At any rate, it’s worth introducing some level of complexity to that feeling: Not all shows possess a regular weekly publishing cadence, not all shows should be built to compete for everybody’s regular listening slots, and not all niches are adequately covered in the current spread of what’s available. ![]() On a gut level, that feels like a small average number of shows per active podcast consumer especially when held up against an ever-expanding podcast ecosystem, with new shows launching just about every week (or day, or hour). Let’s pause on this beat for a second, because there’s a vast universe of analytical angles baked into this one data point. podcast listeners averaged 5.1 podcast shows in the last week. The specific finding on that front: Weekly U.S. podcast listeners now average eight podcasts per week - typically interpreted as “podcast episodes” - up from six podcasts per week.Ī quick note on some methodological progression here: This year’s report also includes a new “average podcast shows in the last week” measure, made distinct from a “podcasts per week” metric. This is represented in the finding that weekly U.S. The report also found that the American podcast audience has deepened their engagement with the medium more generally. (One specific finding that leapt out: There were exceptional gains among Hispanic listeners over the past year in particular.) The American podcast audience was also found to have grown more diverse from a gender and ethnicity standpoint, with the study arguing that it has drifted towards a composition that more closely reflects the American population. population, or an estimated 222 million Americans, up from 75% the year before. ➽ Meanwhile, podcast familiarity - that is, the extent to which Americans are aware of the medium - continued to grow, present among 78% of the total U.S. population, or an estimated 80 million Americans, can now be considered habitual weekly podcast listeners, up from 24% the year before. population over the age of twelve, or an estimated 116 million Americans, can now be considered monthly podcast listeners, up from 37% the year before. To begin with, the study recorded gains in the major audience sizing metrics: Let’s break the report’s podcast-specific findings out. The 2021 edition of the Infinite Dial study, published last week, gave an answer: to a considerable extent. The case began to be made that podcasting, more so than many other new media infrastructures, was uniquely suited to meeting the moment. Listening behaviors as a whole ended up adapting, moving away from the morning commute and towards more afternoon consumption. ![]() The medium lent well to remote-production workflows, which in turn attracted more participation from creators and celebrity talent and media companies, which in turn led to the creation of more podcasts and greater recruitment of their respective followings into the medium. From a purely podcast standpoint, the wave of lockdowns that began last spring - then ebbed, then flowed, then splayed out into a messy patchwork system - resulted in some initial declines in listenership as the morning commute went away, along with a significant restructuring of work processes and mild consternation over whether there’ll still be a podcast business on the other side of the pandemic.Įventually, though, podcast consumption rebounded as its structural advantages within the context of pandemic conditions came into sharper view. I don’t need to tell you that a lot has happened over the last twelve months. Leafing through the report at the time, it didn’t make much sense to me to allocate much attention to the year that had come before when what lay ahead felt so deeply unpredictable. That said, I didn’t spend as much time covering last year’s edition of the study for what should be obvious reasons by now: It was released at around the same moment that the United States began its descent into the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey-based study of digital media usage has been the longest-running measure of podcast audiences going back to the medium’s earliest days, and as a result, the story they’re able to tell is the one I consider the most reliable. If you’re a longtime Hot Pod reader, you probably know that I hold Edison Research’s annual Infinite Dial study in high regard.
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