This is Podcasting where I'm on a quest to conquer the podcasting realm,
and I'm bringing you along for the journey to help you achieve your own podcasting success.
In today's episode, we are diving into the Podcast Consumer Report of 2024
by Edison Research. Let's dive right in. So if you haven't heard of Edison Research,
I would definitely recommend going to their website. I've talked about them in past episodes
and checking them out because Edison Research is the go-to for podcast metrics and data and surveys,
and it's definitely worth checking out their website and all they have to offer. So definitely
go do that. And if you are wanting to follow along to the Consumer Report that I'm looking at
and the graphs, you can do so. I will have the link in the show notes where you can download
the Consumer Report for yourself and you can check it out so you have it with you as well
and gain some insights to it that we might not touch on here today. I'm hoping to get through
quite a bit of this and hopefully we can gain some awesome insights. I'm pretty excited about
this because I did glance at the first graph here and it's pretty exciting. So stay tuned.
You definitely want to keep listening because there is some awesome news here for podcasters.
So let's dive right into it. The first graph that I just mentioned says that 67% of the US
population ages 12 and up have listened to a podcast and that is a record high. Another
stat here is that 47% of the US population 12 and up have listened to a podcast in the last month,
which is also a record high, and then 34% of the US population 12 and up have listened to a podcast
in the last week. So this is pretty exciting news just based off of this first graph that
we're looking at here that this is all a record high and that is telling me that podcasting is
still a thing and it is still growing even though we are consumed with the amount of podcasts there
are as people are worried that there is an over saturation of podcasts. There's also a growing
audience of podcasts to keep up with that saturation. So this is some exciting news here
and what this is telling me of course, especially with that 34% of the US population 12 and up have
listened to a podcast in the last week, that's saying 34% of people basically are listening to
a podcast on a weekly basis, which is a record high and pretty awesome to hear and that is an
amazing thing to see. And just the fact that 67% of people in the US ages 12 and up have listened
to a podcast ever and that is a growing record is also very exciting and we'll see where we get
if we can get to the 80% here in the next year. We'll see what happens in 2025. I think we might
get to 70 something percent next year, but 80% would be awesome. Let's go on to the next graph
here and it is going into detail on podcasts listening by year. So this is really interesting
because if you look at the first year on the graph is 2006 and that is 11% of the US population
listening to podcasts and today 2024 it is estimated 192 million people have ever listened to a
podcast and this is for people who have ever listened to a podcast, not constantly listening
to a podcast or something like that, but 192 million estimated people have at least listened
to a podcast and that is 67% in 2024 compared to 11% in 2006 and it's interesting to see the
growth here as there is a growth almost every year. In 2012 to 2013 there was a slight increase
in the number of people who listened to podcasts and it's interesting to see that it is growing
and it is some exciting news to people, to podcasters specifically, that these graphs are showing
that there's still an increase in people listening to podcasts and learning about podcasts and becoming
and finding out that podcasts are a thing really. Majority of people listening to podcasts are
and finding out that podcasts are a thing really. Majority of people know about podcasts these days
but maybe don't listen to podcasts or haven't but this shows you that you know it is still
increasing and that people are interested in podcasts. The next graph here is talking about
monthly podcasting listening and this is again the total US population ages 12 and up and this is the
percent listened to a podcast in the last month and it is estimated 135 million people in the US
have listened to a podcast in the last month. That is a lot of people and there are a lot of podcasts
of course but if you are starting a podcast and are worried that there is no audience for it well
you have 135 million estimated people that you could be in your audience. Now of course
you're not going to get 135 million I wish. Maybe Joe Rogan but unfortunately none of us are Joe
Rogan but just seeing this is pretty awesome and this is also showing this based off of the years
that went up from 2008 is when this one starts it was at nine so only nine percent of the population
was listening to a podcast in the last month and 2024 it says 47 percent of people said they were
listening to a podcast or they have listened to a podcast rather in the last month. Let's dive into
the next one here and this is weekly podcast listening. Again it is the US population ages 12
and up and that is 98 million estimated people are listening to podcasts on a weekly basis. So this is
not they have heard a podcast once this is on a weekly basis or at least they have listened to a
podcast in the last week I guess. Maybe I need to not be too excited and over exaggerate here because
they are only saying actually this is a percentage of the people listening to a podcast
in the last week not that they've listened to a podcast weekly. So maybe I need to take a step
back here and understand this graph here a little more and so but the interesting thing again is 98
million people estimated are listening to a podcast or have rather listened to a podcast in the last
week and it is 34 percent in 2024 and the first year it shows here is 2013 at only 7 percent.
