Nobody asked for a rulebook on what counts as a podcast, and yet, here we are. Oxford Road, a podcast advertising agency, has assembled a 12-member task force featuring representatives from Spotify, SiriusXM, YouTube, Libsyn, and Podscribe to do exactly that — define what a podcast actually is. It’s a noble goal. It’s also, almost certainly, a futile one.
To be fair, the impulse makes sense. Advertisers have poured serious money into the podcast space, and they’d like to know exactly what they’re buying. Publishers want credit for every listen. Platforms want to protect their turf. Everyone has a stake in how the word “podcast” gets used. But wanting a clean definition and getting one are two very different things.
The medium has always resisted easy categorization. Podcasting grew up outside the system — no FCC license required, no Nielsen ratings to chase, no program director standing between a creator and their audience. That renegade spirit isn’t just lore. It’s baked into the DNA of the format.
The Definition Problem
So what happens when Oxford Road’s taskforce actually delivers a definition? The most likely outcome is something broad enough to include on-demand audio and video — which, functionally, describes nearly everything that doesn’t air on terrestrial radio or TV. That’s not a definition so much as it’s a description of the modern media landscape.
YouTubers will bristle at being lumped in with traditional podcast publishers. Traditional podcast publishers will bristle at being compared to YouTubers. And advertisers — who drove the entire demand for clarity in the first place — will likely find themselves no better equipped to make buying decisions than they were before the taskforce convened.
The tension here isn’t just semantic. It’s structural. Video podcasts, audiograms, serialized radio content dropped into an RSS feed, live-streamed recordings edited for on-demand release — these formats all exist on a spectrum, and drawing hard lines means leaving someone out. Someone with lawyers, lobbyists, or at minimum, a very loud social media presence.
Will Anyone Actually Follow It?
Even if the taskforce lands on a workable framework, adoption is far from guaranteed. Podcasting’s history is littered with industry attempts at standardization that never quite stuck — measurement standards, download definitions, attribution models. Progress has happened incrementally, but rarely because someone issued a decree.
The creators who built this medium from scratch didn’t wait for permission, and they’re not likely to reshape their identity around a definition they didn’t author. Advertisers, meanwhile, will keep buying what performs — definition or not. The market has its own logic, and trade definitions tend to matter most to people inside the trade bubble.
That doesn’t mean the exercise is worthless. Getting Spotify, SiriusXM, YouTube, and Libsyn in the same room — or at least the same taskforce — is genuinely significant. If the group can establish even a baseline vocabulary that advertisers and publishers use consistently, that’s a real win. But the bar should probably be set there, not at some sweeping redefinition of what counts as a podcast.
The industry needs this conversation. It just shouldn’t expect a resolution that makes everyone happy. Some definitions don’t resolve debates. They only move them to a different conference room.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
