Canadian Podcast Listener Study finds podcast listening fueled by sharing

Toronto ON, Canada—With recent data showing there are now 700,000 podcasts available worldwide, how do listeners know what podcasts they should listen to, or if you’re a podcaster how do you break into the conversation?

Findings from The Canadian Podcast Listener 2018, from Audience Insights Inc. and Ulster Media with support from TPX, indicate that the #1 way listeners discover podcasts is through friends and family.

• Nearly two-thirds (65%) of monthly podcast listeners say they have shared podcasts they listen to with others at some point in the last six months.
• Almost half have shared a podcast (46%) by word-of-mouth.
• Nearly a quarter (23%) of monthly podcast listeners say they have shared a podcast in the past 6 months via social media, rising to 29% among 18-34 year olds.
• Nearly one-in-five (18%) podcast listeners have shared via email or text, rising to 29% among “power listeners.”
• Younger and heavy listeners are most likely to share podcasts they listen to - 73% of podcast listeners aged 18-34, while “power listeners” (those who listen to at least 5 hours of podcasts per week) are 83% likely to have ever shared.

How can podcasters capitalize on these findings?

“When you share podcast content online, you’re competing for attention with every other text, email and social media post out there. If you want to increase your odds of becoming part of the online conversation, offer shareable content in a format that’s native to the platform you’re using to distribute your content,” says Jeff Ulster of Ulster Media.

The Canadian Podcast Listener 2018 is based on a representative sample of 3,000+ Canadian adults and 1,500+ monthly podcast listeners from Maru Voice Canada, Canada’s premier online access panel. Work is underway on the Canadian Podcast Listener 2019, with initial results to be released this summer.