Can podcasts become as popular as YouTube videos? This Northeastern graduate thinks so.

Stock photo of a podcast microphone. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Northeastern graduate Molly Beck wants to make it easier for people to produce their own podcasts.

She launched Messy.fm in January, a site that enables users to record, edit, and publish their podcasts for free. You don’t even need to purchase a microphone; the one in your computer will work just fine.

“If I were graduating today, I wouldn’t start a blog,” said Beck, who graduated from Northeastern in 2009 with degrees in finance and entrepreneurship. “I would start a podcast.”

Thousands of podcasts can now be found on Messy.fm, including shows about college football, tiny houses, and videogames. Users can create art for their shows, receive data about their listeners, and even upload their podcasts to Apple Podcasts in an effort to expand their audience.

he most exciting thing about my job is getting notifications when new podcasts go live. More and more are going up than I can even keep up with.

Molly Beck, founder of Messy.fm

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Randi Zuckerberg, the chief operating officer of Zuckerberg Media and the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, recently invested in Messy.fm., said Beck.

“We are super super excited by this investment and what it means for Messy’s growth to date and where we are headed in the future,” she said.

Beck wants to help podcasters achieve the same level of success as bloggers and YouTubers. More than 500,000 people upload their podcasts to Apple Podcasts, but over 50 million people regularly post videos to YouTube.

Many YouTube stars who have emerged in the past 10 years now get paid million of dollars to create videos that attract large audiences. Beck believes that podcasters have the potential to reach celebrity status, too.

“Podcasting is in its infancy,” said Beck. “People who start now will be the ones who amass the biggest audiences.”

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Molly Beck. Photo courtesy of Molly Beck.

Blogging helped to shape the trajectory of her career. In 2008, Beck created a blog called Smart, Pretty & Awkward, which helped her land a job as the manager of online marketing for an online bookseller.

“I had this vague idea that if I could build up a following on a blog, I could use that to market myself to other companies,” Beck said.

After working as the head of brand marketing for Venmo, the mobile payment app, she helped to launch the podcasting division at Forbes magazine.

Now she’s running her own podcast site.

“The most exciting thing about my job is getting notifications when new podcasts go live,” said Beck. “More and more are going up than I can even keep up with.”