“Podcasts now reach 53% of Americans 18+ every month – the first report of monthly consumption reaching the majority of adults in the US.”
That is the #1 takeaway from The Podcast Landscape, 2024, released by Sounds Profitable as its largest survey ever, and claimed to be the largest publicly available study of podcast consumption in the U.S. The fieldwork was conducted in June.
Over 5,000 18+ Americans were queried for the data which informs a 74-page public release. (It’s HERE.) The participating sample was weighted to the most recent census data to represent the U.S. population. The entire exercise was conducted identically to the 2023 study, encouraging data comparisons.
Podcasting is “fully mainstream” in SP’s appraisal of the 53% monthly listening stat. Below, we see all the slices of that pie:
Other graphs indicate that the age breakouts of all this listening show near equality from 18 through 55+. But we also learn that the 55+ group dominates the “never listened” cohort.
While the 53% “ever listened” outcome is the study’s headline, three niches outperform that benchmark of monthly listening:
- Hispanic 63%
- Asian 62%
- Black 59%
Questions about time spent listening reveal that 18% of American adults spend more than 10 hours pod-listening.
Why stop listening? They’ll tell you why
Amidst all the uplift in these research results, three queries brought splashes of cold water. Here’s one that grabs our attention:
Note, above, the third most repeated reason why listeners stop listening: “I got tired of podcasts” (31%). Not tired of a show, but fed up with an entire recreational activity. That’s like asking “Why haven’t you watched a White Sox game this season?” and being told “I’m tired of baseball.”
The survey also asked: “Think of a podcast that used to be part of your regular listening routine, but you stopped listening. Why did you stop listening?” Perhaps predictably, the top answer is “Lost interest in the show.” Fifteen percent of respondents blamed “too many ads, in general.” But 20% offered this heartening response: “I’ve never stopped listening to a podcast.” For every 100 listeners to a show, 15 are extremely durable.
Turn that question around, and it asks, “What reasons would cause you to listen to [those] podcasts again?” Discouragingly for podcasts which are shedding listeners, 23% chose the “Nothing” option. They are gone. A larger portion (35%, and the top answer) blamed time, and said that more time would bring them back.
Retention: a mystery
A single question about audience retention illuminates this report: “When do you think you will listen to podcasts again?”
We are keeping in mind the breakthrough metric above: 53% of respondents listen monthly, or more. That makes the graphic below push our eyebrows up:
Despite the self-reported behavior of monthly listening, that metric is not reinforced by the group in this follow-up, where only 27% predict listening again in a month.
More to come
Today’s coverage is taken from the first half of Sounds Profitable’s work. Meaty sections on Content, Discovery, and The Non-Listener complete the findings. Again, the deck is freely available HERE.
