More people listening? Podcasting has that. Edison Research says the industry has also seen a nearly four-fold increase in the number of Americans aged 12 and older who listen to podcasts each week. When it asked in 2014, eight percent said they did, while today 31% listen to podcasts on a weekly basis.
But just as noteworthy is the increase in the amount of time spent with podcasts. Edison’s Share of Ear data shows that Americans aged 13 and older spent an average of 5.6 minutes per day listening to podcasts in 2014. Today, the average is up to 25.5 minutes, or an increase of more than four-times what it had been.
Edison says in a blog post that the average is largely influenced by people who told them that they listened to any podcasts during a typical diary day. Back then that group said they listened to 104.1 minutes per day. Today a lot more people listen to podcasts, but the data suggests there may be a natural cap in how much listening people can do. Edison says the latest Share of Ear data shows podcast listeners report listening to a near-identical 104.9 minutes per day.
Even with the changes, Edison said in August that its latest Share of Ear report shows podcasting’s share of listening time has doubled in the past three years, rising from a five percent share recorded during the second quarter of 2020 to ten percent today.
The numbers – which measure daily total audio listening among those in the U.S. age 13 and older – have been on a slow-but-steady rise since Edison first started asking about podcasting in 2014. Back then, just two percent of the total audio day went to podcasting.