to new forecasts from The Diffusion Group, a US-based consumer technology research consultancy, demand for time-shifted digital audio files – that’s ‘podcasts’ to you and me – is expected to grow from less than 15% of portable digital music player owners in the US in 2004 to 75% by 2010.
The firm says its new report Podcasting: Fact, Fiction and Opportunity – which costs a whopping $1,495.00! – suggests that between 2004 and 2010, the use of podcasting among US consumers will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 101%. (Hat tip: Mike Wendland.)
For many would-be business podcasters, you can make some relatively safe judgements on podcasting by just reading TDG’s press release from 15 June, and taking a look at summary projections from Forrester Research published in April which said:
[…] Podcasting, which is the newest entrant into the digital audio mix, will see significant growth by 2010 – reaching 12.3 million households – as MP3 adoption climbs and broadband reaches 62 percent of households.
Then, make sure you read the latest RSS data analysis from FeedBurner, published on 6 June, about podcasting on the rise.
Key point:
[…] In February, we managed 20 podcasts with over 100 subscribers and hundreds of podcasts with more than 10 subscribers. Now we manage about 20 podcasts with over 1000 subscribers and hundreds of podcasts with more than 100 subscribers.
As we noted in our first podcasting report in February, a typical “long tail” is developing. Granted, these are still very small numbers we are talking about when contrasted with other media, but considering the wealth of additional podcasting tools and services about to come to market, both podcast production and subscription will undoubtedly become easier.
So, an order of magnitude leap in attention in just a few months is exciting.
Now, ride that podcasting long tail.
Read The Diffusion Group forecast
Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.
Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.