Beyond Audio: Reflections from Paris Creator Week

Podcasting is no longer one channel. It's a whole unique, beautiful influence ecosystem.

That was the thread running through my chat with AJ Eckstein of CreatorMatch at Paris Creator Week. Called Beyond Audio: The New Era of Podcasting, the session drew on this year's Acast Podcast Pulse research from France - and plenty of live polls in the room too.

The audience moves, so the story moves with it

In France, 86% of podcast fans now consume both audio and video, up from 79% a year ago. Three in four use at least two formats, and over half consume audio, video and social clips every week.

I’ve worked in advertising for 20 years, and if there’s one lesson I took from my time at Havas especially, it’s that the audience always decides. Nowhere is that clearer than in the format argument. Our industry spends a lot of time debating what a podcast is now. Audiences settled it by not caring.

We went deeper into these behaviours: in France, two in three fans have started an episode in one format and finished it in another. Of those, 78% switched app or platform to do it, the highest rate of any market we surveyed.

Why do people switch? The data matches my own experience: sometimes audio is just more practical, sometimes video is. That's what a medium looks like when the audience, not the platform, decides how it's consumed. Audio on the run or in the car. Video on the sofa at night. Clips in the gaps.

And clips aren't the competition. They're the front door for many podcasts. Social clips are now the number one way French fans discover new shows (44%), ahead of recommendations from friends and family (40%). And 63% of people who watch a clip go on to the full episode.

Trust is falling everywhere, except here

Trust in media is in decline almost everywhere. Podcasting is bucking the trend.

48% of French podcast fans trust a podcaster's brand and product recommendations, up from 38% last year. That's the highest figure in any market in our global research. Over the same period, every other source we measured fell: journalists, YouTubers, traditional social media influencers and celebrities. And 86% of weekly listeners say a podcaster has changed their mind about something.

I shared that for me, the reason is simple. Most podcasts are long-form, chosen (or “sought not served”, as we like to say) and largely unscripted. You hear someone think, not just perform, and that builds bonds that are pretty hard to replicate.

What the biggest creators are doing differently

I shared a conversation I'd had with my colleague Cedric, whose team in France was early to help YouTubers become podcasters. His point was simple. As our research shows, podcasting is the one medium that can show up in almost every moment of a fan's day, because fans move so freely between formats and platforms. Traditional YouTubers weren't built for the eyes-free parts of that day: the commute, the run, the washing-up. Bringing their shows into audio let them connect with their audiences wherever and whenever they are.

The flip side is just as true. The most successful video creators put real thought into how and why they make video. They put the audience first, test and learn, and let the data on what their audience does, watches and says drive their choices.

And they don't neglect the audio listener. An audio version shouldn't be a second-rate copy of the video, full of visual cues nobody explains. Every format deserves to be made for its moment.

Can creators make a living?

We explored the big topic: money.

The answer was yes, and increasingly not from just one channel. Creators can now earn across audio, video, social, live and more. Live is a real opportunity: 44% of French podcast fans have now been to a live podcast event, and that opens up even more ways for both creators and brands to connect with loyal communities.

But, I explained that when someone tells me they want to start a podcast, my first question is always: why? Your why shapes how you make your show, and how you measure your own success.

Of course everyone wants to make money. But plenty of our creators do it for other reasons too. For some, the podcast is an extension of something else: a passion project, another venture, or part of their wider brand. Others use it to test an idea and see whether it could work in another format.

And sometimes the why is even simpler. I shared that my own podcast, Bit Fit, Bit Funny (plug) doesn't have a huge audience. But my sister lives in Australia, and she listens to every single episode first, without fail. Knowing I'm giving her something to enjoy, thousands of miles away, makes me feel closer to her. That's my why.

For brands: buy the audience, not the show

If you’ve only ever worked with traditional influencers, the case for podcasts starts with trust. French fans trust podcasters’ recommendations at 48%, against 28% for social media influencers, and that gap is widening. Add hours of chosen attention, and a medium that reaches people in every moment of their day.

Most brands still buy podcasting show by show. That works, but we spent a lot of time on stage talking about a different approach: buy the audience, not the show. Start with who you want to reach, then find them wherever they’re listening and watching.

That opens the door to smaller podcasters too. A show doesn’t need a huge audience to matter (just ask my sister). Often the smaller the community, the closer the bond between host and listener, and the more a recommendation means. Working across lots of those shows can reach the right people with real trust, alongside or instead of just big names.

So how do you run one campaign when your audience might watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify and see clips on TikTok? Lead with the audience, then work with the creators they follow, because that audience follows them everywhere. That’s where Acast sits: in the middle, connecting creators and brands across audio, video, social and live, on the creator’s terms.

Thank you to Paris Creator Week, to AJ, and to everyone who came. À la prochaine!

All figures from Acast's Podcast Pulse Report 2026, both the Global edition (4,300 respondents across 13 markets) and France edition (300 respondents), in partnership with Differentology.

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