Keeping it brief this week, as the Sounds Profitable team heads to Brooklyn for OnAir Fest and the Bloomberg Podcast Business Summit. This week, I thought I would take a look at the regional differences in podcast preferences, to see if your zip code has anything to do with your content preferences for genres like Comedy, True Crime, and News. First, though, speaking of news: next week, the Sounds Profitable Educational Series continues with a deeper look at the audience for News podcasts. I’ll be revealing new data about the news audience, and I’ll be joined by special guest Lamar Johnson, VP of Sponsorship Marketing at NPR’s sponsorship subsidiary National Public Media. This webinar will be live and free at 2PM Eastern next Wednesday, February 26th. You can register here, and I hope you’ll join us!
You know, I’ve been collecting zip code and region data in pretty much any survey I’ve commissioned or designed over the last couple of decades, but I very rarely do much with it. In smaller surveys, the more salient differences are likely to be Rural/Urban/Suburban, and once you start slicing data more than a couple of ways, the sample sizes get small pretty fast.
But with the luxury of the largest public study of podcasting in the US, The Podcast Landscape (over 5,000 respondents), I decided to take another run at regional differences to see if where we live actually affects what we listen to. I can tell you that the Internet has really eroded a lot of regional differences over the years, as the algorithms have tended to guide us more than local tastemakers used to. Still, there are some really interesting differences to be seen with the top podcast genres when you look at it by the four major regions of the US (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West.)
Here, I made you a handy chart:
Let’s start with what unites us: Comedy reigns supreme across the fruited plain, with roughly a third of listeners in every region tuning in for laughs. The West Coast leads at 36.3%, while the Midwest keeps it (only slightly) more stoic at 33.3%.
But that’s where the national consensus ends, my friends. True Crime, that guilty pleasure we all pretend we don’t binge, shows the biggest regional split. Over a third of Western listeners are apparently more interested in whodunits, while the Midwest, at 24%, are rather less criminal (or, they’re too busy following sports at a region-leading 32.9%).
Speaking of sports, the Northeast seems more interested in their technology podcasts (21.8%) than whatever the Yankees are up to (25.2% for sports). But before you cry “coastal elite!”, remember that the South leads in TV & Film discussion (24.7%), proving that binge-watching knows no boundaries.
The Bible Belt reputation holds true in podcast land – the South tops religious content at 17.1%, while the Northeast… well, let’s just say at 9.6%, we are keeping our prayers private up here. The South also leads in self-improvement content (22.7%). They are WORKING ON THEMSELVES in the South, apparently. One of the most unusual differences to me was for the History Genre, which is listened to consistently by 22-23% of the country, EXCEPT in the Midwest, where it draws 16.6%. Midwest, you are condemned to repeat it.
Some genres remain consistently niche across regions. Science (13.9% average) and education (14.1% average) score fairly consistently. But even towards the bottom of the list, there are some significant differences: note Video Gaming at 12.9% in the Midwest, but 17.7% in the West. Note to self – if I am gaming online against other humans, do not do it during peak Pacific Time playing hours.
What does it all mean? Maybe the West Coast really is all about entertainment (leading in Comedy and True Crime), while the Northeast keeps it cerebral with News and Tech. Perhaps the Midwest’s love of sports and science reflects a practical mindset, while the South’s interest in self-improvement and religion speaks to traditional values.
Or maybe – just maybe – we’re all just listening to what we like, regional stereotypes be damned. After all, nothing says “American” quite like having 57 different podcast options and still spending 20 minutes scrolling through them all before picking the same true crime show you always listen to.
What do you think? Do any of these differences resonate with you?
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