How PR pros can harness the power of podcasts during COVID-19

After months of being quarantined at home during the pandemic, professionals have taken to podcasting in droves.

Spotify Chief Content and Advertising Business Officer Dawn Ostroff told CNN Business that the platform saw 150,000 new podcasts created in March, compared with February. And, in June and July, popular podcasting microphones were largely out of stock at leading music technology and instrument retailer Sweetwater—and even scarce on Amazon.

Podcast listenership initially dipped at the start of the pandemic, as commute times evaporated, creating concern among those who had invested heavily in the medium. During the week of March 23, downloads for podcasts measured by Podtrac dropped 4 percent in the United States, and podcast listens showed a decline of 20 percent in the U.S., according to Voxnest, but a 42 percent increase worldwide.