In podcasting, the True Crime category could be considered the founding genre, inasmuch as Serial was the first general marketplace blockbuster. Accordingly, numerous top-10 podcast lists are based entirely on True Crime shows. (See RAIN’s coverage of those rankings HERE.)
In another example of that singular focus, Libsyn and Sounds Profitable have partnered to release the 2024 True Crime Podcast Listeners Landscape Report. The survey for this study was conducted by Signal Hill Insights.
The Audience
The PR for this report calls True Crime the fifth most popular podcast genre in the U.S. (Comedy, News, Sports, and Political Talk rank higher in this snapshot.) The study counts 42-million Americans, 18 and over, as monthly (or more frequent) podcast listeners.
It’s a more intense relationship for women, 37% of whom rank True Crime as the most-listened type of show in the previous month.
They are favorable listeners from the perspective of podcast advertisers: Sixty-two percent are college educated and high-earning. These attributes make True Crime “a unique and lucrative opportunity for brands, agencies, and media buyers to connect with an engaged and loyal audience. ”
Libsyn and Signal Hill spend several pages further detailing the surveyed podcast audience with a granular examination of its listening habits.
Consumption
Libsyn surveyed what appears to be a loyal True Crime audience, with 74% reporting that they listen weekly. Only 26% claim the slower consumption pace of monthly listening. (If the report studied general podcast listening, not specific to True Crime, those numbers might be reversed.)
But why? Companionship, that’s why — at least, that’s how the report summarizes the data (below). We see a more intellectual motivation leading all other replies: “Topics of interest” drive 90% agreement. But, to be fair, all the other benefits are related to companionship.
Discovery
As we’ve seen in many other studies, the study finds that personal recommendation is the discovery powerhouse — to such an extent that discovery data was collected “aside from personal recommendations.” In that framing, YouTube ruled with 56%, followed by general internet searching and recommendations — not from personal acquaintances, but “from other podcast hosts.” That’s an interesting slide; we don’t hear a lot of recommendations from hosts, and we expected this to be recommendations from friends.
But not to worry — the report digs into the social circle immediately after the graphic above with three slides detailing the dynamics of personal recommendations.
Summary
Five summary findings wrap up this presentation. Our abbreviated summary:
- True Crime is the top podcast category for women
- The audience is diverse
- True Crime podcasts are companion podcasts
- Listeners evangelize for True Crime podcasts
- Listeners are “extremely receptive” to brands
As always, we recommend grabbing the original; it is HERE.
