The number of podcasts on Spotify is growing far more rapidly than the number of ears that can listen to them.
Over the last few years, Spotify’s user base grew 84% while the number of podcasts available skyrocketed 1630%.
The result: For listeners, it’s harder to discover stuff to listen to. For podcasters, it’s harder to find underserved markets to podcast for.
Consequently, you aren’t often seeing major hits. On average, the top 10 podcasts in the US in 2021 were 7+ years old. A few of them are 10+ years old. Among the top 50, just a handful are less than 2 years old.
This speaks to the challenge major studios now face in making a hit (Spotify alone has spent $500m on 3 studios).
(P.S. If listening’s your thing, we’ve got something cool coming soon.)
Streaming Media
