Category: Podcast Research Center

10 Trends That Make The Podcast Medium Great Again

Posted on by Kurt Laufer

Wow, we’re already half-way through 2017 and it has already been a ‘HUGEEE’ year for on-demand audio as publishers continue to fight for your loyalty & listenership. We’re likely to see more industry consolidation too, which ultimately should make your choice of discovery easier.

The team at TopPodcast.com wanted to take a moment and review, from the perspective of a digital marketer, what we believe are the Top 10 Podcast Trends that are helping make podcasting great again (excuse the non-partisan pun).  Here goes nothing:

1.  Mobile is King, making listening at your fingertips

It’s undeniable the impact the smartphone has had and continues to have on the podcast medium. This certainly has made podcasting readily available to the masses.  Mobile accessibility has exponentially enhanced the trajectory of the industry, with Podcast consumption on smartphones reaching over 80%. This means listening is literally at everyone’s fingertips, where just a few years ago podcast discovery was way more cumbersome.

 

2. Consolidation, Speaking in a Unified Voice, and the Top dogs

With so many confusing choices for audio consumers to stagger through, industry consolidation is upon us…and it’s just a matter of time until dominos start to fall (tick tock tick tock). Just as important will be watching what the big audio and streaming players do (Spotify, Apple, Pandora, Sirius, etc). We already saw Sirius taking a bite out of Pandora (incremental consolidation). Apple has stepped up, announcing that analytics are finally coming. And it’s great to see Spotify curating custom podcasts while watching iHeart invest in people and the platform. Then, there’s the ‘Air Force One’ of the industry , NPR. No matter what the audio powerhouses end up doing, look for the industry to eventually begin to move in a unified voice, consolidating for the better. I also liked the effort of #TryPod, as far as 37 publishers coming together to finally promote the industry…as one! At least that’s a small step in the right direction.

3.  More Reputable Broadcasters from TV & Radio Enter the Podcast Industry

Seeing what broadcasters like Mike Francesa do after his contract ends at WFAN bodes well for podcasting. As mainstream broadcast influencers continue to jump head first into the industry, they’re going to bring ‘tons’ of newpods with them (first-time listeners). Reputable, established broadcasters want relevancy and the clout of having control…hence, creating their own podcast only makes sense. As they jump in (like Bill O’Reilly did), they bring with them massive social media reach. This trend will only enhance podcast listenership, driving revenues, as new broadcasters enter the vast field of podcasting. It’s the ‘monkey-see monkey do’ attitude that is taking hold of the industry.

4.  The Impact of Live Audio & Video

While live audio, via Facebook, provides an opportunity to drive discovery, the question is whether the industry wants to allow Facebook to control delivery. As we know, Facebook often changes algorithms to best impact their selfish revenue streams, so this is a bit of a wild-card. However, YouTube, and repurposing audio continues to be explosive since podcasters & publishers alike can share in the revenue. Any way you slice it, video will impact on-demand audio, especially when it comes to discovery, distribution, and revenue.

5.  Voice Technology Devices Are “Hear” to Stay

How many of you purchased Alexa over the holiday, or the Amazon Echo? There’s no denying the trajectory of voice command technology, and podcast publishers all will align with this technology. Whether it’s speaking to Siri, listening to a podcast on Amazon Echo when you cook, voice technology is here to stay…or should we say ‘hear’ to stay.  And yes, all this voice-activated technology will be available on the dashboard of your car. So, the industry must align with it! And it will enhance discovery, making it less cumbersome to listen and discover your favorite podcast.

6.  Radio & TV Incorporate Podcasting With Their Long-Term Vision

Innovation starts with an entrepreneurial spirit and terrestrial radio companies have found it painfully difficult to embrace change. Watching Spotify, Pandora, and other audio companies drive a digital narrative has been painful for many in the industry.  Our prediction is that you’ll finally see Radio put digital innovation at the top of the food chain, giving them a seat at the table, demanding old-school programmers pivot to where consumers are discovering content. We like what we see at iHeart, especially with the roll-out of their premium app & their focus on a podcast strategy.

