Why did YouTube decide to offer up to $300,000 for podcasters to make videos?
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2024 9:47 am
Vanessa Dias
Mar 11, 22 | 5 min read
Reading time: 4 minutes
These days, no one goes anywhere without a podcast or two downloaded on their phone or tablet. For obvious reasons, anything that audiences can’t live without is a good money-making prospect for entrepreneurs and businesses. However, that’s a statement that’s easier to make than to follow through on. How exactly does people’s love of audio content translate into a good strategy for you? YouTube might have given us an answer to that question.
In a recent move, the popular streaming platform will begin offering grants to podcasters to turn their podcasts into video content. Individual shows could receive $50,000, while podcast networks could receive up to $200,000 or even $300,000.
These are big numbers, and people are asking: what's the deal?
Is YouTube incubating podcasters as video creators?
YouTube’s approach appears to be one of incubation, helping smaller companies get off the ground. Obviously, the media giant doesn’t fit the traditional definition of an incubator company , but it’s providing more or less the same thing: resources to grow small businesses into larger ones. It’s more than that, though; it intends to help podcasters and networks transition their content in entirely new ways.
The appeal that podcasts can have for the list of trinidad and tobago consumer email visual medium is obvious. Whether a cast is performed or narrated, a solo show, or a talk show, many would work well on screen. By offering this “grant” money, YouTube hopes to encourage podcasters to make filmed versions of popular episodes, or else create related content that doesn’t strictly follow previously released installments.
We're not rocket scientists, but we can still see how exciting this could be for a podcaster. The next question is about what YouTube stands to gain from the deal.
Why is YouTube doing this?
If you, like most people, are asking yourself, “That’s a LOT of money. What’s in it for them (YouTube)?” The answer is pretty simple: podcast market share is staggering.
“The global podcasting market size was valued at USD 11.46 billion in 2020,” says Grand View Research , “and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.1% from 2021 to 2028.”
Statista adds that the number of podcast listeners is growing all the time , with “an estimated 120 million podcast listeners in the country in 2021.”
Furthermore, “forecasts suggest that the number of podcast listeners will exceed 160 million by 2023 after increases of around 20 million each year.”
With numbers like these, the real question is why it took YouTube so long to want a piece of the pie.
It’s true that YouTube already benefits from podcasters repurposing their audio material by adding a simple background image and streaming it on the video-sharing site. But with Amazon, Spotify, Apple, and even Google making money off of podcast content, YouTube is clearly looking to make things a little more official.
That’s where their grant program comes in, encouraging podcasters to bring popular content to YouTube, even if it’s not on an exclusive basis. Simply having popular content on your site will build market share.
Once the audience is there, they are more likely to spend time engaging with other content on YouTube as well. However, grants are not the company's only plan to attract new creators.
What else is new with the video streaming platform?
In an attempt to compete with TikTok’s fast-paced and quirky approach to media entertainment, YouTube created Shorts in September 2020 and launched it worldwide in July of the following year.
It didn’t take long for the feature to gain popularity, with billions of daily views in just a few months. Now, YouTube is looking to boost its popularity even further, adding a host of new features to Shorts, including new editing tools and effects, as well as the ability to respond to comments with a new video – a fun highlight of TikTok engagement.
Mar 11, 22 | 5 min read
Reading time: 4 minutes
These days, no one goes anywhere without a podcast or two downloaded on their phone or tablet. For obvious reasons, anything that audiences can’t live without is a good money-making prospect for entrepreneurs and businesses. However, that’s a statement that’s easier to make than to follow through on. How exactly does people’s love of audio content translate into a good strategy for you? YouTube might have given us an answer to that question.
In a recent move, the popular streaming platform will begin offering grants to podcasters to turn their podcasts into video content. Individual shows could receive $50,000, while podcast networks could receive up to $200,000 or even $300,000.
These are big numbers, and people are asking: what's the deal?
Is YouTube incubating podcasters as video creators?
YouTube’s approach appears to be one of incubation, helping smaller companies get off the ground. Obviously, the media giant doesn’t fit the traditional definition of an incubator company , but it’s providing more or less the same thing: resources to grow small businesses into larger ones. It’s more than that, though; it intends to help podcasters and networks transition their content in entirely new ways.
The appeal that podcasts can have for the list of trinidad and tobago consumer email visual medium is obvious. Whether a cast is performed or narrated, a solo show, or a talk show, many would work well on screen. By offering this “grant” money, YouTube hopes to encourage podcasters to make filmed versions of popular episodes, or else create related content that doesn’t strictly follow previously released installments.
We're not rocket scientists, but we can still see how exciting this could be for a podcaster. The next question is about what YouTube stands to gain from the deal.
Why is YouTube doing this?
If you, like most people, are asking yourself, “That’s a LOT of money. What’s in it for them (YouTube)?” The answer is pretty simple: podcast market share is staggering.
“The global podcasting market size was valued at USD 11.46 billion in 2020,” says Grand View Research , “and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.1% from 2021 to 2028.”
Statista adds that the number of podcast listeners is growing all the time , with “an estimated 120 million podcast listeners in the country in 2021.”
Furthermore, “forecasts suggest that the number of podcast listeners will exceed 160 million by 2023 after increases of around 20 million each year.”
With numbers like these, the real question is why it took YouTube so long to want a piece of the pie.
It’s true that YouTube already benefits from podcasters repurposing their audio material by adding a simple background image and streaming it on the video-sharing site. But with Amazon, Spotify, Apple, and even Google making money off of podcast content, YouTube is clearly looking to make things a little more official.
That’s where their grant program comes in, encouraging podcasters to bring popular content to YouTube, even if it’s not on an exclusive basis. Simply having popular content on your site will build market share.
Once the audience is there, they are more likely to spend time engaging with other content on YouTube as well. However, grants are not the company's only plan to attract new creators.
What else is new with the video streaming platform?
In an attempt to compete with TikTok’s fast-paced and quirky approach to media entertainment, YouTube created Shorts in September 2020 and launched it worldwide in July of the following year.
It didn’t take long for the feature to gain popularity, with billions of daily views in just a few months. Now, YouTube is looking to boost its popularity even further, adding a host of new features to Shorts, including new editing tools and effects, as well as the ability to respond to comments with a new video – a fun highlight of TikTok engagement.