So that is a drastic change from 2013 to 2024 and again every year here on this graph was has been
increasing except for in 2022 there was a slight decline in 2021 28 percent and then it dropped to
26 percent and then 2023 it jumped back up to 31 percent. So it's pretty interesting to see there
as well. Now the next graph is the top 50 podcast in the US and this is shows with the largest weekly
audience and this is for quarter one of 2024. I'm not going to go through all of the podcasts on this
list as that would take a long time but just to kind of give you my thoughts and the highlights
here and what we are looking at as far as the top genres and the top podcast in the US and what we
can maybe learn from this. So at number one of course is the Joe Rogan Experience and this
podcast is basically the king of podcasts and it's amazing to see that he is really the king of
podcasts and has been for years now and not slowing down and the Joe Rogan Experience is of course at
number one. At number two we have Crime Junkie and number three the Daily. Number four we have New
Heights with Jason and Travis Kelsey. That one's interesting. That is a podcast with a NFL player.
I think he retired and his wife and I think the interesting thing about this is the popularity
grew because of his brother dating Taylor Swift and that whole situation. So I believe that's what
caused this podcast to get so popular but I mean good for them right and of course there is some
fame that has to do with that as well as Joe Rogan of course. Joe Rogan being famous before the podcast
and of course the podcast taking him up to another level as far as being famous is concerned and his
popularity. Number five is Dateline NBC so just a news podcast which I think makes sense as well
and then we do have some interesting ones here. We have a comedy which I've seen on my Facebook
in shorts. I get ads for that all the time and that is Call Her Daddy which I believe is a comedy
podcast that is catered towards women. We have Smartless, Morbid, Stuff You Should Know at number
10. So there are a lot of interesting things here and one thing just based off of this graph that
I'm looking at is that we can tell the genres that are really popular and I don't think it's
anything new if you know anything about podcasts and that is comedy, true crime and news is basically
the kings and queens of podcasting genres. The Joe Rogan Experience is obviously a comedy podcast
combined with you know some other aspects since he interviews scientists and philosophers and basically
a psychiatrist and a bunch of wide variety of people but we have Crime Junkie, we have Morbid
and we have a bunch of other you know we have Serial, we have a bunch of true crime podcasts
and true crime is obviously a very popular genre in the podcasting world so it's no surprise to see
it up there. We have other comedy podcasts like The Past Weekend with Theo Vaughn at number 12.
We have Bad Friends with Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee, another comedy podcast at 15.
We have Two Bears in One Cave at number 31, another comedy podcast. We have Murder, Mystery and Makeup
at 41, another true crime podcast I'm assuming. So we have a lot of different comedy, true crime
and news podcasts here at the you know in the top 50 podcast in the US but it is interesting to see
and I don't think that anything is going to change as far as the genres in the next year
but it is interesting to see the top 50 here and I'd recommend checking out this report and you
can just check out the top 50 podcasts in the US if you're interested in just checking that out
to kind of get a more overview of all the different podcasts that are on the top 50.
Maybe if you are interested in checking out some of these podcasts. I know for me I haven't listened
to a lot of these so this is just giving me some ideas of some podcasts I need to check out myself
and so that's interesting to see here and then let's dive into the next graph here which is the
top new podcast of 2023. So this graph is showing podcasts released in 2023 with the largest weekly
reach and so that's interesting we have Brain Leak by Wood Elf Media. So we have Podcast P with Paul
George that is a way of sports and entertainment. We have That Chapter podcast by That Chapter.
