The state of sound in 2020 and beyond

Airpods made more money in 2019 than Shopify, Snapchat, Twitter, and Spotify combined. - Rohun Vora

“More importantly, technology is now affecting the audio category faster than ever before. The diversity of its revenue models, content, and delivery has never been greater. This is inspiring and healthy. And there is a lot more to come.” - Matthew Ball

“Lack of a device boundary means that voice assistants can spread more easily, can provide different types of value than the previous platforms, and can offer an entry point for new providers that don’t have assets from the previous eras,” writes Bret Kinsella

The world’s biggest technology companies and social media platforms are all beginning to embrace audio as a core feature. Apple, Amazon, and Google all have their own voice assistants (Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, respectively), and Twitter rolled out audio tweets as a core feature this past year. Twitter is also currently testing out a new A... See more

Beyond creation, there are exciting innovations for fan engagement and content monetization. Audio has been notoriously under-monetized relative to other forms of media. So far, we’ve seen products like Glow, which offers a way to distribute and monetize premium podcast content.

“Audio is the hottest format of all. Human speech burns with information. It resolves uncertainty and communicates meaning more than any other format. Audio is how you communicate what you really mean. Intonation, emphasis, innuendo and all.” - Colin Keeley

“There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say ‘wow,’ and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.” - Steve Jobs