The growth of podcasts

One word that has become increasingly fashionable in recent years is ‘podcast’. The surge in the popularity of podcasts has been quite remarkable.

According to Statista, there were 120 million monthly listeners of podcasts in the United States of America in 2021 and that number is expected to climb to 164 million in 2023. In a nutshell, that shows just how rapidly the podcast industry is growing.

While its biggest market might be the United States, its growth isn’t just limited to the third-most populated country in the world. Podcasts have soared in popularity across the globe.

So why and how did podcasts become so huge? One way to look at things is perhaps the fact that anyone can start a podcast. While the most popular podcasts might have higher production costs, there are a lot of smaller podcasts that are made with a very limited budget. When compared to creating content in the form of videos, podcasts tend to require lesser resources.

Due to the aforementioned reasons, it’s much easier for people to create their own podcasts. Several creators just use a mobile phone, find a quiet place, and record their podcast. With apps like Spotify and Podcasts on Apple, they’re able to reach a large audience despite investing very little.

While creating new podcasts might be a fad, there is a big audience for it too. As mentioned above, there are mobile applications that are helping people listen to podcasts regularly. There could be several reasons why someone would like to listen to a podcast rather than perhaps tune into a similar discussion on television or radio. A couple of them could possibly be that, with a podcast, you can listen to it at your own convenience and while performing another task.

Many people these days tend to listen to podcasts while on the move. When they have a short or long journey, a podcast helps them pass time while on the road. Many folks also tend to play podcasts while they’re working out at a gym or during an outdoor run. Multitasking like that has become quite the trend recently!

Another reason could be the fact that you can find any topic of your liking when it comes to podcasts. On television and radio, your options might be limited and if your topic of interest isn’t popular, it might not be covered on such traditional platforms. That doesn’t tend to be a concern with podcasts as there is a huge collection of genres that you can choose from.

For the time being, it certainly looks like the podcast trend is here to stay – how big it eventually becomes is anyone’s guess!

References:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/786826/podcast-listeners-in-the-us/

https://brandastic.com/blog/why-are-podcasts-so-popular/