Daily Source Code is believed to be the first popular podcast to be produced on a regular basis, launched in 2004. One year later, Apple added podcasts to iTunes. More than a decade has passed since this date and podcasts are still a niche market, which has been growing by the year.
According to a survey by Edison research, in 2006 only 11% of Americans listened to Podcasts. However, this number tripled to 33% in 2015 and to 36% in 2016. By last year, at least 46 million Americans listened to podcasts each month. This year, that number will reach 57 million according to Edison research.
Active podcast listeners listen to podcasts for a jaw dropping average of four hours and 10 minutes a week. When it comes to the age of listeners, 38% of podcast consumers are between 18 and 34 years old, 34% between 35 and 54 years old, 11% between the ages of 12 and 17 and only 17% are 55 and older.
There are popular podcasts for all tastes from humor, to technology, politics, TV and Film, etc. On myTuner’s app (available for all OS) and platform you have more than 1 million podcasts to choose and you can filter it by country (100 countries available) and genre (16 different ones). If you prefer to listen to podcasts on your Apple TV we also have an app for that.
The top 5 most popular podcasts on the US last month were Science Vs, followed by Revisionist History, TED Radio Hour, This American Life and Stuff You Should Know. On Australia the tops 5 popular podcasts last month were Science Vs, Revisionist History, Ted Radio Hour, This American Life and Radiolab. While in the UK the top 5 most popular podcasts are Stuff You Should Know, Friday Night Comedy from BBC radio 4, David Baddiel Tries to Understand, The Infinite Monkey Cage and Desert Island Discs.
On a worldwide level the top 5 most listened podcasts so far on myTuner’s platform are Stuff You Should Know, Serial, TED Radio Hour, TEDTalks (audio) and This American Life. Popular podcasts like Serial with more than 70 million downloads, have not only helped to create a boom in the podcast industry, but has also been responsible for giving a murder convict a fresh chance to prove his innocence.
Popular podcasts have been proven to be a huge advantage, not only for listeners who get brand new input with each podcast, but also for advertisers which get to advertise for a faithful audience (32% weekly podcast consumers report listening to podcasts from 1 year up to 3 years and 25% have been listening for 5 years or more). This also makes podcast creators earn money while trying to improve the world or at least make it more interesting, one podcast at a time…
