Do You Listen to Podcasts?

I am a sometimes listener to podcasts. I’ve been more of a “book on tape” listener (now audible) but have recently added a few podcasts to the play list.

I co-host The Arizona 100 podcast with Adrian McIntyre twice monthly.  He and I chat about a few topics and then we use the remainder of the time to preview the upcoming issue of The Arizona 100 e-newsletter.  The podcast has evolved over the past 35+ episodes and Adrian and I have found a good rhythm. I like it as it gives us a platform for thought-leadership in a way that is different than what we do here on the blog.

We’ve started offering podcast services to some of our clients. Like us, the podcast gives our clients a platform to share their views on topics of interest to them and host others as guests as well.

I came across an article that talks about the impact the pandemic is having on podcast listening habits.  As most people listen to podcasts during their daily commute, the virtual work environment means no traveling and therefore no downloading. Or at least that was the case early on.

That seems to be shifting and the number of downloads increased slightly over the past couple months. According to the article, the top 10 U.S. podcast publishers saw download growth of about 6.5% in June and 3.6% in July, landing at 793.2 million downloads, a 17% increase from April, with downloads up 20.6% year-to-date as of this summer.

So what caused the shift?

All of us have adjusted to this new work environment and although we may not be commuting to and from work each day, we are using that “travel” time for other purposes.  Perhaps it is a longer than usual bike ride or a mile or two added to your walk each day.  Maybe you’re using the time to learn a new language or perhaps your kids are listening in now, too, to content appropriate for families.

The expectation is that podcast listenership will likely fluctuate again if/when the pandemic numbers decrease in such a way that our work and home routines adjust again.