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In 2016, 35 million Americans listened to podcasts weekly.
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In 2021, they've grown to 80 million.
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Today, I'll dig into that and other good news podcasting observations from Edison
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Research's Infinite Dial 2021 report.
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Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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Last week, Infinite Dial 2021 was released.
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That's Edison Research, Triton Digital, they team-up.
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They've been doing this for like forever.
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Well, since 1998, Edison has been researching and surveying Americans
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about their digital media consumption.
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And that, by the way, includes podcasting, which is why I'm interested.
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It tracks a lot more than just podcasting.
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But today, because us, we're going to focus in just on the podcasting elements.
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There will be a link in the episode details if you want to follow along.
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But it's a long ways into the report, like fifty pages into it.
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So you can wait till afterwards.
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Well, let me give you the highlights here.
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Right now, in 2021, there are, roughly speaking, US Americans, 222 million
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people familiar with podcasting.
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222 million.
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That's a big number.
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That's a streak that has continued since 2016.
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So definitely going up.
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This year, compared to last year, we saw a smaller percentage
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points gained than in prior years.
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Which might mean, and it probably does mean, I think means, we are
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at the top of the asymptotic curve.
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78% is the percentage points that we have right now.
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And look, we'll never get to a hundred.
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We'll get in the eighties, probably.
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Nineties, I don't know.
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We'll see how it goes.
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But also, let's not - remember this last year was weird.
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Yeah.
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I'll talk more about weirdness in just a moment.
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Also, 162 million people have listened to a podcast, not just aware that
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podcasting exists, but actually listened.
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162 million.
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Also, a streak that has continued this time since 2014.
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Again, slightly smaller percentage points gained this year versus last.
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We're at 57% now.
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And I don't know that we'll ever, I certainly know we'll
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never get to a hundred.
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I don't know what the top of the curve looks like, but also last year was weird.
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Remember that.
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116 million people listened to podcasts monthly.
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That's a streak that started in 2016, but got much steeper in 2019.
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Even with the weird year we had last year, we're now at 41%.
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41% of Americans listen to podcasts on a monthly basis.
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80 million listen weekly.
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That streak started in 2013, but also got much steeper
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starting in 2019, in 20, and 21.
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In fact, this year, compared to last, we had the second biggest gain in percentage
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points through that growth period.
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Second biggest gain, even with the weird last year.
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Now, 28% of Americans say they listen to podcasts on a weekly basis.
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Great news.
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But remember that still means 73% don't have the weekly habit.
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So we have some work to continue to do.
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Now to me, the most surprising thing I saw in the Infinite Dial 2021 report
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was the change in the demographics of monthly listening, the occasional
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podcast listener, if you will.
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Edison breaks the, when they present the survey to us, they break it up
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into three different buckets and the one in the middle, 35 to 54-year-olds,
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kind of an important demographic.
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They actually went down as far as looking at percentage points from 2019 to 2021.
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39 % of people say they listened monthly in that age bracket in 2021 where only 40%
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said they'd listened monthly last year.
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So that's a slight drop, but not a huge drop.
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But let's also remember that is the age bracket that is most likely to have
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had kids at home with them during the pandemic lockdown homeschooling stuff.
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So probably a little bit of a loss right there, just because of suddenly
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you're a full-time caregiver and a full-time teacher and you've got a job.
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So it's not surprising to me that number went down a bit.
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But that's the one in the middle.
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The edges are what's cool.
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55+, a demographic I am continuing to head towards, 55+ went from
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22% last year to 26% this year.
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That's a really big number.
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That's a big gain in 55+ people continue to listen, are
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listening now on a monthly basis.
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They continue to grow.
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Now, back in 2016, that 55+ bracket was basically 10 million people.
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2016, 55+, 10 million people listened to podcasts on a monthly basis.
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Now, 2021, 24 million.
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That's over 2x growth.
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That's huge.
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That's one end.
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The other end of the spectrum, 12 to 34, which is arguably too
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big of a bucket, but that's fine.
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They've been doing it for since '98 this way and it's fine.
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12-year-olds to 34-year-olds.
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You know, the kids, if you will, that bucket went from
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49% last year to 56% this year.
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So now we can finally say the majority of people under the age of 35 listen to
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podcasts, at least on a monthly basis.
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Looking at the raw numbers, 2016, 28 million 12 to 34-year-olds
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listened on a monthly basis.
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28 million in 2016, now 65 million.
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Wow.
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That's nearly 3x growth amongst the kids, 2016 to 2021.
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Even though, let's go back to the people in the middle, the people
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who are 35 to 54, the responsible adults out there, if you will.
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Even with that small dip we saw, one percentage point dip, the total size of
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the audience almost doubled - 19 million in 2016 now at 34 million in 2021.
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So what's all this mean?
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Well, clearly the podcasting audience is there and it is growing.
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The weekly numbers are huge right now.
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So that means we're making inroads.
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We're bringing people from occasional listening to weekly
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listening, and that's huge.
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So if there's a message here, it's this - don't stop.
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Keep focusing on those people who are brand new to podcasting.
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There are a lot of them out there.
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There's still, you know, almost half the population doesn't listen at all.
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And 73% don't listen on a regular basis.
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So assume that's who you're talking to.
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Assume the person you're talking to right now has never listened or at
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least not enough, they have no habit and your show will be the one that
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makes the podcast habit for them.
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You're going to make them part of your routine.
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That's your job for the rest of the year.
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Think about those people and make them, make your show give them
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the podcast listening habits.
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Now, as I said, there's a link to the report in the episode details.
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So please share this episode with that link along with your
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friends to give them my analysis.
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That might help them understand the opportunities in podcasting.
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And if you loved what I had to say, please go to buymeacoffee.com/evoterra,
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and yeah, buy me a virtual coffee.
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That's always nice.
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I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