In addition, the ‘mainstreaming of podcasting’ is hitting Broadcast Television too. Have microphone, will podcast. Shows like 60 Minutes, Meet the Press, CBS Sunday Morning News, The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and 48 Hours are giving a shot in the arm to the industry. Content can easily be re-purposed, via a podcast. If Radio & TV  promote the hell out of the platform, there’s no limit on how successful they will be in capturing an already large audience to explore their on-demand platforms.

7.   Programmatic Becomes Real in Podcast Advertising Especially for Evergreen Content

There’s no holding back the digital trend towards programmatic advertising, dynamically inserting one-to-one targeted ads, regardless of device, into a show. Spots will be pre-recorded segments that can easily fit into any podcast listening format. Companies like Adswizz are bringing dynamically inserted ads to podcast advertising, strengthening value and life of long-tail podcasts.

Despite incremental advances in programmatic solutions, this is where podcast advertising loses its endearing charm, the one-to-one personal engagement with the host. However, programmatic can help solve delivery problems for shows with long-tails and drive revenues for shows with evergreen content and excess inventory. It can fill capacity, driving revenues effortlessly for the industry. There’s no denying the evolution towards programmatic and the digital demands calling for geo-targeted dynamic inserted ads.  The fact remains that these ads won’t have the same clout of live native ads, but it will help solve inventory issues for long-tail shows. Bottom line, we hope the industry controls access points to this type of advertising as not to diminish CPMs or dilute the live-read charm.

8.  Experiential Marketing & Live Podcasts Work Together

 

Brands love creating compelling content, and nothing does a better job than using live experiences to capture and deploy one’s brand message, which then can be shared virally via social platforms.  Using podcast influencers (podfluencers) makes sense for brands, having ‘live podcasts’ on site. Bringing an ad campaign to life through the extension of traditional advertising syncs up perfectly to podcasting, and the PR & influencer engagement, on-site, adds substantial value that certainly will ignite social sharing.

9.  Native Advertising Continues to Grow

Major brands have embraced native advertising strategies, and nothing works better in the podcasting industry than organic, live reads (endorsements). Brands like Mac Weldon, Blue Apron, and Wix view podcasts hosts as brand ambassadors, to deliver messaging to an audience that wants to hear what the podcaster is saying. The growth of native advertising and driving integrating messaging succinctly across multiple platforms will continue to make podcast advertising highly attractive in 2017. We just have to make some major noise within the digital buying community, advancing a narrative must be heard.

10.  Custom & Branded Content Strategies

Big brands are getting so comfortable with the concept of podcasts, that they’ve started to literally produce their own. Companies like, Netflix, and Prudential have successfully done it, and Slate and Panoply have teams that work with brands to execute this strategy. GE has one of the more established success stories in this space (yes, a 100-year old company like GE), created an eight-episode sci-fi series called The Message. They’ve continued to shape their brand message with another series called “LifeAfter. When companies like GE see the value of podcasts, you know the herd will start following soon.

Final thought, there’s another IMPORTANT fact that is making podcasting great again. As much we are exhausted with the political discourse in the country, it is driving demand for political podcasts like POD SAVE AMERICA. There’s no doubt that news gathering organizations are thriving. Traditional media outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and of course NPR! I could have easily put this paragraph at the top of the list, and made 11 items a part of this story…but 10 made for a better title.

If you’d like to learn what podcast advertising can do for your business, please check out our Podcast Business Center. We’re just getting started!

Apple Makes Earth Shattering Announcement: Analytics Are Finally Coming

Posted on by Kurt Laufer

Talk about shaking up the podcast industry. Apple just announced that they are finally going to unveil basic analytics for podcast creators and advertisers. Essentially, the tools that Apple will be rolling out later this year will:

  1. Allow people who curate podcasts to learn what listeners enjoy and what they are ignoring
  2. By providing real-time analytics, it may bring new advertisers to the arena that have yet to understand the power of a direct response podcast advertising campaign

Why this matters? 

  • Apple has rarely if ever provided any data regarding podcast listening behavior – other than the fact that an individual has downloaded a specific episode.
  • Advertisers have had no clue if someone listens to an ad while measurement has always been viewed as the wild-wild west
  • With the exception of smart advertisers measuring ‘activations and touch-points’ via vanity url’s, tracking codes, and pixels on their websites, little or no post-sale analytics are ever delivered
  • Listening behaviors of the audience can now be identified and optimized by both podcasters and advertisers

What’s next?