We have the Broski Report with Brittany Broski and that is by Brittany Broski and Audio Boom
Studios and then we have the Unplanned Podcast by Matt and Abby and Qcode and I'm not familiar
with any of these podcasts to be honest with you other than the Unplanned Podcast because I see
shorts and they're all over these this couple has really created a couple brand if you will
on the internet in shorts and things like that that I've seen so they are very popular so it
you know it makes sense that they are able to transition into a podcast and really grow
pretty rapidly and getting a large reach each week. I am curious to see what some of these are
for instance Brain Leak. I don't know what Brain Leak would be but they do have some cool cover art
and That Chapter podcast. No idea what that is. Is it about books? Looking at the cover art here
it's got like a dark theme to it maybe it's true crime. It's hard to tell but it is interesting
and this could be another way to kind of get an idea of what cover art is currently working for
podcasts. Just looking at this graph here you can kind of see some interesting ideas for cover art
if you're interested in or you're looking to start a podcast and you are needing some cover
art ideas or you look you have a podcast and you're looking to kind of update it and get more reach
maybe look into the podcast cover arts that are currently working and that might help and that's
something I'm definitely going to look into myself and I'm currently using this graph obviously for
selfish reasons and that's why I'm looking at this consumer report to get some ideas for myself
but it is awesome to see and hopefully this helps you as well. This next graph here is showing that
listeners spend more time with their podcasts than ever so since 2014 the average time spent
listening to podcast has grown by a whopping 450 percent. That is nuts. 450 percent the average
time spent listening to podcast has grown by wow that that kind of blows my mind right there
that's amazing. I mean when you think about the early podcasting has been around for a while
since the early 2000s I believe I could be wrong that's amazing to see that since 2014 the podcast
industry has really grown that much and it continues to grow and there's more podcast
every day there's more podcast listeners as this report is showing us and so this is getting me
really pumped for podcasting and I'm hoping that this is getting you pumped for podcasting
and getting getting you motivated as it's motivating me. Let's dive into another chart here
so this is let's see what we got here we have share of time spent listening to audio sources
the US population ages 13 and up so this shows audio sources from 2014 to 2024 and this is
showing basically all the different audio sources in 2014 it says two percent of the audio sources
people were consuming were podcast and in 2024 it is 11 percent of audio sources now I'm assuming
they're taking into account different audio sources like radio streaming music I don't know
what all all the sources they are taking into account are but I mean just looking at the graph
previously that's showing us that 450 percent increase that's enough for me to get excited
and let's dive in the next one here so this is share of time spent listening to ad supported
audio sources so again this is US population age 13 and up it says all other sources are 80 percent
and podcast is 20 percent let's see what we can gain from this here share of time spent listening
to ad supported audio sources all other sources 80 podcast 20 so basically this is saying that
the time people are spending listening to audio sources with ads all other sources are 80 and
podcasts are at 20 so these other sources are taking up majority of the ad supported audio
that people are listening to I'm guessing again music and things like that but podcasts at 20
that's not too bad to be honest with you let's dive in in the next one the next one is average
time weekly podcast listeners spend listening to podcast and this is based on listened to podcast
in the last week and so there is a mean average here of 743 let's see here actually let me dive
into this a little more here so five percent say less than one hour 33 percent of people say
one hour to less than three hours three hours to less than five hours at 21 percent and five hours
to less than 10 hours is 18 percent and then 10 hours or more of people listening to a podcast
in the last week is 23 percent and this is a total of everybody all age groups and then let's see
what else we got here so we got different age groups here we have a 12 to 34 35 to 54 and 55
and up and one of the interesting things here is it looks like the majority of people ages 12 to 34
are listening to a podcast an hour to less than three hours and similar for ages 35 to 54 at 28
percent but 29 percent of ages 35 to 54 are listening or have listened in the last week to
10 hours and more podcast so that's showing us that you know there is a big there is a big audience
for that age group there and then 55 percent 30 percent of people have listened to it in a podcast
or 35 30 percent rather people ages 55 and up have listened to a podcast in the last week and that
is an hour to less than three hours so there's in some interesting insight here into this graph as
well let's dive into the next part of this consumer report and this is podcast so this is podcast
reach all generations so this is showing us monthly podcast listening total u.s population age is 12
