This may sound crazy, but I think this current economic downturn is going to be really good, eventually, for the podcasting industry. Hear me out!

Over the past few years, a lot of dumb, massive deals have been made in podcasting. I’m talking about deals with major talent that never come close to paying off for the dealmakers/platforms/networks involved.

These deals set an impossible standard for most players in the space, and are bad for the industry as a whole. In a bad economy, we will have to make deals that are sensible for all parties involved, and the players who tend to have dumb money to throw around will have a lot less of it. I think 2023 could be a very equalizing time in the podcast dealmaking space, a time where we think realistically and intelligently about the return on investment in the deals we make.