The answer is somewhere between 25 and 100 podcasts (see the graphic below). If those numbers seem surprisingly low, they demonstrate the powerful short tail of podcasting. A lot of audience reach is concentrated in a tiny subset of the entire creative catalog, measured in low-millions by Listen Notes and Podcast Index. (Some percentage of that number represents discontinued shows.)
The multiples of short and long tails are interesting. An advertiser can acquire a 45% reach across the top 25 podcasts. Then, to increase reach by 33%, the advertiser must buy four times as many podcast placements. From there, an advertiser must buy 5x as many shows to add 13% more reach.
Edison puts it concisely: “One has to buy more and more shows to achieve incremental reach.”
Edison also observes that a big chunk of audience reach — nineteen percent — is reached exclusively by small shows ranked 1,001 and higher. As Edison underlines this statistic: “19% = 17 million listeners that the top 1,000 podcasts do NOT reach.”