  • The Podcast advertising business is just 1/3 of 1 percent of the overall digital spend: $250 million annual vs. approximately $65 to $70 Billion in 2016 – we only can go up as more analytics are available
  • The Digital buying community (agencies) may come around once ‘basic analytics’ are introduced, providing a tangible statistic to assess…rather than just a download estimate (of which approximately 20% of downloaded episodes are never listened to)
  • It’s another sign that Apple just might make huge innovative moves that might transform the industry

Here are a few Basic Screenshots pulled via Recode

Image 1

Image 2

#Onward & #Upward

Key Take-Aways From Edison Research’s ‘The Podcast Consumer 2017’

Posted on by Kurt Laufer

Here we are again…another year in the books and the latest report out from Edison Research highlights some exciting data for the Podcast Industry. Releasing its annual “Podcast Consumer 2017′, the report highlights podcast consumption habits and data from the ‘Infinite Dial 2017 study.

Podcasting continues to rise, with monthly listeners growing from 21% to 24% percent year over year. But looking at podcast listenership in over a 4-year snapshot, it has doubled since 2013! #HUGE

Here are the cliff notes directly from the report & our thoughts:

Podcasting continues to rise, with Monthly listeners growing from 21% to 24% percent year over year

              Why this matters? 

As other traditional mediums struggle for growth, the trajectory of podcasting is headed in the right direction. We can’t discount the fact that while other traditional mediums (print & radio) are stable or declining, the podcasting industry is no doubt on the rise. Most importantly, the percentage of listenership has doubled over the last 4 years.

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The audience for podcasts continues to be predominately 18-54, and leans slightly male.

              Why this matters? 

People inherently perceive that the podcast audience is super young. But, a deep dive into the numbers show that it actually is rather balanced. Ages 18-34  make up 44% of the demo while Ages 25-54 account for 33%. Bottom line, 77% of podcast listeners are ages 12-54…a prime and ripe target for advertisers.

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Clicking on a podcast to listen to it immediately (either streamed or via progressive download) is the dominant paradigm for listening, though 27% do subscribe to podcasts.

Why this matters? 

62% listen immediately. A powerful statistic. When people see something they want, they are inclined to click and listen immediately. This mindset bodes well for TopPodcast.com, as we provide a hub to immediately test drive a podcast, with one click. Yes, more experienced podcast listeners are subscribing to a show, but that number is only at 27%.

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Subscribers tend to have been podcast consumers for longer than non-subscribers, consume more podcasts, and are more likely to use their smartphone as their primary podcast player.

            Why this matters? 

No real surprise here when diving deeper into the 27% that subscribe to a podcast. Obviously, experienced users are more comfortable using the medium, so they would tend to be more inclined to subscribe. And yes, they understand how to navigate their smartphones, hence it’s the primary point of discovery for those that have been consumers of the medium longer. Nonetheless, the stat that still peaks my interest is the fact that 31% still use a computer to listen. Bottom line, the desktop or laptop is NOT DEAD!

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While Home continues to be the most often named location for podcast listening, the vehicle is a strong second.

This statistic caused a ruckus within the industry, but only because people weren’t really grasping what the stat tells literally tells us. The question was: Have you ever listened to a podcast at home, in a car/truck, walking around, at work, at the gym, or riding public transportation? 82% said at home while 65% said in a car or truck. Yes, podcasting is a commuters dream, but remember, if you’re gardening, working in your garage, or making dinner in your kitchen, you still can listen to a podcast. So…the ‘at home’ statistic didn’t surprise me the way that it did many in the industry.

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Most podcast consumers listen to most of the podcast episodes they download, and the vast majority listen to at least most of each episode.

Why this matters? 

Diving into the completion rate after downloading a podcast, the numbers really look great! 42% listen to the entire podcast episode while 44% listen to most of the podcast. That’s a whopping 86% who listen to all or most of the podcast…a favorable story to tell advertisers.

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Podcasts are the number one audio source by time of consumption among podcast listeners

Why this matters? 

I love this statistic. It says that once you become an active and engaged podcast listener, you’d rather turn to a podcast rather than listen to the radio…let alone ‘owned music’, and/or stream any other audio. This is HUGE to me…especially as consumption habits evolve. Basically, if we put podcasting in the hands of the consumer, it will stick. 30% of Podcast listeners turn to podcasts as their primary source of time spent listening, followed by 25% AM/FM Radio, and then 19% Streamed Audio. Again, for podcast listeners, it’s their first choice of consumption, and they do it the longest.

