Half of Americans Listen to Podcasts
A new YouGov poll in America has revealed that half of Americans under the age of 55 years old are now listening to podcasts every week, which is a fantastic indicator for the future of the podcast industry in the United Kingdom.
Podcast listening has more than doubled in the last two years in the UK, with over 15 million people now downloading or streaming them every week. The reason we’re so excited about this week’s news from the States is because the industry there has been established for a little longer than it has here and it gives a great indication as to what will happen with audiences across the globe.
“Data from YouGov shows that between 2019 and 2020, the share of podcast listeners – and frequency of listening – increased across all ages,” said the report. “While reduced commuting due to COVID-19 cut into radio listening – traditional and streaming – podcast listening continued to grow in 2020”.
The study showed that younger audiences are driving this increase in podcast listening in the US. “If your audience is under 50, podcasts should definitely be in consideration for your media mix for advertising or content distribution,” said the YouGov study.
When we launched Sound Rebel, we knew that podcasts were growing in popularity but there was still that small voice of doubt that comes with any new venture – podcasts are fashionable now, but will the bubble burst? We had a similar mini-panic when the pandemic first hit and podcast listening across the world went down. Nearly half of people listened to podcasts whilst travelling, so would they still listen to podcasts when they were stuck at home?
This week’s news suggests that podcasts aren’t the flavour of the month, but are here for the long-term. Audiences are integrating listening to podcasts in to their new daily routines and building deep connections with the brands that produce them, with the pandemic increasing overall listening after a very small initial dip. Podcast listening has never been higher.
We’re not travelling as much, but people are now listening to podcasts when they’re on their walk around the park or cooking dinner. When the world does finally get back to normal, people will listen to podcasts when they’re commuting to work or travelling in between appointment, in addition to their new listening habits whilst they’re exercising, sitting in the garden or cleaning – so listening is set to increase even further!
If you’ve been thinking about it for a while, now is absolutely the right time to start a podcast. They’re the fastest-growing broadcast medium in the world and we can help you with every step of the process, from format development through to distribution to all of the major podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts.
We work with clients who understand that podcasts are an important part of their long-term marketing strategy, and who are building their podcast subscriber base to give them a new communication channel that can pay dividends for years. If you’d like to discuss how this could work for your business, then we can’t wait to hear from you – it won’t take us long to get you up and running!
Sound Rebel is a podcast production company in Liverpool. We produce professional podcasts for clients in the North West and remotely across the UK. Talk to us about starting a podcast for you – email hello@soundrebel.co.uk