The Podnews Report Card 2025 Results

As presented at Evolutions in Chicago, here are the results of the fourth annual Podnews Report Card.

It’s good to see a significantly higher sample size for the Report Card this year. Results, as you’ll see, are trending quite consistently year-on-year, but it’s great to have more input into the results.

Our first question asked about apps, and whether podcast producers feel they do a good job for their listeners. We included all apps that get more than 1% market share; leading to a significantly high first placement for the independent podcast app Pocket Casts. Also visible here: a significantly higher figure for YouTube than last year - a pattern that continues right through the Report Card this year.

We also ask for comments from everyone. A recurring theme here was about promotion of individual shows in-app; some concern and worry about YouTube’s entirely algorithm-driven recommendation engine, and about an apparent bias from Apple to play safe3 and focus on the same, larger, shows. Here, we quote some of the responses as examples.

Also, concern from many creators about Apple’s ratings and reviews, which - unlike Spotify and YouTube - aren’t able to be controlled by creators: so sometimes, unkind or untrue comments are placed next to their work with no way to edit or remove them.

Moving on to directories - this Report Card was fielded in the month that Apple fixed their complicated podcast submission process (a theme from last year’s Report Card).

The independent Podcast Index scores highest; followed by Spotify and Apple Podcasts. YouTube appears at the bottom…

… probably because many creators perceive it as complicated and difficult to get into as a podcast.

For insights and analytics, a new #1 in YouTube, significantly higher in the ratings this year (possibly driven by more podcasts using the service and discovering how detailed it can be). OP3, the open podcast analytics service, didn’t get enough votes here to be fully valid.

A recurring theme throughout the comments here was that nobody measures the same thing. Neither Apple, Spotify or YouTube uses IAB compliant statistics, and creators find this complicated and confusing. Hopefully we can start putting pressure on podcast platforms to, at least, produce IAB-compatible stats.

For monetisation, again, a new #1 with YouTube hitting the lead. Apple Podcasts premium subscriptions also scores highly, but…

… there are criticisms for the high fee charged by Apple, as well as the lack of knowing any detail about those subscribers - particularly difficult as a lack of customer service.

In innovation, the new podcast namespace (“Podcasting 2.0”) scores highly, as ever. Spotify gets #2 after changes in everything from video to comments. Another significantly better score for YouTube here, with Apple Podcasts slipping slightly.

Mind, there’s no pleasing some people.

“Are these services good stewards of podcasting’s open ecosystem?” The Podcast Index scores the highest here, as ever, with Apple Podcasts taking its customary second place. YouTube and Spotify score worst; though even here, YouTube has a higher score than last year.

Perhaps surprisingly, a significant amount of comments about the benefit of open RSS were visible; and concerns about walled gardens.

Creator Relations - are the teams good to work with, and do they help you - was our final question (which, for time reasons, we dropped from the live presentation). Never fear: it’s here; with Apple Podcasts scoring the highest at 3.1 - Podcast Index not gaining enough votes to count. YouTube, again, saw an increase.

Finally, our overall scores. Apple Podcasts is, yet again, #1 for podcasting, according to the creators who make them. Spotify remains relatively unchanged, but a significant increase for YouTube (and Amazon Music).

Although, once more, there’s no pleasing everyone. This was our favourite comment.

In total, we got over 700 comments. We’ve anonymised them, adding a country code to help platforms understand which team may be responsible, and we’re sharing the verbatims in full with Apple, Google, Amazon and Spotify - all of whom have expressed interest in the full data this year.

Thank you if you took part. We know how useful this is to the platforms; and know how much part it plays in effecting change in the industry.