Podcast – Trends, Data and Habits in 2019

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According to Bloomberg , Apple intends to allocate funds for podcasters that produce original content for their podcasting app. The move certainly serves the Cupertino company to keep up with other streaming music services , Spotify in the first place, which have been investing in subscription content such as podcasts for some time  . It is impossible, however, not to notice how encouraging the use of Apple podcasts by providing new, interesting content, of value could increase the stickiness of a device like the iPhone and – in a virtuous or vicious circle according to the prospects – more time spent on the smartphone means more likely to use paid services among those available in the Apple Store and, even further downstream, more opportunities for Apple to monetize on the ad present on its market store. In short, it is difficult to think that behind a decision like this, if really confirmed, there is no awareness of how podcast listening has grown over time.

SOME DATA ON LISTENING TO PODCASTS

Today, one in two Americans has listened to at least one podcast in their lives.

listening to growing podcasts

One of the most complete studies on podcast consumption remains, however, that of Edison Research: even if the results are still in 2017 it clearly shows how podcast listening has literally duplicated itself in five years  – from 2013 to 2017 in fact – especially in an age group, that of 18-34 year olds, less tied up for reasons of age to the consumption of traditional media like radio and television and that there is a good slice of Americans, around 40%, who usually listens to more than three podcasts every week .

listening to weekly podcasts

More recently, a survey by Voxnest has tried to analyze, through a comparison,  how American listeners and European listeners approach podcasting. The only habit common to listening to podcasts from both sides of the ocean seems to be the preferred time: both Americans and Europeans wear headphones or ask their digital assistant to play the podcasts they are following especially at morning, in a time slot that goes from 7 to 9 and that corresponds to the moment in which you prepare yourself to leave the house and get in the car to go to work. The old drive timein short, it has turned into an ideal moment of the day to listen to podcasts of a completely different nature. After all, Europeans and Americans seem to have less compatible tastes: in the top five of the most popular podcast categories in the United States there are, in fact, religion , culture , sports , history and news , while Europeans seem to prefer podcasts to business theme , Culture, psychology, history and education .

listening to podcast categories US
podcast listening to EU categories

On the Net it is not difficult to come across guides and resources listening to « unmissable » podcasts or in charts that try to crown the best podcast producers (among these, according to Statista, there would be the NPR with audio files downloaded and reproduced over 140 million of times in May 2019, demonstrating that even public and non-profit services can profitably take advantage of the innovations coming from the digital world).

WHAT THE SUCCESS OF PODCASTS DEPENDS ON AND SOME FUTURE PROSPECTS

The success of podcasting only reinforces the hypothesis, supported by many, of a return to an oral era . Just think, in this sense, that every day an average of four hours would be spent listening to audio content of various kinds. The popularity of smart speakers has been identified as one of the main and most recent causes of this turnaround – when until a few years ago videos looked like the Eldorado of content marketing and entertainment – so much so that even podcasters seem to be reckoning today with increasingly pressing requests to make their content accessible on systems like Alexa or Google Home. For further information

Precisely the greater penetration of digital assistants and voice recognition systems are considered among the critical factors that will determine the future trends of podcasting , together for example with the greater investment by automotive companies in traveling entertainment and, again, the fact that one An increasingly large portion of marketing budgets could be targeted by companies in all sectors with  branded content , even in the form of branded podcasts  . All this not to mention that, if the advertisers have already spent over $ 470 million in podcast advertising this year, the podcast adv market   could grow by up to $ 1 billion by 2021, effectively encouraging the creation of more new and quality content.

Upstream, however, the popularity and success of podcasts seem to be determined by tastes, habits and media consumption that have profoundly changed compared to a few years ago, especially if you look at younger generations. For further information

The podcasts, in fact, escape the logic of the schedule and rather fall into that of an on demand consumption that allows the user-listener to choose even in the smallest detail of what will be done his media diet . Not only that: the percentage (about 40% of Americans) of those who say they listen to “the whole ” podcast – here understood as a finished and unitary product, rather than as a single episode – suggests that this format is also suitable for consumption avid of content: as the TV series fans are binge watching, in fact, even those who love podcasts never fails to make bellyfuls, hearing one episode after another. Podcasts, moreover, adapt to a vertical model of content distribution and are therefore able to satisfy even the most niche public’s tastes and interests . Often led by celebrities – Gwyneth Paltrow, for example, has her own series of inspirational podcasts – either from small Internet celebrities or, again, from experts and industry landmarks, finally, the more they offer added value and more exclusive content and more podcasts succeed (well) in user loyalty .