The podcast is turning 20 years old and is today in one of the most popular platforms that cover a variety of genres.
In the early 2000s there were what were called at the time audioblogs which were audio programs that listeners could download to listen to at their leisure.
The term podcast was coined by The Guardian journalist Ben Hammersley when he wrote “podcasting” in an article in February 2004 to describe the recording audio and offering it for download.
Part of the name was derived from Apple’s iPod which was at the height of its popularity at the time and one of the most popular ways to consume podcasts.
The reason Apple is recognising the 20th anniversary of the podcast was because the iTunes 4.9 update which became available on June 28, 2005, which supported discovering, listening and subscribing to podcasts.
“Apple is taking Podcasting mainstream by building it right into iTunes,” said then Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in a press release shared that day.
“Podcasting is the next generation of radio, and users can now subscribe to over 3,000 free Podcasts and have each new episode automatically delivered over the Internet to their computer and iPod.”
As of May 2025 there were 4.52 million podcasts available worldwide with up to 500,000 currently active podcasts which are still regularly producing new episodes.
We’ve been podcasting since June 2012 with the first episode of the Tech Guide podcast released just over 13 years ago.
My other podcasts with Trevor Long include Two Blokes Talking Tech (which started in 2011), The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen and Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars.
