What's behind Hollywood's podcast pivot?
We were already in the midst of a podcast boom when the pandemic hit last year and the industry continued to grow while others floundered, with Acast recording a 50 per cent increase in new listeners in the UK since March 2020. Conversely, TV, film and almost every other art form near enough shut up shop, meaning lots of big-name folks had extra time on their hands and the gravitational pull of a medium that offers greater creative freedom (no major studios looming over the productions here) and, lets face it, a quick, easy buck grew ever stronger. When the celebrities came a-knocking, the infrastructure was already firmly established to make it as seamless as possible for big-name talent, says Conal Byrne, president of iHeartMedia, one of the USs biggest audio companies, which has a track record of creating podcast hits with A-listers (it now boasts both Clintons and the worlds most famous heiress on its roster). We had already built models, pre-quarantine, with people such as Will Ferrell and Shonda Rhimes, [meaning] other creators who wanted to jump into podcasts were able to call us and say, Hey, how would we work together? Byrne says. iHeart sets celebrities up with a production team and helps them seed their work out to a massive audience (podcasts reach more than 100 million Americans each month and many more listeners worldwide) via every podcast provider under the sun. The publisher even allows the celebrities to choose their own ads, which brands they want to endorse and how many ads they want to include each episode. It was this kind of flexibility and reach that got Clinton on board. (iHearts support of the Clinton Foundation didnt hurt either.)