and up this is the percent of listening to a podcast in the last month and this is pretty
interesting because as we can see here ages 12 to 34 has gone up 49 percent compared to previously
at 55 50 and 56 percent and this is 2021 2024 so at in 2021 it was 56 percent and now 59 percent
for that age group 35 to 54 it was 39 percent in 2021 and now is 55 percent in 2024 55 and up 27
percent is what it's currently at and it was 26 percent in 2021 again that is a total u.s
population ages 12 and up percentage of people listening to a podcast in last month it shows
that young listeners are loyal listeners here it's showing that the next one here is young
listeners are loyal listeners 59 of those ages in 12 to 34 are monthly podcast listeners and those
of ages 12 to 34 are weekly podcast listeners at 43 percent so that's showing basically young
listeners are loyal listeners so if you are targeting a younger audience this is some good
news for you as well on your podcast and that's something that i think we should take a look at
or at least take a look at as we are coming up with our podcast ideas or and see what our audience
is their age their demographic and things like that just like you would a business
let's see what else we have here that seems interesting so the rest is diving into more
kids researched kid podcast listener report we have a generation z podcast listener report
this is kind of interesting it says gen z monthly podcast listeners who's gen z monthly podcast
listeners who started listening as children spend an average of three hours and more per week with
podcasts than those who started listening in later in life so basically people who are starting to
listen to podcasts younger are sticking with podcasts longer and listening more
so this is kind of interesting and one of the other things here is podcast reach by key consumers
so 55 percent of those ages 35 to 54 percent or sorry the 55 percent of those ages 35 to 54
are monthly podcast listeners and 41 percent of those ages 35 to 54 are weekly podcast listeners
so that's pretty interesting to see and these are obviously key consumers as that age group is
the people who are going to be buying products or buying from your sponsors if you have sponsors
and ad spots on your podcast and so this is kind of interesting to see there's a lot more here
on this consumer report there's talking if they're talking about the boomers are adapting to online
audio and more on the different age groups and things of that and the diversity of podcast
listeners and how it's increasingly female which is interesting 48 percent of black americans listen
to podcasts each week 43 percent of latino america uh 43 percent of latino americans listen to podcasts
each week or each month rather and so it's interesting to see all of this different
information i'm not going to go over any more of this information because it's a lot but
there's definitely a lot of interesting information here that i think you should dive into
i will put a link again in the show notes if you are wanting to check out this consumer report
but that's going to be it for today's episode this is some interesting information here on this
consumer report and we can glean a lot of valuable information as far as targeting our specific
audience this really is interesting it's showing here that 450 what was that 450 increase um since
2014 the average time spent listening to a podcast has grown by 450 so just that standalone right
there is exciting news and i don't think it's saying it basically this is 2024 right this isn't
a report from last year or 2020 or anything like that this is a updated report here from 2024
and now is a great time to get into podcasting still uh you might see some people saying it's
not there's it's oversaturated there's but this is actually a great time to get into podcasting and
it's showing that the average time listening to podcasts has grown and so there are more
people listening to podcasts than ever and even if there are people creating podcasts there isn't
growing audience for those podcasts and of course the other things we can learn from this the top
genres in podcasting comedy true crime news etc is nothing new but just again kind of showing us
that those are the top genres and they are going to be the most competitive as well but they are
going to be the most lucrative if you can get into a the genre like that the age groups again are
interested in to see the age groups are interesting to see again as far as that's concerned being able
to target your specific audience like i mentioned seeing that the age groups listening to podcasts
are consumers that can actually purchase products that you might be advertising on your podcast so
there's a lot of information that we can uh gain from this consumer report so again go on the website
download this consumer report for yourself check it out i think it's worth it and sign up for the
newsletter i think they have a newsletter for this edison research company and i would periodically
check this company out their website here is again is edison research and they have some valuable
information that i think is very important to stay on top of industry news and podcasting but
that's going to be it for today i hope this was helpful for you guys as it was helpful for me
and motivating really to see the growth in podcasting until next time guys keep on your
quest and enjoy the process and the journey