Audio audiences Steady change
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The 20,000 foot view: Podcasts reinvigorated the audio market, bringing with it the promise of a ‘Netflix moment’ for radio. Though podcast audience growth has not kept pace with industry interest and hype, podcasts have been at the centre of a boom in audio consumption that was accentuated by Covid lockdowns, and that is recalibrating post-pandemic.
Key Insights
- Radio is the most widely listened to audio format, with weekly active user (WAU) penetration, up from 2020 but down from 2021
- Although only of consumers listen to music streaming weekly, it is a clear second in the audio format landscape, and is two percentage points up from 2020
- Podcast WAU penetration remains niche at just though is up two points from 2020, and 2021 penetration peaked at in Sweden
- Audiobook penetration was in 2021, which was one point up from 2020 but down slightly from in 2021
- The unique audio audience grew by one percentage point in 2021, however the combined growth of the sum total of all individual formats was
- Overlaps between audio formats is growing: of Spotify listeners were podcast WAUs in 2021, up from one year earlier of radio listeners were also music streaming WAUs (up from in 2020)
- Spotify has quickly established itself as the dominant podcast platform in terms of audience reach, with of all podcast users
- Spotify’s podcast reach is highest in Australia the US and Sweden
- BBC Sounds in the UK is the most widely used national broadcaster podcast app
- Amazon, though, is the fastest growing platform, up from in 2021 to in 2021
- Audio address diverse demographics: streaming and podcasts have most users aged under and respectively) while radio has the highest aged
Companies and brands mentioned in this report :Amazon, Apple, Audible, BBC Sounds, Dolly Parton, Downcast, Google, India.Arie, Joni Mitchell, Luminary, Meta, Neil Young, Netflix, NPR, Spotify, Sveriges Radio, Wondery