Edison Research releases Podcast Consumer 2018

• Edison Research release Podcast Consumer 2018, the world’s most-quoted research about podcasting, with Triton Digital. The weighted survey is based on telephone research (rather than online polling, which adds an obvious bias in many other studies), and interviewed 2,000 Americans. RAIN pores through the data.

  • Numbers: 48m Americans (17%, adults 12+) now listen to podcasts weekly; 87% say they listen to most or all of an episode (though this doesn’t mean all downloaded episodes are listened-to); only 19% say they listen at increased speed; 30% of podcast consumers own a smart speaker; podcasts account for 4% of total audio listened-to (but for podcast listeners, that’s 33%).
  • The company notes that podcast listening’s “share of ear” has doubled in four years; in-car listening is growing; about 40% of Americans know what a podcast is but don’t listen; 55+ is an opportunity; it is not easy to listen to podcasts on smart speakers.

• The New York Times launched a new audio series this week (we reported it Mar 13), called Caliphate. The podcast 'follows Rukmini Callimachi to the front lines of the war against the Islamic State, and it seeks to understand the power and pull of its militants’. It’s the newspaper’s first podcast behind a temporary paywall; subscribers to the paper get podcasts a week before everyone else.

• The NYT has also trailed a student podcast contest, and shares a lesson plan for teaching podcasting.

• The BBC has released over 16,000 free sound effects. However: they’re for private and educational purposes only - it’s unlikely a podcast will count; and the BBC has many, many lawyers.

  
  Aug 1 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• Wondery launches a new season of Business Wars - the story of IBM vs Univac. Early, ad-free, access is via Wondery+.

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• Water is the theme of the Podcast Brunch Club’s monthly playlist for April. (It’s like a book club, but for podcasts)

• In The Word From Mouth this week - why podcasts need to think through discovery (how much is too much), where prediction and control begin and end, and what is the “creep factor” in audio data — plus an interview with Sarah Rhea Werner of Girl In Space and Write Now with Sarah Werner

• Ever wanted feedback on your podcast? Dave Farough is a radio talent coach now working with podcasters; his Be A Better Podcaster service launched six months ago, and has clients in Canada, the UK, the US and Mexico.

• Vulture posts a review of Gimlet’s Sandra.

• Listicle corner: The 10 best gaming podcasts (Uproxx); 11 steps for attracting new podcast listeners (WeEditPodcasts);

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