As the world slowly comes back to our new normal, the hyper-fixation hobbies we started in quarantine have started to fizzle out. Gone are the days of sour-dough starters and whipped coffee. Why was Tiger King even a thing? That podcast you started and lost interest in after five episodes? It’s buried in the deep-depths of your streaming platform’s graveyard.
And… that’s a good thing!
Podcasting is back to pre-pandemic numbers. I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t that a bad thing? Shouldn’t we want the podcasting industry to grow? Well, yes! Of course we want the world of podcasting to grow, but we want it to grow with the right shows–shows that are serious and passionate about engaging their audience with quality content.
According to Rephonic, there are 2,663,691 podcasts. Of those 2.6 million, only 413,204 are active. Content creation isn’t an easy job and finding an audience to engage in is like finding a needle in a haystack. From the December 2021 issue of Libsyn: THE FEED, we learned that the average podcast only gets about 150 downloads per episode. This is one of the reasons why we have such a strict vetting process. We work within the top 20 percent of podcasts, which ranges from 1.2 thousand downloads to 2.5 thousand (top 10 percent) to 8.3 thousand (top 5 percent). At the very top 1 and 2 percent, shows get anywhere from 21 to 36 thousand downloads per episode. We vet shows based on longevity, social media followers, reviews and ratings, and website presences. This helps us ensure that we’re only working with serious podcasters who regularly post quality content.
The content from this blog was pulled from the State of Podcast Interview Annual Report. You can get a copy of the full report below.
