Latinos continue to warm to the podcast habit with a record number of U.S. Hispanics reporting they are now monthly podcast consumers. Edison Research says 38% of Latinos aged 18 and older are monthly listeners, up four percent from a year ago.
Latino listening still lags the population overall, however. Edison says 42% of the total 18+ population consumes podcasts each month. But the gap is narrowing. Monthly podcast listenership among Latinos has increased by 52% since 2020, nearly four times faster than the rate among the general U.S. population, according to Edison’s fourth annual Latino Podcast Listener Report.
Weekly podcast listening among Hispanics is also growing. Edison says 23% of the Latinos that took its survey said they had heard an English-language podcast in the prior week. And 13% said they had heard a Spanish-language show. The report shows Hispanics that listen to podcasts on a weekly basis are more likely to earn more than $75,000 per year, are more likely to be employed, or own their own business. One in five U.S. Latino weekly podcast listeners pays to subscribe to a podcast.
“There simply isn’t a more desirable digital audience out there. Latinos are early adapters, digital natives, multi-platform, and social connectors. That’s a dream consumer, if ever there was one,” said Juleyka Lantigua, CEO of LWC Studios, which was one of the report’s sponsors.
The Latino Podcast Listener Report finds an overwhelming majority of Hispanic podcast listeners are in their “prime” spending years, with sizable percentages planning for things like travel, car buying and switching auto insurance companies.
To that point, it shows that Latino listeners are open to podcast ads. Half (49%) said they have already bought something they heard advertised on a podcast and 55% said they appreciate it when a brand advertises on a show that they listen to. Half said their opinion of a brand goes up when they hear it mentioned a lot on a podcast, while about the same number (48%) said they believe that the hosts actually use the products that are mentioned on their shows.
With a foot in two cultures, American Hispanics often toggle between English- and Spanish-language content. But the Edison data shows that there is an advantage for brands that create their ads in Spanish. More than half (53%) of Latinos age 18+ who consume Spanish-language podcasts agree that ads on those podcasts are more relatable. And 47% say ads in Spanish are more entertaining, 46% say they are more likely to purchase from a brand that advertises in Spanish-language podcasts, and 54% trust Latino podcast hosts.
“Investing in Latino podcasts is about more than diversity, equity, and inclusion, it is also a smart business decision,” said Gabriel Soto, Senior Director of Research at Edison Research. “There are more Latino podcast listeners than ever, and they are interested in purchasing products from podcast advertisers, paying to subscribe to podcasts, and even buying merchandise from podcasts.”
Edison’s Latino Podcast Listen Report is based on online interviews conducted with 2,637 U.S. Hispanic adults age 18 and older during August. It was commissioned by LWC Studios, Latina to Latina, Latino Media Network, and SXM Media.
Download the Latino Podcast Listen Report HERE.