Adobe Analytics has released results of a survey into the audio-streaming habits of 1,008 adult US podcast listeners, augmented by Comscore data from 193M unique visits to US mobile apps per month between January 2018 and May 2019.

Key findings:

• Podcast mobile app usage has increased by 60% since January 2018.
• 25% of current podcast listeners first began listening to podcasts in the past 6 months.
• 45% said they plan to listen to more podcasts in future.
• Sources of podcast program discovery:
  1. Online blogs and articles 41%
  2. Friends 24%
  3. Within an app 16%
  4. Family 14%
  5. Colleagues 4%
  6. Other 3%
• 72% of listeners say quality of podcasts is increasing, vs. 6% decreasing
• Millennials are the largest listener base: nearly 1 in 3 listens to 5 or more podcasts per week.
• 67% of Gen Z said they plan to listen to more podcasts next year.
• When people listen to podcasts:
  1. While commuting to work or working 52%
  2. In the car 42%
  3. On airplanes 18%
  4. On vacation 16%
  5. At the gym 16%
• Podcasts may be preferred over broadcast radio because on-demand and portable.
• Preferred genres (top 4):
  1. Comedy/humor 46%
  2. Educational 28%
  3. History 27%
  4. True crime/crime documentary 26%
• Preferred length: under one hour

Podcasts and advertising:

• 72% of listeners surveyed said they have heard an ad while listening to a podcast.
• 60% said they've searched for a product or service after hearing an ad on a podcast.
• 25% said they have bought a product/service discovered through a podcast ad.
• 33% said they find podcast ads more engaging than ads in other formats.
• 40% said they find podcast ads less intrusive than other types of ads.
• But 58% said they have skipped through podcast ads.

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Comments:

• Note small sample size (1,008).
• Re demographics, we're told only that sample population is skewed toward Millennials, followed by Gen Z. We don't know anything about distributions by sex, household income, ethnicity, language, region, education, etc., etc.
• Remember people tend to tell survey-takers what they think they want to hear; numbers re advertising especially may be over-optimistic.
• And we're told nothing about what kinds of products/services were being advertised on what type of podcast.
• Intriguing findings, but I believe a deeper research dive is needed before investing significantly in podcast ads.