My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Massive expansion of podcast monetization beyond traditional advertising
Timeframe: 5-10 years for market to reach FM radio parity
What's Changing
Podcasting market is drastically undermonetized compared to its reach and engagement levels, with only $2B in current market size despite 62% US penetration
Driving Forces
Higher audience loyalty and trust compared to other media
Direct access to subscribers without algorithm interference
Growing sophistication of podcast monetization tools
Comparison to FM radio's much larger market size
Winners
- Podcast creators who diversify beyond ads into premium content, events, courses
- Podcast monetization platforms and tools
- Advertisers who can access highly engaged audiences
- Premium podcast content creators
Losers
- Podcasters who rely solely on traditional advertising
- Other media competing for attention and ad dollars
- Low-engagement content creators
How to Position Yourself
Build tools that help podcasters monetize their audience directly
Create premium content offerings for podcast audiences
Develop better attribution and measurement for podcast advertising
Focus on subscriber-based rather than download-based models
Early Signals to Watch
Example Implementation
“A podcast monetization platform that helps creators launch subscription tiers, sell merchandise, and run live events, taking a percentage of all revenue streams”