What the stats tell us about podcast consumption through December and January
It’s getting to the pointy end of the year, and I want to help you answer a very specific question. Should you take a break from your podcast over the Christmas period or keep releasing episodes like clockwork?
Based on the statistics we’ve gathered, insights from trusted sources, download figures, and trends we've tracked from our client roster, my viewpoint on the topic for this upcoming year--2023, is quite different from previous years.
Who is Bamby Media
To give you a brief bit of context if you’re new here, Bamby Media is a podcast and video production company based in Australia. We are currently managing over 60 global clients who release on a weekly basis. Our habit of tracking their download numbers monthly has given us access to vast data allowing us to understand how things are trending over time.
What does the data suggest?
Interestingly, based on our assessment and insights driven from Podtrac, it's clear that taking a full-on break in December, traditionally preferred, is not advisable anymore. It's an exciting period – with listenership exponentially increasing over the last year not only in Australia and the U.S but globally as well.
Unless you need a mental break, we believe December is not the time to hit the pause button. In fact, there's a high appetite for podcasts, which goes on a full blown rampage come January!
What should you do?
If you feel obligated to take a break in December due to being overwhelmed or for wanting personal time, don't freak out that I’m now telling you not to! Instead, if your show is old enough, (around 6 months old or more), you could re-run your top episodes from your back catalog. By doing this, you're still releasing content during a period we already know people are actively listening in pretty large numbers.
When is it a good time to release new material?
From the data we've garnered from various clients and industry statistics, January seems to be a feast month for podcasting. Therefore, it's the prime month for releasing fresh episodes.
You might want to consider batching up if you're planning on a break. Decide on how many episodes you want to rerun, record a new intro for these episodes, and get them rerun. In November, instead of recording one episode in a week, you might want to record two. When it's December, you'll have content ready for release. This planning also allows ample time for outsourcing your repurposed material from the podcast.
What does the future hold?
For podcasters invested heavily in their shows, the Christmas break doesn't mean a complete shut-off – but it does demand strategic planning to keep the ball rolling. Every industry has its peak period and slow time. Identify yours and plan your content accordingly. Get your re-runs and new episodes out and stay engaged with your audience.
Remember, planning and prioritisation are key. And, whether you decide to recast or batch, always remember not to beat yourself up either if you really feel like you just need to hit the pause button.
Transcript:
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[00:00:00] What do you do with your podcast over the Christmas period? Do you take a break? Do you keep releasing? Today I wanted to chat to you about what I think you should do this year for 2023 based on the statistics that I am seeing, the insights that I have tracked down, the download figures that I could find and also what we see in the trends from the clients that we actually have.
[00:00:28] So, to give you some context We're a podcast and video production company based in Australia. We have over 60 clients globally that release on a weekly basis. We track their download numbers on a monthly basis for the entirety that they work with us, which for a lot of them is quite a long time.
[00:00:45] And so we have years worth of data which is awesome to have a look at and then see how things are trending over time. What I want you to do this year is different to what I would have said last year, and I'm going to break it down for you. When we assessed the clients that we have on our books, and I look at the insights that I've pulled from PodTrack, what looks to be pretty clear to me is that taking a full on break for a month in December is something I wouldn't advise you to do.
[00:01:25] Traditionally in the past, I have said, yeah, take a break in December. Download numbers are lower anyway. but now listenership is climbing so much in Australia and the U S and in fact, globally, that. I don't think you need to take a break in December other than perhaps for your mental state.
[00:01:44] If you feel like you really need to take a break then take a break. But I don't think that December is necessarily the time to do it anymore. there's definitely a huge appetite for podcast listening in December. And then [00:02:00] January, it goes bonkers. I would say if you want to take a break in December because you're overwhelmed, you want time off yourself, you're not going to be in your regular schedule. Don't take a break But instead, if your show is old enough, so probably more than six months old, go back through your back catalog and find three or four episodes that you think would be really good to run again.
[00:02:27] look at what the. popular ones were during the last maybe 12 months. I would run them as recasts and I would put at the beginning of them a new little intro thing where you say, Hey, I'm taking a break these are my top episodes. And I really think that if you haven't had a chance to listen to those, this is a great time to catch up on some past. Stuff that way you're still releasing over the period that we know people are actually still listening and then January goes up so high when I look Traditionally at the data that I have for all the clients that we have and then also the industry data that I can find January is a big month for podcasting it's a good time to be releasing new material.
