Yesterday we debuted our latest, greatest, and largest study ever: The Podcast Landscape 2024. This project is the second annual report in this series, which we have designed to provide the podcast industry with its most reliable audience estimates for future planning. There is a LOT in this report about discovery, churn, growth opportunities, and (soon to come) a ton of detail breaking down audio and video podcast consumption. For today, though, I wanted to focus on the core metrics – who is listening – and what opportunities we can draw from this.
The Podcast Landscape is a big study (5,071 Americans 18+) and big for a reason – we wanted more certainty in the various subgroups and segments that the podcast universe can be divided into, which is only really possible at the scale of this report. None of this would be possible without the sterling service of our research partners, Signal Hill Insights, or the wonderful sponsors of our research program, American Public Media, BetterHelp, ESPN Podcasts, LibsynAds, NPR, Paramount, SiriusXM Podcast Network, and Wondery.
Let’s start with the big headline…
- Podcasting now reaches the majority of American adults every month
This is the first time this has been reported in a large population study like this – 53% of Americans 18+ now say they consumed an audio or video podcast in the last 30 days. Some of you may see this as a big jump; others may not be surprised. However, I want to focus on the precise wording of the question. This year, we asked it specifically as “consumed an audio or video podcast” and not “listened to an audio or video podcast.” This simply reflects reality – many of the newest podcast consumers are coming to us through video, and they are watching. So, the question needs to evolve as the consumer evolves.
The key for this industry, of course, is this: what do these new, video-first consumers do once they finish watching or listening to a podcast on a video platform? Do they then gravitate to non-podcast video, or can we retain them? For this, we need to be talking about the secret sauce of podcasting anywhere and everywhere we can – and that includes podcasting’s biggest new stars.
- 28% of monthly podcast listeners are 55+
This is a slight increase over 2023 (26%) and a sign that the tide may be shifting somewhat with older Americans, who (last I checked) still watch and listen and spend. Still, there is no question that the medium’s greatest opportunity for growth is with the 55+ population: 58% of non-consumers fall into that bracket, and with the increased availability of podcasts on new platforms and YouTube, there truly is no friction involved with watching or listening to our content.
- 56% of monthly podcast consumers are male
The gender composition of the podcasting audience was approaching the population norms, but it has ticked slightly male again, and I think one of the reasons for this is, again, content and the popularity of some of podcasting’s newest stars on YouTube. We ask people in The Podcast Landscape to name their three “favorite” podcasts; this year, there were five new entrants in the Top 20. This is great news – the medium continues to be vibrant and produce new hits. It just so happens that the biggest of these new hits (Shannon Sharpe, the Kelces, Theo Von, etc.) happen to lean a bit more male. I think this cycles with content and is less of a comment on any inherent “maleness” of the medium.
- Multicultural listening is strong
Monthly consumption is now in the majority, at 53% of Americans 18+, but where podcasting is really strong is with non-Whites. This year, the percentages of the Hispanic/Latino and Black populations that listen to podcasting is over six in ten and starting to approach two-thirds. The sample size for The Podcast Landscape will enable us to break those groups down further by gender and age, which we will be doing in future reports.
Equally exciting to me is that the size of this study also enables us to present solid, credible numbers for Asian-American consumers, which we really haven’t had as an industry before, and they, too, over-index as monthly consumers of podcasts at 62%. Again, we look forward to putting out a full report on this and other underserved podcast audiences in the coming months.
- The percentage of LGBTQ+ Americans who listen to podcasts every month is 57%
Speaking of underserved! I am beyond excited to be able to finally put out a stable estimate for LGBTQ+ podcast consumers, who have rarely been adequately represented in podcast studies due to sample size constraints. It should not come as a shock that this audience, some of whom are so important to the space as podcast creators, also over-index compared to the population as consumers.
We will be putting out many more pieces of critical data to help support the industry and creators over the coming months – this really is what our vision was when we started the research program at Sounds Profitable. The Washington Post’s official slogan, “Democracy Dies In Darkness,” is also relevant here: podcasting’s diverse, myriad audiences and creators need a light to be shone on them. We take that pretty seriously here at Sounds Profitable, so expect a lot of light.
Thank you again to our wonderful sponsors at American Public Media, BetterHelp, ESPN Podcasts, LibsynAds, NPR, Paramount, SiriusXM Podcast Network, and Wondery.
