The podcast renaissance: Moroccan podcast market is growing thanks to the youth

You probably won’t read this whole article. But imagine if it’s read to you out loud in a smooth and relaxing voice, while driving to work, completing chores around the house or fighting insomnia in the middle of the night. You will be hanging on to every word, ready to listen to the next episodes.

This is what Podcasts have been doing for nearly two decades, but the format has come into its own over the last five years. A proliferation of shows, involvement from celebrities and investment from large companies like Spotify, have all helped the podcast industry grow.

In 2020 over 155 million people listened to a podcast every week, 49% of whom are young people aged 25-44.
The podcast industry is living an innovative and creative renaissance, and Moroccan youth are “recording” their own part in it, mostly in Moroccan dialect Darija.
Sitting in her bedroom, waiting for the night’s stillness to set, Youssra Moujtahid prepares to start recording a new episode of her show “l’crime bdarija” about a bizarre true crime story, an activity she took on in the darkest times of 2020, quarantine.

The 26 years old podcaster, a communication analyst and a bookworm, was fascinated by crime’s world since she was a teenager. Newspaper, television or radio, Youssra will always be looking for a crime story to read, to watch or to listen to.

The podcaster explained: “I wanted to do it in Moroccan dialect. It’s a great language for storytelling and there isn’t much content in “darija” about crimes,” she said in an interview with Hespress Eng. Moujtahid shared her first episode secretly on SoundCloud in 2020. “I didn’t tell anyone about it except one friend. I woke up the next day and I was shocked by the numbers. I didn’t expect it.” She said enthusiastically.

The high rates of listeners of true crime podcasts and their popularity around the world always raised questions and drew experts’ attention. In the last 6 years, more than 200 true crimes’ podcasts have been launched; and the genre regularly occupies many of the spots on the Top 20 podcast chart in iTunes.
According to experts, the popularity of this genre is driven mainly by the preventive mechanism to give us information on the dangers to avoid them and the urgent need to understand why anyone would do such horrible things.
“I don’t tend to romanticize serial killer personalities or exploit their stories. I am much more interested in the psychological aspect of true crime stories, and how childhood trauma affected most serial killers’ lives. ” The host of “l’crime bdarija” Moujtahid told Hespress English.

Research, reaching out to experts, writing scripts, recording and editing all take from 2 to 4 weeks approximately to create one podcast episode. That long process of creating content, unfortunately, is not rewarded enough. Being ineligible for most monetization scheme plans, like the Spotify scheme created currently just for American podcasts, Moroccan podcasters stay only with the options of sponsorships and collaborations with start-ups, or sharing their content on Youtube.

Youssef Allali, the host of “Tajriba” podcast commented: “I am not against monetization, but I am not really interested in monetizing my content. I started “Tajriba” because I love having interesting conversations with different people. And the biggest reward for me is the number of talented people that I had the chance to meet during this podcast”

Captivated by inspiring career experiences shared in French and English podcasts, Allali, decided to create similar content in Moroccan dialect ”Darija”. “There are many international podcasts about careers stories. I wanted to make one in Moroccan dialect to make it accessible for all Moroccans.”
“I named it Tajriba (experience or experiment), not just because I was aiming to share inspiring experiences, but also because the project itself was an experiment. I didn’t know if people are going to like or not.”
Before interviewing famous names such as journalist Aboubakr Jamaï and entrepreneur Ismael Belkhayat, the 25-year-old engineer, Allali, started his podcaster career, in 2019, by interviewing his friends, doctors, entrepreneurs and his fellow engineers who have inspiring stories to share.
“For me, an inspiring career’s story is not about “straight A” students who have always known what they want, but it’s more about people who spent 20 or 30 years in a certain job before figuring out their real ambition and deciding to shift careers. It shows us how the world is full of possibilities.” The TAJRIBA’s host told Hespress English.

Oumayma Zekri Ajarrai, media consultant and the host of podcast 9addat, presents a similar content to TAJRIBA; the only difference is that hers is exclusively for women’s inspiring stories.

Ajarrai explained: “when I started 9addat back in 2019 I decided to create a safe place for Moroccan women to share their success stories; in order to empower Moroccan women and encourage them to follow their dreams because they are 9addat (powerful, able)”. She added: “I don’t find my concept sexist by any meaning. Women are misrepresented and they deserve this platform to speak for themselves”

The 9addat’s host describes one of the most special moments in her podcast saying: “it was the moment when I interviewed Aicha Chenna. All episodes are precious to my heart, but the one with Chenna felt different, it was a special moment for me”

This year, this independent initiative, 9addat, continues its development with the arrival of Samia Moukhalid, architect and interior designer and Yousra Bettahi, engineer in power microelectronics. The three young women share a strong interest in gender issues and are mobilizing, in their own way, for greater equality and fairness, especially in the workplace.