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On the smartphone, podcasting’s Share of Ear® is tied with AM/FM content, and leads AM/FM among 13-34 year olds.

Why this matters? 

Another fabulous statistic for the podcast industry, but not surprising, as AM/FM Radio is pivoting to be a ‘streaming audio’ play for the younger demo. Diving deeper here, 45% of ages 13-34 spent time listening to streaming audio on their smartphones. While this statistic is nearly six times as many that listen to podcasts on their smartphone (8% of this demo), it demonstrates that podcasts have surpassed the AM/FM Radio…probably for good. Chew on that statistic.

A Final Thought

I love how the report summed up everything, by saying:

Fix discovery, yes – but let’s not forget to ‘push’ in a ‘pull’ world!

Couldn’t agree more….and TopPodcast.com is trying to attack the discovery issue head on. It will take the industry to coalesce around itself to push out discovery more aggressively…in a clear and concise way. Good luck with that.

EDITORIAL NOTE: This report will be available in our PODCAST BUSINESS CENTER later this week, along with many other industry relevant reports…all located for your convenience in one place.  Or you can view The Podcast Consumer 2017 directly HERE, at Edison Research.

How Millennial Consumption Habits Are Impacting Podcasting & Radio

Posted on by Kurt Laufer

A study last summer by Music Business Association concluded, not surprisingly, that Millennials listen to less radio than the generations that came before them. This is hardly news to most of us that understand consumption habits of millennials or have been swimming in a digital pool for the last 5 years.

More recently, a snap analysis of the 2017 Infinite Dial Report shows that 87% of those aged 12-24 are listening online now. That’s 87% my friends. If this number doesn’t tell you something about where we are headed, I don’t know what will.

While statistics are no doubt purveyors of what the future holds, the Music Business Association study last summer also said:

In lieu of radio, younger millennials have turned their ears and their attention to streaming, with many of those polled opting for on-demand options. This shows that not only is streaming in general more favorable, but the idea of radio simply isn’t as appealing to younger music lovers as it used to be for their older siblings, parents, and grandparents.

How Does This Correlate To Podcasts?

It’s all about smartphones and connected devices. It’s now confirmed (Edison Research) that 81% of all Americans use smartphones. When you look at millennials, that number explodes:

  • Ages 12-24: 95% smartphone ownership
  • Ages 25-54: 89% smartphone ownership

Why this matters? 

Accessibility and discovery of podcasts has correlated to the smartphone explosion. On-demand audio is simply a ‘point-and-click’ away.  In addition, while Millennials are listening to less traditional radio, they are listening online via streaming services, specifically Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Apple Music.

In a similar study conducted by comScore, millennials are 44 percent more likely to listen to podcasts once a week on their smartphone than the average smartphone-owning adult. And the popularity does not stop with this demographic — 18-34 year olds are going to be more likely to be podcast listeners than the general population, while 12-17 year olds are almost twice as likely to listen to podcasts.

What kind of programming are they listening to? 

A fascinating aspect of Millennial podcast listeners is diving into what type of podcasts they are listening to. Interestingly enough, they are primarily listening to spoken-word programming…the same type of programming that is broadcasted on stations regulated to the AM dial. This data should hearten some radio execs as they literally have this content at their fingertips.  But it comes down to their distribution strategy, and allowing the content to be packaged in a way that aligns to changing consumption habits.

Why are podcasts so attractive to the younger generations?

It could simply be that the younger generations are that much more attached to their devices. And if the content is worthy enough to be ‘discovered’ on their device, it must be worthy of their attention. It could also be the increased importance surrounding on-demand content. Younger generations want to listen on their own terms…when they want it…and where they want it. Bottom line, it takes a strategy to make sure this content is available & packaged to millenials. Radio execs mustn’t underestimate a clear, cohesive strategy in packaging curated content via an on-demand platform. Bottom line, the podcast medium is a vehicle of choice for powerful distribution.

