U.S. Latinos are Primed for Podcasts - 67% of U.S. Latino podcast non-listeners already listen to spoken word

Forty-four percent of U.S. Latinos have never listened to a podcast and 20% have not listened to a podcast in the last month, but a new study finds that 67% of U.S. Latinos who don’t listen to podcasts already listen to spoken word audio.

The U.S. Latino Podcast Listener Report 2021, released in July 2021 by Edison Research, focused on the 36% of Latinos who are monthly podcast listeners. Today a follow-up report was released, The 2021 U.S Latino Podcast (non) Listener Report, examining the 64% of U.S. Latinos age 18+ who are not monthly podcast listeners.

The U.S Latino Podcast (non) Listener Report 2021 was commissioned by   Adonde Media, LWC Studios, Libsyn, PRX, Simplecast, Sonoro, SXM Media,and was conducted by Edison Research. The study is the only comprehensive research on Latino podcast listeners in the United States.

The reason most U.S. Latinos are not listening to podcasts? Seventy percent of those who aren’t monthly podcast listeners say that podcasts ‘just aren’t for them.’” The next most popular reasons: 48% say they don’t have enough time to listen and 47% say that podcasts are too long.

Some reasons U.S. Latinos might listen to podcasts? Forty-three percent of monthly podcast non-listeners say they would be interested if there were podcasts available on the topics they are interested in, 33% said they would be interested if podcasts were easier to discover, and 28% said they would be interested if a well-known personality they liked hosted a podcast.

Further education around podcast access and subscription is needed: 23% of U.S. Latino podcast non-listeners say they don’t really understand what a podcast is, 29% say they are not so sure how to listen to a podcast, and 31% say they don’t really know how to find a podcast. Thirty-one percent say they have to pay to subscribe to a podcast.

U.S. Latinos who don’t listen to podcasts are more likely to be women, and more likely to be age 55+. U.S. Latino monthly podcast listeners are 58% Men, 42% Women v. 44% Men, 56% Women for non-listeners, and monthly podcast listeners are 8% age 55+ v. 30% age 55+ for non-listeners.

This new research shows 58% of U.S. Latino podcast non-listeners use YouTube weekly for music listening, and according to The U.S Latino Podcast Listener Report released in July, YouTube is the top platform for podcast listening among monthly podcast listeners. This means video, particularly YouTube, will be an important point of entry for U.S. Latinos to podcasting.

Findings from the study debuted in a webinar on September 16, presented by Gabriel Soto, Director of Research at Edison Research, and Elsie Escobar, She Podcasts Co-founder and Community Manager at Libsyn.

“Since many Latino podcast non-listeners already listen to spoken word audio, and so many use YouTube and streaming audio platforms for other content, they are poised for adoption of the platform,” said Soto. “Today we saw that Latino non-listeners expressed joy in listening to podcasts for the first time, and that’s another reason Latinos have adopted the platform at such a high rate.”

According to Escobar, “Bilingual or multi-lingual content is and will become more and more important to grow Latino non-podcast listeners. Bilingual podcasts are an opportunity to re-connect and re-build our identities as we are, plus create bridges for all of our Latino and Hispanic experiences within the U.S. and beyond.

The Latino Podcast (non) Listener Report 2021 may be downloaded at: https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-latino-podcast-non-listener-report-2021/

For more information on the partners in this study, please visit, Adonde Media, LWC Studios, Libsyn, PRX, Simplecast, Sonoro, and SXM Media.

How This Study Was Conducted

Online interviews were conducted with 2,500+ U.S. Hispanic/Latino adults age 18+ in May 2021. The data was weighted to the age/sex/country of origin of U.S. Hispanic/Latino population and The Infinite Dial 2021 podcast listening statistics. The survey was offered in English and Spanish, and 17% of total respondents took the survey in Spanish.

About Edison Research

Edison Research conducts survey research and provides strategic information to a broad array of clients, including Activision, AMC Theatres, Disney, Dolby Laboratories, Google, Oracle, the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, Pandora, Samsung, Siemens, Sony, The Gates Foundation, and Univision. Edison is the leading podcast research company in the world and has conducted research on the medium for NPR, Slate, ESPN, PodcastOne, WNYC Studios, and many more companies in the space. Another specialty for Edison is its work for media companies throughout the world, conducting research in North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Edison Research is also the leading provider of consumer exit polling and has conducted face-to-face research in almost every imaginable venue. Since 2004, Edison Research has been the sole provider of Election Day data to the National Election Pool, conducting exit polls and collecting precinct vote returns to project and analyze results for every major presidential primary and general election.