[00:03:12] if you don't batch at any other time coming up to a period where you want to take a break. It doesn't mean your podcast has to take a break. It just means you need to be a little bit more organized and batch some flippin episodes. decide how many episodes you want to have as recasts. Do a little intro for those and then rerun them and then record in your content plan somewhere in November a couple of extra episodes.
[00:03:43] Instead of recording one episode in a week, record two. And do that for a couple of weeks through November So that when it comes time to December, you've got stuff that you can release. Hopefully you've got someone on your team or if you outsource to BambiMedia or [00:04:00] some other production team, then there'll be a content plan ahead of time.
[00:04:03] It'll be scheduled in. people that you work with will have to batch the repurposing. So you need to put that into your spread of things to do in November. But to me, it really is worth it I've had this company now for nine years and I've seen what happens every year So I want you to go and think about that. What could I record for December now?
[00:04:26] So that I can take a break, my team can take a break, and I can still have things releasing. there's a few categories that really benefit. if I look at the data that we have here from PodTrack, true crime, very beginning of January, has fantastic growth. Health and fitness towards the end of December. And beginning of January goes well. Business is a little bit slower during that period.
[00:04:56] Business really starts to kick back in around January 15th ish. think about what category you're in, and then when you're planning out the content that you want to release through December.
[00:05:07] Think about what your industry would want to know about in December. And! In saying that as well, is that knowing that January is such a high month, even if your podcast listener doesn't connect with you for a couple of weeks in December and you've released some content in January, they're probably going to listen to it.
[00:05:30] Because they're going to have more time and they're going to see that you have past episodes that they haven't listened to yet and they're going to engage with them as well because that Christmas holiday rush is over and now there's new stuff that they're excited to listen to and they may have more time than just the one episode a week.
[00:05:47] That they were actually investing in you before that. That is absolutely the case for me. If I have a podcast that I love and I've had a particularly busy couple of weeks, when I get my time back to be able [00:06:00] to listen to it again, I'll binge. And if they've released good stuff, I'm going to listen to four or five episodes.
[00:06:06] Because, I mean, that's the industry I'm in, I love it, obviously. But, something to be aware of there. Don't just think, December, cool, I'm going to take a break and release nothing. can I release some recasts? Can I batch up and continue to release stuff and just be a little bit more organised And I would argue that looking at our statistics, certainly from the Australian clients that we have, that June is probably a slower month than December is. So if you want to take a break, June might be a little bit more of a time to do it. And what I really want you to take away from this is that if you need to take a break, take one. If you're buggered and content is like the last thing that you want to be thinking about through November, To try and batch, take a break.
[00:06:54] I get it, I understand it, but if you want to get fired up for 2024 and the podcast is a massive part of your marketing and you're trying to grow this audience, I wouldn't take a break. I would recast if I needed to, a couple of episodes. Give myself a little bit of breathing room, and then record maybe two or three more than I usually would during November, so that December is set.
[00:07:27] it's all about priorities, and if your podcast is a high priority for you, then you will make batching content possible. You will find those extra hours that you need to record and repurpose, or you will reach out to your production company and say, this is what I'm doing.
[00:07:45] For us here at Bambi Media, we send an email to all our clients at the very beginning of November, outlining what it is that we would like them to do. And also when we're taking a break, because we take a break, the whole company[00:08:00] Has a break for about a month. And so we go nuts and batch every client up, anyone that's got content for us prior to the break so that everything still gets released.
[00:08:12] And we see the that for the amount of consumption that is still happening for these podcasts. And also we have clients that reach out to us and go. Thank you so much for making me batch because I got a lot of stuff done and I still get the benefit of releasing. I wish I could batch all the time make a list, prioritize what you need to prioritize, take a break if you need to, recast if you need to. And batch yourself up so that you can take a break and the podcast doesn't necessarily have to. That's it from me today. I hope you've enjoyed it. If you have, please hit the like button, the subscribe button, little notification dingy belly thing.
[00:08:57] Uh, if you have any ideas
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[00:08:58] for the podcast, please let me know. Please leave in the comments. I love the comments. I love replying to comments. And I'm so excited. There's so many of you that reach out and actually comment on things too. That's something that podcasting doesn't allow a lot of on podcast platforms.
[00:09:15] So that's why I'm over on YouTube doing that. Thanks everybody. Have a great day.
