Australian Podcast Industry Trends for 2022

I know you're SO enthused to read a title like that one, but truly this is information that you podcasters out there should all know.

The latest research has come out from Edison Research in collaboration with Triton Digital and there are some particularly intriguing findings in relation to the world of podcasting in Australia for 2022.

In this episode, I break down a few of the statistics that I find to be the most useful, and how these trends are informing where the industry is going on the whole.

If you have a podcast, or you're looking to start a podcast soon then give this episode a listen.

Resources I Mentioned:

The Infinite Dial

Grab a ticket to our MASTERCLASS on UNDERSTANDING YOUR STATS - Tuesday 12th July 2022

Join THE PODLOVERS+

Rode NT-USB Mini - the microphone I used in this episode

Transcript:

00:00
Welcome to Pump Up Your Pod Well, hello, welcome back. How are you all today? I have been a little bit unwell. And then we moved, we have been renovating our place for what feels like a lifetime. And we're finally able to get back in which was really, really cool. But it also meant that the studio completely got demolished and is in the process of being rebuilt and is so flippin cool. I cannot wait to be able to set it all up properly and do some videos in there because it's going to be fantastic.

Today I am in Maleny on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. For a bit of a getaway every year around this time, we like to go up into the mountains because it's so pretty up here and it's so much colder than it is down in Brisbane. And it is cold, I can confirm it is cold, it is currently like 10 degrees, I think, and I have been freezing my balls off. If I had bowls, they would be frozen off definitely. And just been really enjoying the time we are in a beautiful location overlooking a ridge with all these wonderful mountains. And it's just a great time to reflect to think about what's going on in the business and also in life. More broadly, we're coming up to the anniversary of the death of one of my good friends. It was actually around this time last year when we were up in the mountains in a different mountain, where I got a phone call from my best friend telling me that our friend had passed away. And so it feels extra weird this year kind of being in a similar mountainous location, and brings me back to that time when she passed away. And that was so sad. It was so sad and so surreal, and being so far removed from everyone as well are up in the mountains while the rest of our friends were grieving together down south. Yeah, it was it was odd. So yeah, I have been thinking about that a little bit more over the last few days. While I've been up here, just remembering how lucky we are. And I needed to reflect on how things have been going. So that's what's been going on from that perspective. And I've been really enjoying being up here. We are here for a few more days. And then we'll head back home, back to school and the studio will be getting set up and everything will be amazing.

So at the moment, if you are wondering what I'm using, or when I'm out and about on location and on holidays and things, I just bring my little Rode NT USB mini and there are links to purchase that in the gear section of the Bamby Media website. So you can have a look at that. And you can hear what it sounds like based on this episode. So yeah, it's pretty good, pretty flippin good for a very tiny microphone that you can take anywhere.

The next thing I want to say is I want to announce the winner of the giveaway that I did. So I was giving away it was a few episodes back now. I was reviewing a pair of headphones, and they were the road and THE one hundreds. And I picked a name at random using one of those pick your name at random generator, things on the internet, put all the names in there from everyone that reviewed the show. And I'm happy to announce that Taryn Richardson is the recipient of these headphones, which is actually hilarious because she worked contacted me on Instagram, I believe and was like Hey, can you just like rig this test? This this giveaway? Because I really need a new pair of headphones. And I was like, No, I cannot read it. Thank you very much. I am a upstanding human. But it's just funny that she won anyway. So Taryn, I didn't really get anyone at well done. Those will be shipped out to you very shortly. So yes, once I'm out back from the mountains, I will ship them out. And yeah, there'll be in your hot little ears. Maybe not literally is just normal, normal size views.

04:21
Okay, so today, what I want to talk about is podcasting statistics, which is always a super sexy topic. And I know you're like, Oh, I can't wait to hear all the things about podcasting statistics. But I really want to break this down because the latest research has come out from a survey that Edison Research does with Triton digital, and they survey a bunch of people about how they listen to audio. So it's not just for those people that listen to podcasts, but it's all audio more broadly. So that includes radio how people use smart speakers, you know, those sorts of things. So then they put it in into this report called the infinite dial, which comes out every year. And this year was particularly interesting because Australia overtook America in one particular area. So we're gonna have a little look at it today.

First up, the awareness of podcasting has actually improved. So as in if you ask someone now, hey, you know, do you know what a podcast is? A couple years ago, lots of people will be like, No, what's a podcast? I've never listened to a podcast, and certainly older people were like, what's that? And you have to kind of explain, oh, it's kind of like a radio show. But it's like pre recorded. And, yeah, they didn't really get it. But these days, 90% of the population in Australia understands and knows what podcasting is. That's a big tech, because for you to reach people, they have to know what that thing is, right. So yeah, be really happy with the fact that 90% of the population actually understands and knows what a podcast actually is. Now, if we move on to the more interesting aspect for me, is the weekly podcasts listening has really risen a lot. So it used to be that only, like in 2017, there was only 10% of the population that listened to podcasts weekly. But now 2020 to 26% of the population listens to podcasts every week. And that's really good news for you all that are creating podcasts because these statistics and these numbers are just going up. It's all climbing, meaning that, you know, when you say are the markets flooded, there's too many podcasts, I'm never going to be heard and those sorts of things. No, that's not the case, because there's only 26% of the population listening to podcasts at the moment anyway, and that number is going to increase, which means the listenership increases, which means your visibility increases, blah, blah, blah, you know, so it kind of all chases itself. And it's really good and interesting. And, and just great to know that this is still rising, this is absolutely rising.

