Audio Market Trends

•  Currently trending in the podcasts category is continous and consistent growth with a very valuable target group. Awareness, weekly listenership, and time spent listening are indicators of this continous and consistent growth. As a valuable target group, 40% of podcast listeners are between 12-24 years old, with the majority being well-educated, students and/or employed.
• A specific example of this trend in practice is the continous and consistent growth of Comedy podcasts.
•  Another current trend in podcasting is a growing understanding of listeners to allow data-driven decisions. Data points like household income and consumer habits are currently being considered to inform business decisions.
•  A specific example of this trend in practice is for businesses to identify the consumer habits of podcast listeners by the specific category of podcasts that they listen to. Specific data on consumer habits like Comedy podcast fans are heavy consumers of baby food, tea, pet care, beer, and carbonated beverages and Health & Living podcast fans are heavy consumers of vitamins, liquor, nuts, oral care, and tea has been considered to inform business decisions.
• A third current trend in podcasting is quality competition for listener time and attention. Listening to music in the form of online radio or music streaming is considered to be a main competitor, and the podcast category is seeking ways to improve the quality of podcasts to offer more high value content.
• A specific example of this trend in practice is the focus of the podcast Art Grind on creating quality high value content by planning ahead and creating 5-10 episodes in advance.