Podcast FAQ

how many listeners does the average podcast have

by Prof. Nicole Kreiger Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago
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Full Answer

How many listeners does a podcast need to make money?

If your new episode gets, within 7 days of its release:

  • more than 26 downloads, you're in the top 50% of podcasts.
  • more than 72 downloads, you're in the top 25% of podcasts.
  • more than 231 downloads, you're in the top 10% of podcasts.
  • more than 539 downloads, you're in the top 5% of podcasts.
  • more than 3062 downloads, you're in the top 1% of podcasts.

How to find the number of listeners to a podcast?

  • In 2019 over 32% of Americans have listened to podcasts regularly every month, which is 90 million people. ...
  • People regularly listening every week in 2019 were 22% of the population in 2019. ...
  • It is also crucial to notice that once a consumer becomes a podcasts listener, podcasting becomes their primary source of audio consumption.

More items...

How to tell how many people listen to a podcast?

You’ll get even more data like:

  • Countries your downloads are coming from
  • Average time a show has been listened to per device
  • How much of an episode has been played per device (on average)
  • Listenings trends by episode, subscribed device, or country.

How to gain more listeners for your podcast?

Make yourself visible

  • Read and respond to your listeners feedback, reviews and ratings that you've received from places like Apple Podcast, Castbox,
  • Join networking events
  • Start a local group within your niche
  • Encourage your circle to share your content
  • Collaborate with other podcasters
  • Start doing Facebook or YouTube LiveStreams

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How many listeners do podcasts get?

These are large numbers considering Insider Intelligence estimates that only around 424 million people are podcast listeners worldwide.

How many people listen to podcasts average?

57% of Americans Have Listened to a Podcast This is up from 55% in 2020 and 51% in 2019. This indicates that roughly three-quarters of the people who are familiar with podcasts have actually listened to one.

What's the average podcast downloads?

How many downloads makes a successful podcast? The most successful podcast episode had around 50,000 downloads in only 30 days. An episode with 9,000 downloads earns a place in the top 5% of podcasts, and 3,400 downloads puts you in the top 10%. The average podcast racks up 141 downloads in the first 30 days.

How many downloads does a successful podcast get?

According to the latest podcast download numbers, the most successful podcast episode had about 50,000 downloads 30 days post-publishing. Podcast industry statistics show that an episode with 9,000 downloads across multiple streaming platforms earns a place in the top 5% of podcasts.

How often do podcasts fail?

Less than 20% of the podcasts that have launched this year will make it to next year. Most podcasts fail. If you've launched a podcast or are thinking about launching one, you don't want to put in all that work just to see your experiment get canned in a few months.

What makes a podcast successful?

A podcast with focus is going to be much easier for potential listeners to understand. You might think a wide appeal will get a wider audience but more often a narrow appeal means there's less likelihood others are doing the same thing. And the listeners you get will be very excited to find you.

How do you know if a podcast is popular?

Checking a podcast's social media accounts can tell you something about their listenership figures and how engaged their listeners are. Usually you can go to the podcast's official website (listed in most podcast listening apps) to find links to their social media accounts.

How much money can a podcast make?

As an estimate, if your podcast has about 10,000 downloads per episode, you can expect to make between $500 – $900 per episode in affiliate sales.

How long does it take for a podcast to get popular?

How long does it take a podcast to grow? You should start to see podcast growth within the first 30 days of your launch, and your podcast growth should continue indefinitely month over month, even if it's a small amount. Slow and steady growth is a good thing in the podcasting space.

Is 500 downloads good for a podcast?

more than 72 downloads, you're in the top 25% of podcasts. more than 231 downloads, you're in the top 10% of podcasts. more than 539 downloads, you're in the top 5% of podcasts. more than 3062 downloads, you're in the top 1% of podcasts.

What is a good audience for a podcast?

5,000 listeners per episode almost guarantees a successful monetization. This is where a lot of interesting things start happening. Having more than 5,000 listeners per episode makes a podcast over 29 times more likely to be monetized successfully.

How many listeners do you need for a podcast to make money?

You usually need a larger audience of at least 5K or 10K listeners per month to work with them. One of the largest ad networks is Midroll, another popular network is Authentic, and many of the podcast hosting companies have their own networks as well.

How many people listen to podcasts in the US?

37% (104 million) listened to a podcast in the last month – up from 32% in 2019 (Infinite Dial 20) 24% (68 million) listen to podcasts weekly – up from 22% in 2019 (Infinite Dial 20) 16 million people in the US are “avid podcast fans” (Nielsen Q1 2018)

How many podcasts were there at WWDC 2018?

To highlight the growth, Apple confirmed there were over 550,000 podcasts at WWDC 2018 in early June. An article published April 25, 2018, by FastCompany states there are: Over 525,000 active shows and over 18.5 million episodes.

