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Wildcast Brings Podcasters Together In The Search For Great Guests And Industry Networking

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The humble podcast has to be one of the slowest-burning business models, ever. Despite being with us for around 16 years with the invention of the iPod, the medium grew slowly at first. Today there are more than 100,000 podcasts available in the English language alone and podcasts are a major landmark on the media landscape.

However, it’s probably only in the past couple of years that podcasting has reached critical mass and grown to be such a huge part of our media. Some podcasters have superstar status, partly due to the global pandemic with its subsequent lockdowns forcing us to look beyond boring boxsets and tired terrestrial broadcasts for our entertainment. There’s a growing appetite for more specialist programming that delves deeper into a subject and uses longer formats to discuss the things that matter to us in detail. All this is driving the public appetite for listening to podcasts. 

Podcasting is a big industry and new titles crop up daily. The choice of podcasts appears to be almost limitless with every imaginable subject covered and setting up a podcast is relatively inexpensive because the technology is so affordable. If you have a great idea or some specialist knowledge in a certain subject, you have the basis for a podcast. The biggest challenge is in gaining traction for a new podcast is getting the pacing content right, which includes having interesting and knowledgeable guests to interview who can speak with authority and in an entertaining way. But where do you find those guests? Not every expert is entertaining or engaging and not all experts are willing to appear on podcasts.

Madison Catania is the CEO and co-founder of a new startup called Wildcast; a networking platform and community for the podcast industry that seeks to bring together podcasters, networks, guests, and agencies to enable them to connect, interact, engage and collaborate. While pursuing an MBA degree at the University of California, San Diego, Catania discovered a love for podcasting because of the way it connected with people and how it can bring new ideas to the forefront. 

Catania decided to follow her passion for podcasts and joined the pre-production team for a top-50 Society & Culture podcast, before eventually joining a network where she led the production team working on a variety of well-known podcasts, including Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe, Your Favorite Thing with Wells Adams and Brandi Cyrus, Sorry We're Stoned with Brandi and Tish Cyrus, Riled Up with Matt Cutshall and Arielle Vandenberg, Going to Bed with Garcelle and more.

During her time as a producer at the network, one of Catania’s jobs was booking guests to appear on the podcasts as well as seeking to offer the network’s hosts to other podcasts. This process of swapping guests and cross promoting each other’s podcasts is one of the best marketing tools available to the podcasting world. As Catania navigated her role in booking and placing guests, she learned how valuable being a guest on a podcast and exploring ad trades with other podcasts could be.

Appearing on someone else’s podcast is a great way of boosting the listenership of your podcast. Catania decided that there had to be a more efficient way of streamlining the process of researching guests, bringing together email threads, as well as the general back and forth involved when booking or researching a guest. Looking at the tools already available to the industry, Catania saw a gap in the market for a platform that would do exactly what she and so many others in the industry wanted.

Wildcast is the result of Catania’s endeavors. It’s a platform that seeks to connect the podcasting community with user-friendly discovery and networking. Podcasters can sign-up and begin to explore the platform's available guests and podcasters are sorted by their profession, reach, interests, appearances, and much more. Guests can make themselves available on the platform and build their reputation for adding value to the podcasts they appear on.

Catania thinks that Wildcast is innovative and will bring big benefits to podcasters as the medium enters it’s a more mature phase. “When we began to build the Wildcast platform, there was truly nothing on the market like it. We filed provisional patents on the methodology and technology behind the platform itself and we plan to continuously update our IP to reflect the unique proposition of the platform and to introduce features and functionality that will bring more and more value to every user on the platform. We have several features and innovations within the platform that are coming in the next 3-6 months and beyond. We can't wait for our users to see,” claims Catania.

Wildcast now has more than 650 users with over 150 million downloads combined. It’s an indication of just how quickly the industry is growing and how much it needs tools and resources that can speed up and simplify the procedure of booking guests. Podcasts already using Wildcast range from ones that have just celebrated 100 million total downloads to those who are still planning to release their first episode. Currently, there’s around a 50/50 split of membership between podcast hosts and podcast guests. 

With its mission to make Wildcast a space for everyone in the podcasting industry, the platform is already looking to extend beyond podcasts and guests by growing the base with integrations and partnerships that can provide added value to Wildcast’s users. The industry is growing rapidly, but a lot of the money and resources are geared toward the larger players in the space such as The Joe Rogan Experience or The Dan Bongino Show. As the number of podcasts grows, so it becomes more difficult for individuals and smaller podcasts to grow their audience and monetize material amid all the noise. 

I asked Catania how she sees the future of the podcast industry developing. “Of course, podcasting is growing immensely at the moment and will continue to do so. But beyond just providing entertainment for listeners, I truly believe podcasting has the ability to change the way we consume information and how we view the world around us. From mental health podcasts that help those suffering from anxiety and loneliness during the pandemic to entrepreneurial podcasts that could inspire the next big companies, I believe podcasting is so incredibly powerful and has the ability to impact listeners beyond what we could imagine. As someone who thinks the industry is simply getting started, I'm just excited to be a part of it!”

With increased competition to be the go-to podcast for listeners or to be a guest on a top-charting podcast, Wildcast hopes to streamline the two entities. It lets podcasters to network and connect more easily, enabling the industry can grow through synergy and cooperation in much the same way that LinkedIn provides valuable tools for recruiters and job seekers. Wildcast plans to do the same job for podcasting. 

More info: 

GowildcastWildcast * Podcasting Together
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