Tag: fan study

Celebrating the Creators and Fans of 2023 With Wrapped for Podcasters

November 29, 2023

Wrapped for Podcasters

Today we kicked off 2023 Spotify Wrapped, our annual campaign that brings creators and fans together to share their love of all things audio. And as Wrapped for Podcasters celebrates its fifth year, we’re thrilled to bring the love, excitement, and data stories to more creators than ever. 

2023 Wrapped for Podcasters is our way to recognize the achievements across our podcast creator ecosystem and offer a unique deep dive into user behavior, Spotify stats, listening trends, and more from the past year. 

Wrapped for Podcasters Sample

“Wrapped is Spotify’s biggest campaign of the year and has become its own moment around the world,” Anna Sian, Head of Marketing at Spotify for Podcasters, tells For the Record. “And from a creator’s audience growth to other milestones they’ve unlocked throughout the year, it’s a trove of really valuable information on their trends from the past year. It’s as personalized as a campaign can possibly get.”

A Really Good Year.

There’s a lot to celebrate this year with podcasts. In 2023, more than 300 million listeners discovered their new favorite podcasts, and they were engaged, responding to more than 14 million creator polls. Of the shows receiving a podcaster Wrapped this year, over one-third were created in 2023, with more than 760 million minutes recorded overall. 

At Spotify, we’ve also been busy: doubling down on giving creators more data and better tools. We’ve increased our focus on creator education throughout the year so more podcasters understand ways to grow their show and be successful. “With Spotify for Podcasters programs like Masterclass and the release of our recent Fan Study report,” explains Anna, “our goal is to help creators learn from their peers and develop strong bonds within the podcasting community.” 

All About Growth

“It may come as no surprise that podcast creators are obsessed with their shows’ growth,” Anna says. “They work hard to perfect every episode, so they want to know their show is resonating with fans and finding new listeners. Their unwavering dedication to understanding listener data is the driving inspiration behind Wrapped for Podcasters.”

Like previous years, the core experience is rooted in a microsite that delivers a personalized experience to each podcaster, with listener data and creator trends framed in the context of the past year. Top episodes, most-shared episodes, average podcast rating, global listener stats, and year-over-year growth are all there for creators to dig into.

This year we’re adding even more tools and insights to Wrapped for Podcasters, including the top music genre streamed by a show’s podcast listeners and a new data story featuring fan engagement insights that includes a quiz around your most-talked-about episode. 

It’s the Journey

“Listening to a podcast is like having a creator as your best friend,” explains Anna. “They’re with you on your commute, while you’re washing dishes, making you laugh or sharing some tears with you. Wrapped for Podcasters provides the perfect opportunity for creators to acknowledge their fans who have come along on their journeys, stuck around, and become a part of the conversation.”

Dig into a world of data and read all about it in the Spotify for Podcasters blog.

Podcasters Can Better Connect to Their Audiences With the Insights From Our Latest Fan Study

November 9, 2023

We know that podcasters of all sizes want to share their stories with the world, and we’re committed to providing them with the best tools and platform to do so. But creating and sustaining a podcast requires a lot of decisions, and it’s often helpful to leverage the experiences and wisdom of others when embarking on a new creative journey. 

That’s why we are releasing our second Fan Study for podcasters, a collection of data-driven insights about creation trends and fan listening behaviors. Fan Study offers creators a snapshot of listener behaviors through a macro lens so they can get big-picture, industry-level insights that weren’t previously accessible. Alongside each insight, we provide actionable recommendations so podcasters can leverage this information into action—from which month is most popular for listeners to how fans crave interactivity.  

“Our Fan Study gives creators insights that they can immediately put into action, says Spotify associate director of brand marketing for podcasting Clara Prieto. “Regardless of what stage a podcaster is in, we know they all want to grow their shows and foster a dedicated and engaged community. With access to more data and global listening and creation trends, podcasters can reach wider audiences, build meaningful connections with fans, and maximize their presence on Spotify.” 

Jon Youshaei, host of Created with Jon Youshaei, got early access to our Fan Study and found the insights “super helpful. Especially the insights and takeaways section,” he said. “It’s great to know ideal posting times and trending genres to best engage with our audience. To achieve global growth, it’s crucial to understand listening behaviors around the world. The data helps us make changes to our podcast with these listening patterns in mind.”

To create Fan Study, Spotify for Podcasters partnered with Spotify data scientists to identify the top insights. Here are some of our findings, as well as Jon’s own tips for burgeoning creators based on his favorite results. 

