Panoply: Spotify may be bringing new listeners to podcasts

The podcast industry is still unpacking the impact of Spotify’s acquisition of Gimlet Media and Anchor. Research from Panoply Media, described in a blog post indicates that Spotify already might have a good deal of sway in podcast listening. The company shared graphs comparing the number of downloads of 21 of its large-volume shows that are available in Spotify as well as in other podcast apps. The charts show download data between June 2018 and January 2019. Luke Riley, a data analyst for Panoply, noted two key trends in the results. “Over the past year, since Spotify began offering large numbers of podcasts in its app, the company has increasingly been steering its listeners toward spoken word shows. Our data show the effort has been paying off, and not (or not just) by stealing market share from other apps. Spotify actually seems to be growing the podcast audience, making gains in areas of the U.S. that have been slower to adopt podcasting,” he said.

Riley observed that the downloads per capita from Panoply’s internal metrics show that the west coast and northeast are listening to more podcasts. However, Spotify drew much larger numbers of downloads in the middle of the country, where there was less overall podcast listening. His conclusion is that because Spotify is stronger in those markets, the app is likely helping introduce podcasts to new listeners.

“Everyone in podcasting talks about the need to introduce new listeners to the medium; our research shows Spotify is an effective tool for doing just that,” Riley wrote.

Anna Washenko