Sharing is caring – enter the Social Media factor

One of the most overlooked aspects, when it comes to on-demand discovery & consumption, is being able to share content…a fact that can’t be overlooked when it comes to analyzing a younger demographic. Millennials love to share, but they also like to like what others are sharing too. This is one of the reasons our Podfluencers will drive awareness of what is relevant in the industry, encouraging others to listen to new suggested podcasts.

Podcasts allow millenials to listen and share content with their friends. The social media impact is a key driver to podcast consumption, aligning seamlessly with millenials.

You can’t just share any old content and expect to be successful. In order to appeal to the younger demographic, you have to offer appealing content in a format that this age group prefers to consume. While broadcast radio assumes that Millennials want to hear the latest hits, they often overlook that they also want to hear original non-fiction programming.

While broadcast radio assumes that Millennials want to hear the latest hits, they often overlook that they also want to hear original non-fiction programming.

The podcast publishers that are experiencing the most success are the ones that have embraced this fact and are finding ways to tap into the power of the millennial masses.

Radio Can’t Rely on False Assumptions

While broadcast radio assumes that Millennials want to hear the latest hits, they overlook that they also want to hear original non-fiction programming. Old-school radio execs, in the past, have underestimated the power of the millennial and changing consumption habits.

Previously relying too heavily on an ‘in-the-now’ strategy that focused more company resources on PPM, (Portable People Meters), song survey analyses, format changes, radio transmission fees, and program directors that lacked flexibility, it’s time to jump on a new vision that aligns with millennials…or trust me, history will repeat itself…and you’ll go the way of MySpace, Friendster, and your Blackberry.

To steal a line from an old ‘Friend’ in the radio biz…

“It’s a great day to be in radio”…that is, if you accept and invest in the future of on-demand audio, aggressively monetizing your streaming platform, and align with the consumption habits of the future (they live on mobile). PS – the future is here.

 

Editorial Note: Stats in this article came from Forbes as well as the 2017 Infinite Dial Report, as noted above.

 

 

The Impact Facebook’s Live Audio Might Have on Podcasting

Posted on by Kurt Laufer

Let’s think about this concept; Facebook executives have gone on the record in saying that in five years, there’s a chance that the platform as we know it will be all video and no text.  While I personally think that’s aggressive thinking, what does this mean for audio, text, and content distribution?

Last June,  Quartz reported:

In five years time Facebook “will be definitely mobile, it will be probably all video,” said Nicola Mendelsohn, who heads up Facebook’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, at a conference in London. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has already noted that video will be more and more important for the platform. But Mendelsohn went further, suggesting that stats showed the written word becoming all but obsolete, replaced by moving images and speech.

What about audio?

Back in December, Facebook announced a new feature called Live Audio. This delivers an easy interface for those delivering book readings, interviews, and news radio, through ‘live audio’ on Facebook. Contrast this to the Live Video feature that has exploded on Facebook. Similarly, listeners/viewers to live audio sessions can leave reactions in ‘real-time’ to the audio.

Facebook stated in their blog:

We know that sometimes publishers want to tell a story on Facebook with words and not video. We’ve even seen some Pages find creative ways to go live and reach audiences with audio only by using the Facebook Live API or by adding a still image to accompany their audio broadcast.

 

Our new Live Audio option makes it easy to go live with audio only when that’s the broadcaster’s preferred format. We also know that publishers sometimes go live from areas that lack strong network connectivity. Though we alert the broadcaster if their signal is low, Live Audio presents another option for connecting with audiences in real time from low-connectivity areas.

With the explosion of Facebook Live, I’m curious to see the evolution within the podcasting realm and will the podcasters use the platform to their advantage? Is it possible that Facebook could actually transform into a relevant podcasting platform? In our opinion, maybe. But it’s way too early to make any determination as it’s still in the top of the first inning.

There’s no doubt that it has the opportunity to disrupt the industry…favorably. But it comes down to whether or not content creators are going to actually aggressively use the Live Audio platform, thus encouraging new consumption habits. Bottom line, it can expand podcasting to a new audience, for sure, via social methods. Most importantly, it will deliver audio-first content into the newsfeeds of a prospective new audience.

For the time being, only Android products allow a listener to leave the app or lock your phone and continue listening. iOS listeners are only capable of listening while on Facebook.

As Mashable noted,

The concept of broadcasting live audio isn’t new to Facebook. Some publishers have already found ways to do live audio  simply by leaving a still image up on a live video stream on the platform.