Being Seen

  • Video podcasts are growing in popularity across the spectrum, but some categories have more viewership than others. When it comes to consumption of video podcasts, comedy emerges as the top category. 
  • From 1 a.m. to 5 p.m., audiences are more likely to listen to the audio-only experience of video podcasts. When evening rolls around (6 p.m. to midnight), fans tend to watch video podcasts since they’re winding down and primed for “leaned-in” viewing. 

Jon’s rec: “The evenings are your golden hours! Schedule out your social posts and CTAs in the evening to get your audiences watching.”

Being Heard

  • Audiences listen to podcasts more often during the weekdays, with 78% of consumption taking place Monday through Friday and 22% on Saturdays and Sundays. Commutes are prime time for podcasts during the week, with listenership spiking at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays, podcast consumption spikes between 11 a.m. and noon, with smaller upticks in the evening.
  • When breaking down audience insights into podcast categories, we see that audiences’ daily listening behaviors vary. Podcasts falling under the religion & spirituality, arts, history, health & fitness, science, and fiction genres have higher listenership during mornings and late nights, while leisure (games & hobbies) and kids & family see a spike during the evenings.
  • In 2022, people were more likely to start listening to new shows during January, March, July, and October. 

Jon’s rec: “Plan your content accordingly! Make sure to sync your best content, and your content pushes, with the four top months.”

Being Connected

  • Fans crave interaction. 73% of listeners said they are interested in finding more opportunities to interact with their favorite podcast hosts. 
  • On average, listeners who answer a host’s question using our Q&A feature consume 2.35x more hours of the show per month than those who do not. Converting new listeners to loyal fans may require new engagement strategies.
  • The number-one way people find new podcasts is by hearing about them on a show they already listen to (54%). This is closely followed by recommendations from friends and family (53%) and browsing Spotify (50%). Discovery patterns vary depending on demographics. Gen Z is more likely to use social media in their search—1.5x more likely compared to Gen X or Baby Boomers, who are more likely to turn to articles, blogs, and newsletters. 

Jon’s rec: “Add and customize questions for your episodes! I know it sounds simple, but users who engage with those questions on average stick around for twice as long.”

Find the complete Fan Study insights on Spotify for Podcasters.

Podcaster Wrapped Celebrates Podcast Creators and Their Fans in 2022

December 2, 2022

Earlier this week we revealed 2022 Wrapped, our annual campaign that brings creators and fans together around a shared love of all things audio. And to accompany it, we launched Podcaster Wrapped for creators. 

Podcaster Wrapped is our way to recognize achievements across our podcast creator ecosystem and offer a unique peek into user behavior and listening trends from the past year. And what a year it was! We were blown away by the amount of podcast content created: It would take you over 1,500 years to listen to every minute of the 25 million+ podcast episodes published in 2022. 

As we look back at all the meaningful moments that made up 2022—the milestones, big wins, and one-of-a-kind connection that brings creators and fans together—it’s clear there’s a lot to celebrate. 

More for listeners and creators to love

This year, we saw a more than 50% increase in podcast consumption. Over half of the billions of hours of content played in 2022 was newly published since January.

Meanwhile, we continued to build innovative tools that enable podcasters to create, grow, and monetize their content in new ways. We brought video podcasts to creators in over 180 markets so that listeners can enjoy a visual complement to content and creators have a new way to reach and connect with their fans. We also made it easier for creators to sound better with a new audio enhancement feature, and we expanded our interactivity capabilities by making Q&A and Polls available to creators around the world.

Getting to know you

We launched our first-ever Fan Study for podcasters, giving creators insights into fan behavior so they can make more informed decisions about how to grow their show. Through Fan Study, we learned things like fans who follow your podcast will listen to four times the number of episodes, and Gen Z’s podcast discovery is growing at twice the rate of other generations.  

We elevated dozens of emerging podcasters from around the world with programs like RADAR Podcasters and Sound Up, which both aim to spotlight up-and-coming creators and provide them with support to grow their audiences.

Near and far

And we continued to see that podcasts are truly global. Podcaster Wrapped showed us that the majority of podcasts published are listened to in more than one country, and we’re seeing impressive creation growth in Central and South America, specifically Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. These countries saw a more than 50% increase in new shows created between 2021 and 2022. The top markets in terms of shows published are the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, and India. 

We love seeing creators grow and hit their strides, and we’ll continue to build programs and tools to help podcasters of all kinds find success in 2023 and beyond.