Is the Podcast Bubble Bursting?
Listener stats are down in the US for the first time in years
Podcasting just encountered something it hasn’t seen before on its smooth, straight super-highway to global domination… a bump in the road.
The gold standard podcast listening survey (‘The Infinite Dial’ by Edison Research) in the US released its latest figures. Although, taken as a whole, there is still good evidence of growth, they didn’t all make pretty reading.
In fact the headline stat contained bad news:
38% of those age 12+ in the U.S. are monthly podcast listeners in the current study, down from 41% in the Infinite Dial 2021, but still higher than 2020 (37%)
That word — “down”.
That’s not a word the podcasting industry has heard in a while. I know, because I’m part of it (my tiny company of one — it’s just me — produces podcasts and invents audio tech).
Monthly listeners to podcasts in the US are down by 3%.
The reaction of the podcast industry to this headline listening stat seems to be very calm and unpeturbed. It’s just one stat amongst many other positive ones and, after all, there’s an obvious explanation.
