Podcast Categories And Podcast Demographics: How Podcasting Is Changing

The Q'd Up Podcast on Podcasting

Podcasting has boomed over the last year. There are more podcasts, more listeners, and more episodes being heard than ever before. But as the medium continues to grow and evolve, with it comes changes to the podcast categories and the podcast demographics.

Rob Greenlee -- the vice president of content and partnerships at Libsyn -- joins Jay and John on this episode of the Q’d Up Podcast on Podcasting to share his insight and thoughts on the recent reports by The Infinite Dial study and Nielsen, and what it could mean for everyone moving forward.

Show highlights:

Introduction

Diversity in podcasting (2:15)

As we learned in both The Infinite Dial study and Nielsen’s podcasting report, podcast audiences are more diverse than the population of the country. Rob and Jay share their thoughts on why that might be.

Hispanic growth (3:29)

The latest Nielsen report points to massive growth in podcasting among the Hispanic population. Rob and John share insights from what they’ve seen and why they believe that market is currently booming.

Using demographics to improve advertising (6:20)

Brands want to advertise to their target audience, so as a podcaster, knowing who listens to your content is critical.

Podcast categories: Music (7:03)

One area of the Nielsen report that confused both Jay and Rob was that among light podcast listeners, music was the top podcast category. They walk through how that might be an error on behalf of the study.

Podcast categories: History (9:04)

While light listeners are going with music, heavy listeners are actually diving into history. Once again, Rob explains how that might not be entirely accurate.

Podcast categories: Content opportunities (9:54)

Using his insights at Libsyn, Rob points out that the religion podcast category has a ton of episodes but people aren’t listening. However, he details a few categories that have a great base already built up.

Podcast categories: Creating new categories (14:02)

John provides an example of a podcast Q’d Up recently launched but couldn’t find a direct category for. John and Rob discuss why the industry should expand into new subcategories.

Podcast categories: Listening location (15:47)

Jay shares another piece of the Nielsen report that details people’s listening habits in different locations. From in the car to at work and at home, people tend to want to listen to different things at different points of their day.

Podcast demographics: Median age (18:29)

Nielsen’s report says the median age of all podcast listeners is 38 years old. Rob discusses how the median age is getting younger and how certain podcast categories show it happening already.

Podcast categories: News (22:50)

Jay and Rob break down how news has changed and evolved over time, including how it’s becoming more entertainment-based.

Evolution of podcasting (25:05)

Though podcasting has boomed and we’ve seen so many advances in technology, Rob believes the core of podcasting has stayed the same. Still, Rob points to Apple’s iPhone and the Serial podcast as big milestones in the evolution of the medium.

Biggest challenges of podcasting (30:05)

Whether for good or bad, Rob believes the limited monetization of podcasting has been one of the biggest hurdles still. If and how that changes in the coming years will help shape the medium as a whole.

Links:

Q’d Up

Pod Vader - Twitter

Pod Vader - Email

Pod Vader - LinkedIn

John - Email

John - LinkedIn

Nielsen - Podcasting Today

Pacific Content - Most crowded categories

Rob Greenlee - Twitter

Rob Greenlee - LinkedIn

New Media Show - Website

Rob Greenlee - Email