2024 has arrived, and it’s time to reset and take a quick bird’s eye view of the podcasting industry! And we won’t bury the lede: the latest insights from Edison Research indicate that Americans ages 13 and over spend an average of four hours and 11 minutes listening to audio content per day. Impressive!
How does this track against previous years? When Edison first began tracking this data in 2014, the average was four hours and 17 minutes. The number stayed above four hours per day for the next three years before dipping below that threshold from 2018 through 2020. In 2021, the number once again climbed north of four hours, and has maintained that milestone ever since.
What does this mean for the podcast industry? Despite some forecasting doom brought on by challenging economic conditions and changing consumer habits, interest in audio-only content continues to remain strong heading into the New Year. And despite a myriad of on-demand video and streaming options available, Edison Research’s stat shows that the audio industry continues to hold its own in a healthy competition for consumers’ attention.
So what does this mean for podcasters and advertisers? With Americans over the age of 13 spending a quarter of their day engaged with audio, there is still a great opportunity to leverage awesome creative content and messaging to reach their target demographics. Continue to create, continue to build, and continue to grow.
For those creatives and brands that aren’t involved yet, 2024 is a great time to find out what podcasting can do for you! To learn how you can launch your own podcast in minutes, register here. And for those interested in learning how they can amplify their brand in the podcasting world, connect with Podbean today!