In addition, according to publicly released information, publishers are anxiously awaiting to align with Facebook. Radio shows such as “BBC World Service” and “LBC (Leading Britain’s Conversation),” publisher Harper Collins and authors Adam Grant and Britt Bennett will be partnering up with Facebook to test this new feature.

Live Audio Brings Limitless Opportunity for Wide-Range of Content

Techcrunch.com highlighted the impact Live Audio could have:

  1. Radio stations could broadcast their programs
  2. Podcasters could find new online distribution for their episodes
  3. Authors could do live readings of their books
  4. Celebrities could do Q&As without worrying about how they look on camera
  5. News anchors could broadcast audio from disaster zones or areas of crisis where bandwidth may be too overloaded for video streaming
  6. Musicians could broadcast concerts or studio sessions

In our eyes, this looks like a tremendous opportunity for the long-term ability to push podcasting to an entirely new audience. Again, it takes effort and focus, and the industry must expand beyond its comfort zone of distribution platforms. Independents may be more aggressive more so than large publishers, looking for you to utilize their platforms.

Finally, this appears to be a huge opportunity to drive revenues as Facebook develops a revenue sharing platform with publishers & podcasters.  The industry is waiting for a ‘big player’ to make a move. Could this it? Let’s hope it incentives Apple to get moving too!

 

 

The Analytics on Podcast Delivery: Blubrry Went ‘Under The Sheets’

Posted on by Kurt Laufer

As TopPodcast.com was conducting a massive amount of research over the last year, one of the most compelling reports we uncovered was one conducted the Blubrry Team, as they looked at over 35,000 podcasts, and assessed whether users were downloading or streaming their podcasts. If you don’t know who Blubrry is, you should…and we recommend you check them out, especially if you are interested in searching their massive podcast registry/directory.

Editorial Note about Blubrry, from their website: They’ve created a Blubrry Podcast Directory, not trying to compete with other directories. Their main goal is to offer additional distribution points that otherwise are not available to podcasters. With this philosophy, they believe the Blubrry Podcast Directory fills the void where iTunes and podcasting is otherwise unavailable. Blubrry.com is a podcasting community and directory that gives creators the power to make money, get detailed audience measurements and host their audio and video. Whether you are a media creator, advertiser or media consumer, Blubrry can provide the digital media interface.

Now back to the report. It’s a fascinating study, providing tremendous insight not just for industry insiders, but for the individual podcaster, as they learn to understand how and where audio-consumption is taking place.

Late last summer (2016), the report released on the PowerPressPodcast demonstrated:

60% of podcasts are downloaded for playback on-demand

In addition, here’s how they broke everything down:

Four main distribution categories’ of podcast consumption:

1. Mobile Apps Account For 71.6% Of Downloads

While this should also come as no surprise, the majority of podcast consumption comes from mobile apps. Podcast apps work in the background so that you can listen to them with ease and the new podcasts will automatically download. But again, their are SO MANY for consumers to choose from, they often get frustrated (TopPodcast.com can help). The statistics from Blubrry measured over 30 different applications from all of the main app stores including the apps you can download from the store as well as the ones that come standard when you get your phone.

The iOS podcast app that comes with your phone accounts for 39% of mobile app downloads as well as streaming plays.

The app automatically subscribes its users for streaming but does allow them to download the new episodes automatically. About half of the content is downloaded and the other half is streamed.

2. Desktop Apps Account for 13.1% Of Downloads

Ever since the mobile platform has taken off, the percentage of desktop podcast consumption has continued to decline each and every year. They offer almost the exact same services as a mobile app would, except you need to be at your desktop in order to listen to them, so your mobility is limited. Once again, Blubrry measures over 30 desktop apps.

They found that the iTunes desktop application by itself helps to make up about 4/5 of the desktop app consumption.

3. Desktop Browsers Account for 10.7% Of Downloads And Streamed Plays

Overall, desktop web browsers account for a little over 10% of all podcast consumption, which is actually quite impressive when you consider that since 2005, that number has always ranged from 5% to 15%. Desktop browsers provide the user with a chance to listen to the audio right from the web page, the way TopPodcast.com allows you to ‘test drive’ shows on our site, within our Top 200 and our recommended picks. For this particular consumption data, Blubrry measured 15 different desktop web browsers such as Safari and Firefox.