Average Podcast Downloads

Podcasting is long-form content. Don't compare podcast download numbers with things like YouTube plays, or social media follower counts.

How Many Podcast Downloads Should I Be Getting?

In a world of YouTube views and Twitter followers, we've become accustomed to figures in the hundreds of thousands, and even millions.

Audience Quality & Engagement

An audience might seem “small” in a numerical sense. But with long-form content like podcasting, it's often shows with smaller, but more niche hyper-targeted shows that are considered the more successful.

I Still Want a Gauge on Average Podcast Downloads

Buzzsprout are one of the biggest podcast hosting platforms in the world. In fact, with well over 85,000 active shows on their platform, they are arguably the biggest.

Summary: Average Podcast Downloads

Ultimately, asking the question “what's a good number of downloads for a podcast?” is similar to asking “how long is a piece of string?”. Every case is unique. No two podcasts are exactly the same.

How many people have listened to podcasts?

Another significant milestone achieved for podcasting is the fact that for the first time in history the number of consumers who have ever listened to podcasts surpassed 50% and is currently at 51% which means 144 million people have ever listened to a podcast

How many people listen to podcasts in the last 10 years?

This means that in the last 10 years additional 79 million people have listened to podcasts, and this is an excellent proof of rapidly rising popularity of podcasting as currently every 1 in 2 Americans have listened to podcasts while just 3 years ago it was only every 1 in 3.

Why is it important to have a rich offer on podcasts?

A wider choice – with many podcasts available, everyone can find something for themselves. Rich offer is a good sign of maturity of podcasting in general and allows attracting all kinds of listeners. Additionally, a wider offer also makes people listen to a higher number of shows.

What is the awareness level for podcasting in 2022?

This is a higher level than the 2019 awareness level for Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Whatsapp. 87% awareness level in 2022 means an additional 50 million people will know about podcasting.

How many podcasts are there in 2019?

In 2016 we have listened to 6 billion hours of podcasts, in 2019 it is already almost 12 billion and we expect in 2022 to be nearing 17 billion hours.

What devices are used for podcasts?

Devices used by podcast listeners. Smartphones since 2014 are primary devices on which people listen to their podcasts. In 2013 only 42% of podcasts were listened to on a smartphone while in 2019, it is 78%.

Which is the fastest growing music service?

Spotify is the fastest growing service. In 2013 just 4% of listeners where indicating Spotify as their source of online audio, and in 2019 it is already 24%. If this growth continues, Spotify has a chance to surpass Pandora in 2022. Apple Music share keeps fluctuating between 8% and 12% since 2013.

How many people listen to podcasts?

Edison Research has concluded that there are around 104 million podcast listeners in the US. Their podcast study also shows that 212 million Americans have heard about podcasts, while 155 million of them listened to a podcast at least once in their lifetime.

How old are podcast listeners?

8. 48% of podcast listeners in the US are aged 12 to 34. Based on the age of podcast listeners in the US, 48% of them are 12-34, 32% are 35-54 years old, and 20% are over 55 years old. When it comes to genders, listeners are evenly distributed in the US. 51% of them are male, and 49% are female.

How much advertising is podcasting?

Podcasting advertising is already growing at a rapid pace. Most advertisers (89.8%) use podcasts for branding marketing campaigns. 63.3% of those advertisements are podcast host-read types of ads, and the majority of ads 62.5.5 are sold either annually or quarterly.

How much money will podcasts spend in 2020?

33. Advertisers will spend at least 500 million on podcast ads in the US in 2020. Podcast advertising statistics show an increase in spending year-on-year, in 2010 it was 43 million dollars, by 2019 it reached 420 million dollars. In 2020 the forecast to surpass half a billion dollars.

Why are podcast ads important?

Relevant ads on podcasts are a great way for brands to expand their reach and attract interested customers. After hearing a brand ad on a quality podcast, more than half of listeners are more likely to purchase from it.

How many downloads per episode for a podcast?

This is the bare minimum and it means making a small part-time salary. Only 1% of podcasts have over 37k downloads per episode and they are considered profitable.

What are the two major platforms for listening to podcasts in the US?

The two major platforms for listening to podcasts in the US are Spotify and Pandora. Out of all the people who listened to a podcast at least once in their life, 43% of them used Spotify, while 35% used Pandora. At the same time, the monthly users on Spotify aged 12-24 grew by 21% from 2018-2019.

How many people listen to podcasts at home?

When it comes to the environment, it seems there’s nothing like the comfort of your own home to tune into a podcast. In fact, nine out of every ten podcast listeners in the US say they listen to podcasts at home (Edison Research, 2019).

How many hours do podcast listeners spend a week?

