Female Podcast Listeners Increase; Top Three New Podcasts For 2022; Spatial Audio

A Report on Women podcast listeners

In an excellent report by PodNews on the December 1 edition, the esteemed podcast publication updated research on women podcast listeners.

Conducted by Edison Research for SXM Media, The Women’s 2022 Podcast Report captures the listening behaviors of women across the nation to determine and explore new growth, emerging themes and established demographics. 1,500 Americans who self-identify as women, aged 18+ in August of 2022 and listen to podcasts monthly were surveyed. The collection of data was weighted to match age, sex, Census region of the U.S. women’s population and Infinite Dial 2022 podcast listening statistics.

Here is a brief summary. Check out the Podnews article for a complete report.

Podcast Listenership Among Women is Up

Over 1 in 3 U.S. Women 18+ (35%) have listened to a podcast in the past month. This is up 67% over the past 5 years, and now represents an estimated 47 million women.

Over the past 5 years, women have started closing the gender gap in a medium that once skewed heavily male. In 2017, only 44% of U.S. 18+ monthly podcast listeners were female. In 2022 48% are female, more closely mirroring the U.S. population.

Day to Day Listening Habits

Women listen to a variety of podcast content — on average, they listen to 5.7 different genres or topics. Some groups are even more voracious, with women aged 25–34 listening to 6.9 topics, Hispanic women listening to 6.8 topics, and moms listening to 6.5 topics.

Women listen to podcasts both at home and on the go. Of those studied, 2 in 3 women listen to podcasts in the home most often, with 6 in 10 sometimes ever listening in a car/vehicle. Further, 3 in 4 women listen to podcasts via mobile devices (smartphone or tablet) most often.

Gen Z, Women of Color and Moms’ Content Preferences Differ

Women listen to a diverse slate of podcast topics ranging from entertaining to informational content. Comedy leads overall, followed by true crime, love & relationships, entertainment/celebrity/gossip, news & information, and wellness/self-Improvement. That said, content preferences vary by age, ethnicity and parental status.

More Representation Still Needed

There is still room for growth when it comes to amplifying voices of women of color in podcasting. Among monthly listeners, 57% of Multicultural Women (and 67% of W18–24) wish that there were more podcasts that focus on women of color. Almost half of Multicultural Women (47%; and 55% of W18–24) have a hard time finding podcasts that focus on women of color.

Female-Hosted Podcasts Give Marketers Extra Reach

Over half of women listeners say they would listen to more podcasts if there were more that included female stories and perspectives (55%). 52% say they would listen to more podcasts if there were more hosted by women.

Hearing an ad from a brand in a podcast with female hosts or producers makes women listeners more likely to consider (41%), recommend (36%), purchase (31%) and spend more (26%) on the brand compared to hearing ads on other podcasts.

Almost half of women listeners (48%) would feel more favorable about a brand if they knew it advertises on female-hosted or produced podcasts. 9 in 10 (percentage) women monthly podcast listeners say they listen to at least one podcast that is hosted or produced by a woman.

How Women Engage with Shows Beyond Listening

Women engage with their favorite shows via social media, with 56% of monthly listeners having followed a podcast on social media, 51% having followed a podcast host on social media, and 40% having shared a podcast on social media.

Podtrac announces top three new shows of 2022

Podtrac has announced the ranking of top new shows for 2022. The ranking is based on average downloads per episode as measured by Podtrac across all podcast listening apps and ranks shows which were published for the first time between December 1, 2021, and November 30, 2022. The report listed the top 25, but here are the top three. Podtrac also supplied the summary of each show.

The Trojan Horse Affair — The New York Times

Show Summary: A strange letter appears on a city councilor’s desk in Birmingham, England, laying out an elaborate plot by Islamic extremists to infiltrate the city’s schools. The plot has a code name: Operation Trojan Horse. The story soon explodes in the news and kicks off a national panic. By the time it all dies down, the government has launched multiple investigations, beefed up the country’s counterterrorism policy, revamped schools and banned people from education for the rest of their lives.

To Hamza Syed, who is watching the scandal unfold in his city, the whole thing seemed … off. Because through all the official inquiries and heated speeches in Parliament, no one has ever bothered to answer a basic question: Who wrote the letter? And why? The night before Hamza is to start journalism school, he has a chance meeting in Birmingham with the reporter Brian Reed, the host of the hit podcast S-Town. Together, they team up to investigate: Who wrote the Trojan Horse letter? They quickly discover that it’s a question people in power do not want them asking.

NOTE: This show definitely dominated the zeitgeist. It dominated the download rankings and was splashed over social media for months.

Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra — NBC News

Show Summary: Sitting members of Congress aiding and abetting a plot to overthrow the government. Insurrectionists criminally charged with plotting to end American democracy for good. Justice Department prosecutors under crushing political pressure. Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra is the all-but-forgotten true story of good, old-fashioned American extremism getting supercharged by proximity to power. When extremist elected officials get caught plotting against America with the violent ultra-right, this is the story of the lengths they will go to… to cover their tracks.

Note: In the wake of the January 6th committee televised meetings, this show attracted massive interest. The “they were only there on a tour” denialism crowd would never listen to such fake news. So the download numbers are even more impressive. Maddow has signaled her focus is on podcasting instead of television.

#3 Twin Flames — Wondery

Show Summary: We all want love, that happily-ever-after feeling of finding your soulmate. What if someone not only claimed they could help you find that perfect partner, they guaranteed it? Jeff and Shaleia, a young couple famous on YouTube, teach about ‘Twin Flames’ — a deep, romantic connection with your perfect partner in their videos. It’s divine love, you’re designed for no one else, and they’re designed for no one else. But the path to finding your Twin Flame isn’t so simple. Some followers claim they were encouraged to cut ties with friends and family that are holding them back, and to claim their Twin Flame by any means necessary. From Wondery, Twin Flames is a podcast about what happens when the quest for love turns into a dangerous obsession.

Note: Wow! I thought Romeo and Juliet was extreme. When I asked my partner Linda about this concept of “divine love,” she scoffed and said, “You were my seventh or eighth choice. You just happen to live closer and have a nice house.”

New York Times Pioneers Spatial Audio Breakthrough

The tech pros at The New York Times should be applauded for this technology innovation that will make podcasts even more immersive. Apparently, even woke people can get stuff done!

Spatial audio is changing the way listeners experience recorded sound, making it possible to add entirely new layers of sonic presence to narrative storytelling mediums. As the emerging field continues to come into focus, standards are being defined in real time — making it a crucial time to experiment and share information across the space.

To better understand the capabilities of the medium, The New York Times R&D group has been collaborating with the engineering team behind The Daily podcast to experiment with the full pipeline of spatial audio production for podcasters. We’ve recorded and mixed select audio content in various spatial audio formats, focusing on developing mixing techniques that put the listener at the center of the story.

To solve current playback limitations and get to know the head-tracking capabilities that now come standard with many Apple products, we also developed an internal iPhone test app. We also built a web audio player, which The Times hopes to make publically available in the near future.

Below, you can listen to one of our recent experiments with spatial audio. This example was built with recordings from a NYT Shorts episode based on a story by Stephen Hiltner. It enables listeners to experience the chirping and swooshing sounds of the Everglades as Hiltner paddles to his next campsite.

Listen to the spatial audio test here.