In this situation, about 2/3 of the consumption is done by streaming while the remaining 1/3 is done through downloads. For this particular consumption data, Blubrry measured 15 different desktop web browsers such as Safari and Firefox.

4. Mobile Browsers and TV Apps Account For 4.6% of Streamed Plays

This percentage has been on the rise over the last several years but has recently started to plateau in terms of growth. The mobile browsers provide a great way to listen to the podcast within the browsers. If you do not have a phone that is capable of browsing, you can use the podcast URLS to playback in a built-in media player app. Playback in the browser or the media player results in streamed play.

Blubrry measured 25 different TV applications and mobile browsers such as AppleTV and Roku for the TV applications and Chrome on Android and Windows Mobile for the mobile browsers.

There are some mobile browsers that do allow you to download the content, but it is so rarely used that it is excluded from the data.

Measuring Stream Plays Vs. Downloads

download_apps_vs_stream_play_apps

When it comes to measuring the difference between a streamed podcast and a downloaded podcast, they are typically measured the same. When a player plays from the URL, it progressively downloads the file chunks. Those chunks then provide the player with a way to allow playback immediately by downloading the content in small chunks. One file will often yield many download requests at one time when the progressive download technique is being used.

Podcast downloads use a similar method known as byte range, which is the request made to download the data in chunks. Commonly, you will see a byte range request when downloading from a mobile application designed for podcasting. Since both a downloaded podcast and a streamed podcast appear the same on the server, both are measured the same way.

I hope this information has proven to be beneficial, and we thank Blubrry for providing such powerful analytics.  I hope we summarized it accurately for your edification purposes.

What 10 Billion Means to the Podcasting Industry?

Posted on by Kurt Laufer

Podcasting is definitely on the digital fast track, as the stats don’t lie.  In Apple’s 2016 review, it is reported that over 10 billion people downloaded or streamed a podcast during the year, from all over the world.  The most popular way of downloading those podcasts were through the Apple Podcast app, which made up for 65 percent of all listened podcasts.

Considering the number of podcasts downloaded and streamed in 2016, it’s safe to say that podcasts are finally becoming more mainstream, and expect to see bigger numbers in 2017.  This is exceptional news for anyone that’s in the industry…and it’s setting up to be a wild year for the industry.

The Mainstreaming of Podcasts

Considering the number of podcasts downloaded and streamed in 2016, it’s safe to say that podcasts are finally becoming more mainstream, and expect to see bigger numbers in 2017.  This is exceptional news for anyone that’s in the industry…and it’s setting up to be a wild year of growth and change.

NPR’s Fresh Air Leads the Way

The most downloaded podcast was NPR’s Fresh Air, hitting the top spot for 2016.  While other NPR programs won accolades, it shows how many people are turning to podcasts.  Consider that podcast listening grew by 23 percent between 2015 and 2016, the question now is will the industry continue to grow at this clip, or exceed it?

How Does Podcasting Add Up Against Other Major Players?

To get an idea of how large the podcast listening community is, let’s put in perspective to other major platforms.

When you combine those numbers with those around the world, it’s not a surprise that podcasts are finally catching the eye of major brands, as well as the digital buying community! Finally, it looks as if digital buyers are ready to jump on the bandwagon.

Podcast Monthly Listenership Continues to Grow

Accessibility is Key: 81% of Americans Own Smartphones

The accessibility of podcasts certainly contributes to these large numbers, and Apple is not alone in expecting massive growth for the new year.  The mobility of the medium has contributed to the rise of podcasts listening. 81% of Americans now own smartphones, hence more accessibility to podcasts. The beauty of a podcast, is that it can reach a large audience without much effort, and there isn’t a strict target age range.  Nearly anyone with a smartphone can download a podcast, allowing everyone to listen where and when they want.

Onward & Upward: The Next Milestone

Bottom line, Podcasts are a product of the future, despite the fact that they’ve been around for over a decade. And as more people jump into the podcasting game, the numbers will continue to go up.  All media platforms are diving in, especially media darlings from Television and Radio. Since anyone can create a podcast, it can open more avenues and creativity for every individual who desires to create a show. Have microphone will podcast. 10 billion is obviously just a milestone. We are more curious what’s next? 15 billion? Enjoy the ride!

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