A New Atlas for Podcasting, Debunking Listener Assumptions, & More

A New Atlas for Podcasting, Debunking Listener Assumptions, & More

July 2, 2026

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Audio Podcasts Build The Most Trust In The Creator Economy, But Video And Clips Drive The Action, Study Finds

NetInfluencer covers the new Sounds Profitable report The Podcast Atlas, built from a Signal Hill Insights survey of 5,061 U.S. adults. Key findings include audio podcasts leading every creator-economy format on trust: 58% of listeners rate audio highest for factual accuracy, only 31% express skepticism toward its ad claims (the lowest of any format), and 77% give audio their full or mostly full attention. Video converts better, with 81% of viewers reporting full attention, 15% saying they make an immediate purchase after an ad versus 10% for audio, and video podcasts even edging YouTube on authenticity, 50% to 45%. Clips function as the connective tissue between the two: 89% of podcast listeners watch clips on social platforms and 81% say clips lead them to full episodes, even as audio’s own monthly reach (36%) trails YouTube (82%), Facebook (80%), Instagram (62%) and TikTok (50%). In a new Sounds Profitable article, Tom Webster argues the trust and attention advantage comes down to portability: 78% of dual audio/video consumers use audio during at least one “hands-busy” moment when video isn’t an option, versus 55% for video. “The difference that matters for an advertiser is that only one of these formats travels.”

The Creator Economy Didn’t Replace Media. The Audience Economy Did by Keyari Page

Keyari Page, Marketing and Communications Manager at Audio Video Creators, writes that the media industry didn’t lose ground to individual creators so much as reorganize entirely around direct audience relationships. An industry shift shared by broadcasters, publishers and independent creators alike. Durable audience relationships are now a rare resource. Formats like TikTok vertical dramas now function as entry points into larger audience ecosystems rather than standalone products. “Creator-led business models are becoming the commercial infrastructure of modern media,” Page writes.

Who Really Listens To Podcasts? Be Careful With Your Assumptions

A five-market study by NumberEight (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Australia), part of its Global Podcast Advertising Compass 2025, found podcast audiences split almost evenly by gender (52% female, 48% male) and skew toward Millennials, who make up 41% of the cross-market baseline, ahead of Gen X (24%), Gen Z (14%), Boomers-plus (12%) and Gen Alpha (9%). The report also found real market-by-market variation, with the 35-44 bracket remaining a major segment in France and the U.K. and 65-plus listeners over-indexing in the U.S., undercutting the assumption that podcast audiences skew uniformly young or male. Category preference shifts by age too, from Sports among teens to Comedy for 18-to-34s to True Crime for 55-to-64s. The report says podcast planning should be based on podcast-native benchmarks, not assumptions drawn from wider media consumption.

Paul Riismandel on Audience Growth Impact

In discussing a recent Ashley Carman newsletter, Signal Hill Insights President Paul Riismandel highlights a stat from a recent Podcast Download webinar: weekly podcast consumers in the U.S. have grown 45% since 2022, adding an estimated 56 million new listeners in four years. He notes the industry still churns roughly 12% of a given year’s listeners annually, meaning the underlying rate of new-listener acquisition is even higher than the net figure suggests. He ties this to Apple Podcasts’ declining share of most-used app, arguing YouTube and Spotify pull in new listeners because they’re general media apps that expose audiences to podcasts incidentally, while Apple Podcasts only reaches people already looking for podcasts specifically. He points to Spotify’s roughly two-year climb past Apple after adding a dedicated Podcasts tab as a reference point for how long Apple’s new HLS video push might take to move the needle.

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