Advertisers, streaming services and the wider music industry alike are keen for data on the growth of podcasts, and the habits of their listeners. Two new studies are worth a look this week on that score.
First, there’s MRC Data’s US Podcast 360 Report 2021, which has a ‘topline insights’ version that is free to download. It found that 31% of its respondents are currently listening to podcasts, compared to 61% to radio and 69% to music (in its various delivery forms).
Encouragingly for Spotify, Amazon Music and other streaming services moving into podcasts, 90% of podcast listeners also listen to music, while 56% agreed with the statement ‘I prefer to listen to podcasts on the same service I use to stream music’.
The other report comes from Amplifi Media, and offers some useful scepticism around some of the big numbers in the podcasting industry. Like the number of podcasts.
“Out of the two million titles reflected in Apple Podcasts (and similar results from Podcast Index), a remarkable 26% have produced just a single episode. One and done,” it found. “Roughly 1/4th of all podcasts are out of business, or more likely, were never really in it.”
Meanwhile, another 18% didn’t get beyond their third episode, and 20% didn’t make it to 10 episodes. “The ten-episode level represents slightly more than 1/3rd of all podcasts (36%) and places the number of titles at 720,000.”
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