Every year podcasting gains listeners — but also loses them. Today, I want to walk you through a slice of research from our recent Podcast Landscape 2024 report, the largest publicly available study of podcast consumers (and non-consumers!) in America. I want to revisit a segment we looked at last year called “The Persuadables.” Given that a year has passed and podcasting has grown, particularly on the video side, it’s worth taking another look at The Persuadables with this year’s data to see if they’re still persuadable and, if so, how we can reach them.
Non-Consumers aren’t Monolithic
This year’s study is the largest we have ever done, and stands as the largest publicly-available study of podcast consumption in the US. With a sample of over 5,000 Americans 18+, The Podcast Landscape is designed to provide the industry’s most reliable audience estimates and directional data. Among the highlights:
- Podcasts now reach 53% of Americans 18+ every month – the first report of monthly consumption reaching the majority of adults in the US
- Of the 26% of Americans 18+ who don’t listen to podcasts, three clear sections emerge:
- The Unreachables (11%): These are difficult to reach due to economic reasons, such as not having a device to play podcasts or lacking reliable internet access.
- The Resistors (59%): They may have heard of podcasts but have perceptions that prevent them from listening. Reasons include preferring video, reading, or simply not understanding the benefits of podcasts. They aren’t unreachable, but their habits may be more firmly entrenched (though a big part of that is their strong preference for video over spoken word audio, which as we have seen in recent years, is less a barrier to podcasting than ever before).
- The Persuadables (30%): This group, about 8% of the US population 18+ or 20 million people, represents our next potential audience tier. Like the Resisters, they prefer video, but are more open to considering podcasting AND show signs that their existing media diet might have a few holes that podcasts could fill admirably.
The full Podcast Landscape 2024 study also contains invaluable information about the reasons for churn and ways to improve conversion from podcasting trial to regular usage.
The study was conducted in partnership with Signal Hill Insights, and is made possible through the cooperation of Wondery, American Public Media, ESPN Podcasts, BetterHelp, SiriusXM Podcast Network, LibsynAds, Paramount, and NPR.
For this project, 5,071 Americans 18+ were sampled using a single, high quality online panel. Results were weighted to the latest US Census information.
