What is the impact of “The Joe Rogan Experience” becoming a Spotify-only show? The podcast hosting company Libsyn is offering one data-point. It said Apple accounted for 59.4% of all Libsyn-hosted show downloads for December. That compared to 64.5% during November. On the latest episode of Libsyn’s own “The Feed” podcast, Libsyn VP Rob Walch said that “big drop from November is in part due to the loss of Joe Rogan and decline in podcast consumption over the holidays.”
At the same time, Walch said Spotify’s share was up by a quarter as its share increased to 12.4% in December, up from 9.9% a month earlier. Walsh also said several of the smaller podcast listening apps took an even bigger hit from the loss of “The Joe Rogan Experience” which became available only on Spotify on Dec. 1.
Mobile downloads fell slightly during December for podcasts hosted by Libsyn. The company says 84.6% of all of its downloads in December went directly to a mobile device. That was down from 87.2% in November. Desktop computer downloads jumped to 15.1% from 12.6%. And Libsyn also said downloads to smart speakers and gaming devices hit 0.3% in December – its biggest showing to date, up from 0.22% a month earlier.
Walch also reported 62.5% of downloads to Libsyn-hosted shows were in the U.S. during December. That was up from 60.6% in November. That was to be expected because the Thanksgiving holiday’s impact in November only hit U.S. numbers, and December’s share numbers offer more of an “even footing” across the globe with the Christmas holiday. The U.K. was second with a 5.1% share, followed by Canada (5.0%), Australia (3.4%), Germany (2.5%), Sweden (2.0%), France (1.5%), Mexico (1.5%), India (1.0%), and Japan (1.0%). Walch noted the top 20 countries remained the same in each month during the fourth quarter.
Among Libsyn-hosted shows, Walch said iOS had 4.5 downloads for each one on an Android device.