Caveats to the Research

• We were not provided a geographic focus for this project, so we assumed a narrow approach and looked specifically at the United States. If a more broad approach is desired, for example, a global view, this would have to be clearly communicated to us in any reply.
• As a reminder, Wonder only uses publicly available sources. We do not have access to paid databases or paywalled reports, but we can cite them in research for reference only [in case purchase is desired]. If that is of interest, that would clearly have to be communicated to us in any reply.
• In our initial discovery phase, we clearly found that there are no publicly available sources that provide the market size of podcasts that are directly targeted to the black and urban demographic between 20-50 years of age, both globally and in the United States. This is too granular and niche. We proceeded to provide what we could which surrounded podcasts in general in the United States. We also identified some podcasts that are currently targeting this demographic.
• Additionally, it is not always possible to find out what each podcast earns in revenue because their earnings aren’t publicly available. Only the podcast owners know exactly what their show earns. Sometimes they will disclose that, and where possible, we have included that data.

Podcast Statistics

• When broken down by age, listeners in the United States between the ages of 12-34 comprise 48% of the audience, with 32% coming from those between the ages of 35-54, and 20% from those aged over 55. There are no publicly available sources that further breaks that down by those who listen to podcasts targeted to black and urban people between the ages of 20-50.
• In the United States, 63% of people listening to podcasts are white. 11% are African American, 11% are Hispanic, and 5% are Asian.
• When focused on gender, American podcast listeners are evenly split with males comprising 51% of listeners and females making up 49%. There are no publicly available sources that further breaks that down by those who listen to podcasts targeted to black and urban people between the ages of 20-50.
• "According to report carried out in the United States in the third quarters of 2018 and 2019, podcasting is growing the fastest among Millennials in minority ethnic groups. Between those two time periods, the daily reach of podcasts among Hispanic Millennials increased by 135 percent, and grew by 50 percent among African Americans aged 18 to 34 years." 
•  Podcast listeners spend an average of 6 hours and 37 minutes listening to podcasts every week. There are no publicly available sources that further breaks that down by those who listen to podcasts targeted to black and urban people between the ages of 20-50.
• As of February 2021, there are over 1,750,000 podcasts and over 43 million episodes.

Market Size of Podcasts in the United States

• The U.S. alone captured a revenue share of over 35.0% in the overall market for podcasts in 2019. The market size value in 2020 was USD 11.07 billion. 
• The predicted revenue in 2027 is USD 60.50 billion. 
• The growth rate, based on the 2019 data, is a CAGR of 27.5% from 2020 to 2027. 
• 'In 2019, roughly 709.1 million U.S. dollars were generated through podcast advertising in the United States. In the previous year U.S. podcast advertising revenue amounted to 479.1 million U.S. dollars."

Podcasts Targeting Black and Urban Demographics

•  This source details 70 top Black podcasts. The methodology on ranking is based on relevancy, industry blogs (those not favoring a specific brand) are given higher rank than blogs by individual brands (who often tend to promote their own products), blog post frequency (freshness), social media follower counts and engagements, domain authority, the age of a blog, and Alexa Web Traffic Rank and many other parameters.
•  This source details 35 podcasts produced by black podcasters.
•  This source lists 5 podcasts aimed at Blacks. One of the podcasts mentioned in that source is called Code Switch which airs on NPR. This podcast will not release any revenue data. We found this for almost all podcasts. Only the really big ones tend to have data about them, but again, that is purely based on what they state, and based on the number of patrons. We could not find any publicly available source that could give an exact figure directly from the podcast creators. This will not be available.

Publicly Available Podcast Earnings

• The Joe Rogan Experience makes about $800,000 per episode. At three episodes per week, his show makes $9.6 million per month. He makes another $16,500 to $264,000 per month on YouTube.
• Chapo Trap House has 37,966 patrons, which equals $168,265 per month. [This is an estimate only based on Graphtreon suppositions].
• Last Podcast On The Left has 12,472 patrons, which equals $67,697 per month. [This is an estimate only based on Graphtreon suppositions].
• Tiny Meat Gang has 10,638 patrons, which equals $51,199 per month. [This is an estimate only].
• Flagrant 2 has 19,040 patrons, which equals $90,808 per month. [This is an estimate only based on Graphtreon suppositions].

Summary Of Our Early Findings Relevant To The Goals

• As discussed at the top of this document, we were not provided a geographic focus for this project, so we assumed a narrow approach and looked specifically at the United States. If a more broad approach is desired, for example, a global view, this would have to be clearly communicated to us in any reply.
• As a reminder, Wonder only uses publicly available sources. We do not have access to paid databases or paywalled reports, but we can cite them in research for reference only [in case purchase is desired]. If that is of interest, that would clearly have to be communicated to us in any reply.
• In the initial hour of research that is allotted to the discovery phase, we found that there are no publicly available sources that provide the market size of podcasts that are directly targeted to the black and urban demographic between 20-50 years of age, both globally and in the United States. This is too granular and niche.
• We were able to provide the market size and projected growth of the podcast industry in the United States. We were also able to curate some demographic data. We provided some sources that have lists of podcasts that are currently targeting this demographic. Finding their revenue will not be possible as they are under no obligation to report any financial data.
• The fact that the data asked for is not publicly available necessitated a pivot from the original questions, which is reflected in the provided scopings.
• Please select one or more of the options provided in the proposed scoping section below. PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS for any scoping, do not use the customized next steps option. Please comment in the appropriate comment box.