It’s our birthday, and it’s a big one: Acast turned 10 years old. Since swinging open the doors of our Stockholm office back in 2014, we’ve become home to 125,000 podcasts, delivered 37 billion ads, and paid more than $300 million directly to podcaster’s pockets.

And more than anything, we’ve been privileged to be part of sharing a decade’s worth of stories of all shapes and sizes, enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people around the world — from Andorra to Zimbabwe. 

So to celebrate our milestone, we wanted to hear from the voices that make Acast tick: Acasters (our employees), podcasters and our industry partners. 

We asked two simple questions:

• What’s been your favorite moment in podcasting in the last decade?
• What are you looking forward to for podcasting in the next?

Here’s what they had to say.

What’s been your favorite moment in podcasting in the last decade?

My best podcast moment during this last decade is, it's not really a moment, it's the entirety of it. Being one of the founders of Acast that truly led the way in the podcasting industry, and Acast taking this amateur mass media podcasting to a professional one, is just an amazing journey. So that is something I take with me from the last podcast decade.

• Johan Billgren, Co-Founder of Acast

"Wherever you get your podcasts". If I had to pick the biggest moment in the last 10 years, it's absolutely the adoption of that phrase. Nothing embodies the open distribution and access to podcasting more than that phrase. I don't care if the podcast has an RSS feed, or if it's uploaded to a closed platform, or even if the entire audio file is sent as a voice note in a group chat. Anything spoken-word audio-first that wants to call itself a podcast should be able to and we should celebrate them. We've made the word desirable, we should be proud. We should enjoy it.

• Bryan Barletta, Partner at Sounds Profitable

I love our community. It wouldn't have been possible without Acast, which is why I really want to highlight it. We have the most incredible listeners, whom we follow through the ups and downs of their lives—first jobs, first loves, weddings, divorces, funerals, you name it. We are with them at every step of their journey. We are in their ears, sharing all those messages, all that love. It's truly amazing.

• Emilia de Poret and Ebba von Sydow, hosts of Säker Stil

I got into podcasting thanks to the podcast My Dad Wrote a Porno which exploded over here in the UK when it launched in 2015. It was recommended to me when I first moved to London, and I remember chatting about it with mates at a pub before listening to it regularly on my commute. For me, it was the perfect form of escape. Time away from a screen, on my own, and in many ways in my own little world – or James, Jamie and Alice’s. 

The emotional connection that I built with the hosts was unlike anything else – they felt like my friends! And this was the start of a decade-long love of podcasts for me. Pure escapist joy. Like I was back in the pub, listening to a chat I’d have with mates!

• Lucy Ballance, Senior Global Internal Communications Manager at Acast

For me, the number one moment in the last 10 years of podcasting is a personal moment. At a certain point, I found myself walking through the hallowed halls of Nick Viall's first set that he ever shot for his now huge podcast, The Viall Files. And I got to see the chair that he sat in and the background that he used. 

• Chad Kultgen, host of Game of Roses

In June 2014, ten years ago, I launched my own podcast in the local french radio I worked in. The show was recorded live, and I built a wordpress blog to broadcast bonuses of each episode. The show talked about radio careers. I had at my microphone many French radio stars, PR, production assistant, and public radio directors. It was a mix of live adrenaline and digital discovery.

• Cécile Rondeau-Arnaud, Associate Partner Manager at Acast

What are you looking forward to for podcasting in the next?

Whether giving individuals a voice or bringing communities of like minded people together, the next 10 years will see more diverse voices flourish in podcasting. The significance of this should not be underestimated, as the podcast industry will continue to push representation and financial support for minority creators. Podcasts will remain the inclusive and positive medium, celebrating people no matter who they are!

• Tom Roach, Commercial Strategy Director at Acast

 I think there was a period. where it looked like podcasting might get a bit too commercial and kind of behind paywalls and so on and so forth and I like that that seems to be falling away again and it feels like a community where we can all be excited about each other, shouting about the voices, the podcast that we're excited to shout about and all, yeah, share this space and this beautiful community.

• Scroobius Pip, Host of Distraction Pieces Podcast

What I'm looking forward to in the podcast decade to come is that hopefully more of all the different podcasting apps start to support more of these smart features that can be made through RSS that can connect the creator and the listener in a more intricate way. Uh, so hopefully we'll see more of that soon.

• Johan Billgren, Co-Founder of Acast

I'm just looking forward to it growing. I want to see this become a true space where storytellers of all kinds can continue to feel free to tell their stories. I want to see this industry continue to become welcoming of more diverse stories. And I want that to become lucrative for diverse creators. So hoping more of that will happen. You know, I know there was the gold rush of the 2020 to 2022 era that has simmered down a bit, but I do think that there's been some disparity.

And who the gold rush benefited and who it didn't. So I just want to see this continue to be a lucrative industry, continue to have parody for creators of all kinds, especially diverse creators and start to see them especially get paid for telling their stories because whether it's podcasting or social media, or radio or digital.

It's all storytelling. And if you're going to tell your truth you should be able to benefit from it.

• Tiffany Ashitey, Managing Director, U.S at Acast