Q&A with Melissa Mbugua, Co-director, Africa Podfest
Highlights from our Instagram Live with Co-director, Africa Podfest, Melissa Mbugua.
We spoke to Melissa Mbugua, Co-director, Africa Podfest, Podcasting Africa to hear about podcasting on the continent and how Melissa’s work is disrupting the industry.
Q: What makes a great podcast and what are some ways to achieve that?
A: The gift of storytelling (through audio) is having a great voice and knowing how to structure and tell stories that are compelling and interesting. Second is consistency and quality so you can give the audience space to grow into a community. It doesn’t take much financial resources to start a podcast and grow your initial audience. Because with as little as a smartphone and an internet connection, technically speaking, you can start a podcast with good enough quality. However, to grow to the next level, you have to scale up developing, investing in a lot more journalistic skills, understanding journalistic ethics and upgrading the tools you are using.
Q: What would be your advice for those who want to join the industry?
A: My advice would be if you are confident, if you’re excited about what you have to say through your podcast, start now. And you can just start with the tools and resources you have and build towards the sort of shiny and cool podcasts you have in mind. Because the beauty of podcasting right now is that it’s also still growing. It’s still new so you can experiment. Go in with a patient outlook but be prepared for fast growth.
Q: How are independent podcasters managing to compete against podcasts from mainstream media?
A: The surprising thing is that media companies are not the ones who are producing the most successful podcasts. Audiences are really hungry for fresh narratives. On a podcast app like Google podcasts or Spotify or Apple podcasts, when you look at the top chart, it will show the Top 10 or Top 20 in your country, and you’ve probably not heard of most of those creators . Most of them are probably independent creators.
That’s why I say now is the time to start, especially if you are an independent creator, because the rules of podcasting are not set in stone. There’s no established standard because the industry is still in its early stages.
You have a chance to surprise yourself in the industry.
Q: What are the prospects of monetising of podcasts?
A: There are several options and it depends on what the focus of your podcast is. One is subscriber contributions or donations. Two, is going into live events. So if you have live shows for your podcast, you sell tickets and kind of work with that model to answer income. Thirdly, is selling advertisements, in a very commercial sense, to brands that want to buy. But to do this, you need to completely understand who your audience is and how they’re relevant to the advertiser. Similar to this would be sponsored podcasts which can be either from the nonprofit world or from the commercial world.
Catch up on the session here.