Hey there, Chris here.
We’re back in action. I took some time off from the newsletter, and I’m back now with a refreshed attitude, and a lot of updates. We might take space to breathe, but this crazy podcasting industry doesn’t.
So let’s jump in.
This issue: podfade by the numbers (plus a correction to something I’ve been saying for years), podcast clips pulling billions of views, what listeners actually want from you besides more ads, and five new episodes of We Built This Brand for you to catch up on if you missed them.
Y’all want to talk video.
Recently, I’ve been digging into our website data to find out what’s driving folks to our website, and one thing stands out above all others: y’all really want to know how to start a video podcast, or at least how to make the transition to video podcasting.
Over the next several issues, we’re going to dive into this more. This year has been the transition to video, and the market is responding. Acast just put out a report that covers this, and is reporting that 88% of listeners are now listening AND watching podcasts. So if you’re considering making the leap, know that now is definitely the time to do it.
In light of that, this week we’re sharing our Video Podcast Primer. This is a super helpful guide for those of you wanting to learn how to create a video podcast.
Of course, if you know you want one, and you live close enough to our studio to visit, don’t be a stranger! We’ve got all the tools you need to get started. Plus, there may be a promo code to help you get started right in this newsletter!
Podfade doesn’t wait for episode seven.
Podchaser just ran the numbers on every podcast that launched in 2025, all 333,723 of them, and checked which ones had published anything in the last 90 days. Roughly three in four have gone quiet. A full 26% never published a second episode. The median show that stopped lasted three episodes and eight days.
I’ll be honest, I owe y’all a correction here. For years I’ve told people podfade tends to set in around episode seven or eight. It’s in our ebook. Podchaser went looking for that seventh-episode cliff and couldn’t find it: only 3% of the shows that quit stopped at exactly seven. The real cliff is episode one.
“Most podcasts don’t fade out. They never really get started.”
The more useful part of the report is what happens once you filter out the one-and-done experiments. Among “serious” launches (three or more episodes, released over more than a day), about 39% are still publishing, and two traits stand out among the survivors. They book guests: in the 26 to 52 episode range, 67% of guest shows were still active versus 50% of shows without guests. And they keep a steady, unhurried schedule. Bi-weekly shows had the best survival rate of any cadence at 44%, while daily shows came in last at 28%. (Given how long it’s been since the last issue of this newsletter, I’m taking that one personally.) Episode length mattered too, though the gains flatten out past about 40 minutes.
Podchaser is careful to call these associations, not cause and effect, and that’s fair. It still lines up with what we’ve seen across 60+ shows. If you’re a business running a podcast, here’s the number I’d tape to your monitor: the serious shows that stopped lasted a median of 10 episodes, about four months. That’s right around the time somebody in leadership asks where the leads are. A podcast builds relationships, and relationships take longer than a quarter to compound. Pick a cadence you can keep for a full year, and decide what success looks like before you hit record.
Podcast clips are pulling billions of views. Now what?
Podtrac’s September rankings put some wild numbers on social clips. iHeart’s network pulled more than 2 billion clip views across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube in a single month. Fox Audio logged 1.2 billion clip views against 21.6 million downloads and streams. Publishers are now debating what clips are actually for. Tom Webster at Sounds Profitable calls them “the discovery engine for podcasting,” while Jomboy Media doesn’t even judge its short-form by whether it sends anyone to the full episode.
For a business show, I’m with Webster, with one caveat. A clip that gets 50,000 views and starts zero conversations is a vanity metric with better lighting. Clips earn their keep when they get the right people into the full conversation, because that’s where trust gets built. One approach from the story I really like: a producer pulling 8 to 12 minute segments out of 45 to 60 minute interviews and posting them as regular landscape YouTube videos. That length gives a new viewer enough of the conversation to decide whether they want the rest. If video’s on your roadmap, plan your clips before you record, and the guide up in the Studio Update is a good place to start.
New on We Built This Brand
We’ve put out five new episodes since the last issue. Here they are, newest first.
One piece worth your time.
Most of the industry’s money conversation is about ad loads. Listeners have other ideas. The Podcast Study 2026, a national survey of 1,205 US podcast listeners supported by NPR, PRX, and Crooked Media, found 54.8% think podcasts already carry too many ads, and only 8.6% would accept more to keep shows free. What they do want is a closer relationship with the host. More than 80% would open an email from a favorite host, and 48.5% say they’d definitely join a free VIP club. Social media also beat ads in other podcasts as a discovery source by about three to one. If you know our listener lifecycle, this is the jump from Follower to Subscriber in survey form. Your email list is where a listener stops being anonymous, and for a business show, that’s where pipeline starts.
This issue is brought to you by... us? (Again.)
Yep, we’re sponsoring ourselves again. If the podfade numbers up top say anything, it’s that the shows that last are the ones where recording stays easy. That’s the whole idea behind our studio here in Knoxville. Show up, hit record, and walk out with a great-sounding episode without buying a single piece of gear or wrestling with your setup.
HumblePod readers get 10% off their next studio recording with code HumbleNewsletter10. Book on our website by November 15.
That’s it for this issue. If something here landed for you, hit reply and tell me, I read every one. And if a friend forwarded this, you can subscribe here.
See you in two weeks.