“Too boring”: number one reason why people stop listening

• The top reasons people leave a podcast are that “it started with too much meaningless chat”, or that “it was just boring”, according to The Podcast Study: Growth, a survey of 1,200 podcast listeners first presented at Podcast Movement last month. The data suggests that the first 60 seconds are critical to get right to ensure your listeners stay with you. Today, The Podcast Study: Growth is available, in full, as a free download for Podnews readers.

• In the first day of Radiodays Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia, one of the speakers was Ron Baetiong from SeryeFM in the Phillipines. SeryeFM uses Spotify’s Open Access to offer paid access to shows - some of which are AI generated. Spotify is the most popular podcast platform in the country; but because Spotify Open Access allows SeryeFM to use its own payment processor, listeners can pay using GCash, a financial wallet app, as well as bank cards (which few people in the country regularly use).

  • Exclusive: Podcast Day Asia is tomorrow, Wed Sep 3 (here’s a full schedule). Podnews readers can watch the whole event live from 9am-4pm WIB (3am-10am UK time, 10pm-5am NY, 12pm-7pm Sydney).

• Podcast Days in Spain is a month away. The event this year has a number of international speakers, including Eric Nuzum, Megan Davies, Todd Cochrane and Sam Sethi. It’s in Madrid on 2-3 Oct.

• The Lovie Awards has extended its entry deadline. You now have until Fri 19 Sept. The event is Europe’s awards for online creativity.

• Livewire has published its graphs and data for the industry for August. There are no major changes for “podcast hosts by episode share”, though Libsyn has hit a low of 3% for the first time. For tracking services, Podtrac now measures a record 14.3% of all new episodes.

• Buzzsprout’s network stats for August show a drop for Spotify year-on-year of 3.1%. However, those figures don’t include video played on Spotify. Apple Podcasts continues to lead in terms of downloads, at 37.1%.

Case Study: Streaming Service Launches New Podcast

Paid content

A leading streaming service launched a companion podcast to support its new original show, aiming to build awareness and attract fresh audiences through audio storytelling.

Partnering with Audiencelift.com, the campaign promoted the podcast trailer across major outlets like Entertainment Weekly and People. Push notifications helped expand the mobile subscriber base, boosting retention and engagement.

The results were powerful: over 1.2 million media impressions, 162,000+ episode listens, and an average cost per listen of just $0.03. Optimized for each release, the podcast quickly established itself as a strong extension of the streaming service’s original programming.

Want results like these? Discover how Audiencelift.com drives awareness, engagement, and listener growth for podcasts.

Tips and tricks - with Patreon

• Does Your Podcast’s Title or Art Actually Work?, asks Podcast Marketing Magic. Not least, says Wil Williams, don’t use the word “Podcast” in your podcast title.
  • We also have a helpful article: Should I have the word PODCAST in my podcast’s title? - where we answer “no, but maybe sometimes”.

Podcast News

In Australia, a man escaped from prison and went on the run for decades before handing himself in to a police station in New South Wales. Secrets We Keep looks at Darko Desic, and how he managed to live a double-life for almost thirty years. It’s new from LiSTNR today.

Beauty standards haven’t changed much from Elizabethan times to now. Is this a good thing? In Musing on the Bard this week, learn the magic and power of Shakespeare in performance, delve into what is required of an actor to perform Shakespeare authentically, and gain an understanding of the vulnerability and resilience required in an acting career.

How should education change in the age of generative AI? A new podcast Learning Curve by longtime education journalist Jeff Young looks at the latest experiments in using chatbots in class, aiming to cut through the hype and inform a conversation about how education can adapt to AI — and about what kinds of learning need protecting amid the AI gold rush.

Sometimes you need a reminder of the good in humanity, and Kind aims to do that. It’s a brand new podcast about the times people have received kindness and how that changed things. Through each interview, expect stories of strangers funding ballistic underwear, tech support from a gentle passerby, and new friends sharing that last square of chocolate.

Unpacking Peanuts begins a new season called Understanding Snoopy. After the Great Peanuts Re-read, the show takes a close up look at the greatest comic character of all-time -- Snoopy. How did he become icon he is today? How did his design and personality morph over the 50 years of the strip? And how did he enchant multiple generations of fans?