Podcasting Continues to Grow in Popularity and Monetization

We’ve got about 4 million downloads of 200+ episodes of our marketing podcast to date, and it continues to grow. So much so that we invested in our podcast studio. I’m actually in the design phases of a new studio that I may be relocating to my home since I find myself either participating or running so many podcasts.

From its humble beginnings in 2003, podcasting has become an unstoppable force in content marketing and shows no signs of stopping — the number of active podcasts has skyrocketed since 2008. Jon Nastor

2018 Podcasts Statistics

• Podcast listeners listen to an average of 7 shows per week, which is up 40% since 2017
• There are 550,000 active podcasts in over 100 languages with 18.5 million episodes available online
• The top 5 genres of podcasting are society& culture, business, comedy, news & politics, and health
• 64% of the US population is familiar with the term podcasting
• 44% of the US population have listened to a podcast, 26% listen to podcasts every month, 17% weekly, with 6% avid fans
• The key demographic for podcasts is 25-34 year-olds, often a difficult demographic to reach with advertising
• Podcast listeners are 45% more likely to have a college degree and 37% more likely to have an annual income of $100,000 or greater

What’s Changing that Podcasts are So Popular?

Reverse a few years and consuming podcasts was a complex task. If you had an iOS device, you’d have to dock and synchronize your device with iTunes after subscribing to the podcasts you liked. However, as devices have advanced and broadband connections have become commonplace, streaming podcasts has become the norm. Apple has the podcasts app, and there’s also Stitcher, TuneIn, BlogTalkRadio, and mobile apps can integrate players easily.

Besides listening during your morning jog or afternoon bike ride, the seamless integration of smartphones and automobiles have made podcast listening to a must on your morning and afternoon commutes. In my opinion,  I believe this has been the largest area of growth with business podcasts.

Not only is consumption changing, so is behavior. Just as people will sit and watch Netflix for hours, we’re finding that our listeners will listen to hours of our podcast in a single sitting. Combine this with new audio interfaces standard in 2016 cars that can consume podcasts… and on-demand audio is going to take off as we’ve never seen before!

On the production side, podcasting is becoming far easier. It used to require a sound-proof studio, expensive microphones, and a mixer for recording… then passing it off to an audio editor to tune and tweak. I recently did some podcasts on the road with a Zoom H6 recorder and a set of Shure SM58 microphones – and the clarity of the podcasts were incredible. Heck, you can start with the Anchor podcast app, and a good Bluetooth headset work great.

Media consumption is showing signs of being dramatically changed by both technology and by new paradigms. Mobile’s increasing utility as ‘the first screen,’ as well as the rise of alternative content forms, such as podcasts and ‘bingeable’ content from on-demand video services is subverting the myth that our attention spans are shorter. Tom Webster, Edison’s Vice President of Strategy

Podcasting Monetization: It’s Happening

After so many years of podcasting, I’m also getting decent revenue via some sponsors (thanks to AdvertiseCast). Because my podcasts are likely to get 10k+ listens over the next few months, advertisers are paying several hundred dollars per episode. That may not sound like a lot, but it makes the time worthwhile to schedule, record, and publish the podcasts. And unlike text and video, podcasting is fantastic for advertising because you have the listener’s attention. Of course, I make sure that my advertisers are relevant and valuable to my listeners as well – I think that’s a key. You won’t hear me trying to sell mattresses on my marketing interviews!

If there are no popular podcasts in your industry, this is the time to start one! It’s all up from here!