For around a quarter of podcast listeners, their dedication to podcasts is nearly like a part-time job – 22.4 percent of listeners spend more than 22 hours a week (or more than three hours a day) listening to podcasts. The time spent on listening to podcasts is also on the rise.

What devices do podcast listeners use?

As many as 65 percent of listeners in the US use devices such as smartphones and tablets to listen to podcasts (Edison Research, 2019).

How many podcasts will be there in 2020?

So here’s the first of ten podcast statistics. As of January 2020, there are 850,000 active podcasts and more than 30 million podcast episodes (Podcast Insights, 2020). This is pretty startling growth, considering there were just 500,000 active podcasts from just two years ago in February 2018.

How much money do podcasts make?

Here’s another statistic to highlight the growing podcast market. In 2018, marketers spent $479 million on podcast ads, of which most went to podcasts related to news, comedy, business, education, and entertainment. This number is expected to more than double in three years, with podcast advertising revenues projected to surpass $1 billion annually by 2021 (eMarketer, 2019).

What percentage of podcast listeners are buying from a brand?

Statistics show that 54 percent of podcast listeners are either somewhat or much more likely to consider buying from a brand after hearing its advertisement on a podcast (eMarketer, 2019).

How much will podcasts be ad revenue in 2021?

Podcast advertising revenues are expected to surpass $1 billion in 2021. 82.4 percent of podcast listeners spend more than seven hours a week listening to podcasts.

1. There are over 2 million podcasts

Currently, there are more than two million active podcasts, according to Podcast Insights 2021. Three years ago, there were only about a quarter of that. With regards to the number of podcast episodes specifically, as of April 2021 there were over 48 million episodes.

9. Eight Podcasts Are Listened to Per Week On Average

According to The Infinite Dial 2021, US weekly podcast listeners averaged eight podcasts in the last week. Only 11% of US podcast listeners older than 12 listened to only one podcast in the last week. Most (21%) listened to about five, while 19% listened to anything from six to 10 podcasts per week.

10. Average Time Spent Listening to Online Audio Was Down in 2020

Surprisingly, according to The Infinite Dial, the average time spent listening to online audio was down in 2020. In 2019, online audio listeners older than 12 spent an average of 16 hours and 43 minutes per week. In 2020, it was only 15 hours and 12 minutes – more than an hour less.

11. Podcast Listening Peaks in the Morning

According to The MIDAS Survey, the listening peak for podcasts is between 08:15 and 08:30 a.m. Other popular times include between 11:00 and 11:15 a.m. and again at 5:30 p.m.

12. Radio Is the Most Popular Audio Source While Driving

When it comes to audio sources in the car, AM/FM radio still outperformed podcasts in 2020. According to The Infinite Dial, only 28% used podcasts as an audio source in the car, compared to 81% that tuned into radio stations.

13. Mobile Phones Are the Preferred Device

The car stereo system might not be the preferred source for podcast listening, but the mobile phone definitely is. Mobile phones account for 79% of the podcast listening hours! The second most-used device is laptops (15%) with tablets (6%) in third spot.

14. More Men Listen to Podcasts

In the UK, podcasting is slightly more popular among men. The MIDAS Survey found that in 2020 54% of men compared to 46% of women listen to podcasts.

Why can't I tell how many subscribers a podcast has?

Why can’t you tell how many subscribers a podcast has? Most podcasters have access to some form of data like downloads and location. Three main problems corrupt this data though: a download might not be a listen, location data might not be accurate due to VPNs and ISPs, and the kicker, the downloads might be fake.

Why are podcasts taking average downloads per episode?

If they’re honest, they may be taking the average downloads per episode to represent their subscriber base. Because some listeners aren’t subscribed, and only listen because of the topic or guest, this isn’t an accurate measure. Podcast creators can also combine their numbers from various listening platforms.

Where are podcasts stored?

Like websites, podcasts are stored on a podcast host server like Libsyn, PodBean or SoundCloud. The server generates a feed address podcasters submit to platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Amazon Podcasts, and Pandora. When one of those platforms “requests” the file, the host server logs it as a listen.

What is podcast analytics?

In theory, the tool shows how many devices have listened, the duration, total time listened, and average time consumption per show.

Can podcast listener data be faked?

Podcast listener data can even be faked via the platforms themselves, like Apple Podcasts. Some brands hire foreign entities to inflate their numbers by mass-subscribing. It’s impossible (for now) to verify who uses this strategy, but my research indicates this absolutely works and happens.

Can podcast creators combine their numbers?

Podcast creators can also combine their numbers from various listening platforms. These are getting better. But the truth is this: podcasters are probably lying to you. Many podcasters claim their subscriber number is the total number of downloads over the duration of the podcast.

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