Now we want to break down how that compares to America. So America, in 2017, had 15% of the population listening to podcasts, where we had 10%. So we were kind of lagging, and we have been lagging behind them for years, years and years and years, it's been something that has been quite slow the uptake to podcasting for Australians. But these days, we are now neck and neck with America, the same amount of the population is listening to podcasts in America as those in Australia, which is great news. And we are definitely going to be overtaking America, from what I can see what I understand of the trajectory of how things are going. So this is really, really good. Obviously, we have a much smaller population. So the amount of people listening to podcasts in America is a lot bigger than it is in Australia. But the percentage wise is what I'm really interested in.

The next best bit of statistics that I find really cool is the average number of podcasts that a person is subscribed to. And that is eight. So your normal everyday person who listens to podcasts quite frequently, they actually subscribe to eight shows. I know for me, personally, I've subscribed to a lot more shows than that we have over 60 clients. And so I and I listened to a lot of those. I may not edit them all these days. But I definitely try and listen to as much as I can, just to see how my editors are going to, you know, and keep people on track with those sorts of things. So I subscribe to a lot of shows. And then for my own personal fun times, I listen to a bunch of shows there. I guess when I think about it, maybe I'm probably sitting in about 10 shows that are for my entertainment like outside of work. Anyway, it'd be interesting to see where you sit in that number. Have you sat down and thought about and maybe go through your library on your phone as to how many episodes you actually subscribed to, or sorry, podcasts you subscribe to. That could be a little bit of good information. It's not a huge number though, right? So you're competing with a lot of shows someone only really has space in their week to listen to maybe eight shows. So your shows got to be pretty frickin good for you to make the cut. They're going to be asking the question, well, why should I listen to that one when I can get this information from a different one on a similar sort of topic. So that's where again, I've had episodes previously about how important your content is, and it needs to be really good for people to actually subscribe and stay there long term.

Okay, and the final bit of statistic that I want to share with you today is how long people are listening to podcast for in a week. Now this is pretty amazing. Then, because it has jumped significantly from the previous year. So in 2021, five hours a week was dedicated to listening to podcasts. And now this year, we are up to seven over seven hours of listening to podcasts, which is great. That's an extra two hours that regular podcast listeners are now listening to podcasts for. And to know that in a year, you've got two extra hours that someone is listening to podcast for, it means that the medium is really on the rise. And people are really connecting with it and engaging with that content. So that is awesome news. And it's awesome for you if you have a podcast because you can know that the industry is only expanding, there is no contraction here.

So this is the time to up your game to really think about if you haven't started one to start one. But to start a good one, you're competing with a lot of stuff, there's a lot of noise out there. And there are a lot of crappy podcasts like I have heard so many crappy podcasts that shouldn't exist, because they are so bad. So yours needs to be really good. And you need to think about the ways that you can make it good. Your audio quality needs to be really good, the content needs to be on point you need to research your topics, like this is all stuff that I've spoken about before. And you can go back to other podcast episodes where I explain these things.

But these statistics show you that the industry is on the rise, and that you need to get serious about what you're doing here to make sure that you can be here from the ground up. It's kind of like when Instagram started or some sort of well, it is a social media platform really, at the end of the day. Those ones that got in early and built their network and communities early have huge followings now, and that can be you as well. So it needs to be something that you're really strategic about you think about and you don't delay starting, if you feel like you've got something good and that you can commit to it.

Now I'm going to be breaking down all the statistics, what you should be tracking when you should be tracking them how you should use that information, where to find all this information, particular newsletters that maybe you should think about subscribing to from a statistical point of view, all sorts of understanding your stats type conversations in a masterclass that I'm hosting on the 12th of July at midday. This is a paid masterclass, I'm not doing any free master classes. I'm not doing anything free, other than this podcast, because I am full of valuable information. And I believe that you should be paid for your valuable information.

So, masterclass 12 of July, there will be information as to how to purchase a ticket for that in the shownotes. You can also go to our website, go to the Learn section, and you'll see that there's information there on masterclass there. If you want access to all the master classes that I'm going to be running throughout the year, there will be 12 of them. So one every month, if you want access to all of them at a reduced price. Join the pod lovers plus so the pod lovers plus is where you can go to have access to those master classes as they happen. You get unlimited replay of that you'll get the transcripts, you'll get notes on them, you'll also get group discussion, you can also ask questions within the community, that means that I will actually get to answer them troubleshoot things and those sorts of stuff. It's not a massive community of whole bunch of touch points. And you know, I am not interested in running a group like that. I just wanted a place to have be able to house these master classes that feel like you are creating a community and a network of people that are also trying to grow their show, but not feel like they have to do a bunch of stuff or they have to be really involved. You can just pop in, watch the videos and then ask questions and discuss after a master class discuss what I've spoken about and break it down further. So that's what the pod lovers plus is it is open now you can join. Otherwise come to a master class and enjoy that.

Okay, that's it for me to day. I hope you've had a lovely day so far and I'm sorry I have been not in your ears as much as I would like but we will be getting back into it.