Down the Rabbit Hole Listening Among Podcast Listeners

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, August 21, 2024 | 3:17pm CT

Edison Research

When Alice in Wonderland falls down the rabbit hole, she enters a new world of wonders. So it is, apparently, with many podcast listeners. Once many people start listening to podcasts, they are hooked and start filling their days and nights with more and more. Data from Edison Research's Share of Ear seems to support this claim.

The Share of Ear study is composed of respondents who keep a detailed one-day diary of all their audio listening. The firm can isolate those respondents who report having spent any time with podcasts on their diary day and look at all the things this group listens to. A robust 21% of all Americans age 13 and older fall into this group.

This graph below shows how podcast listeners spend their average day listening to all forms of audio:

Among those who listen to podcasts, 34% of their daily audio time is spent listening to... podcasts. And podcasting accounts for a plurality of their audio usage time.

Behind podcasts, the next largest piece of their listening pie goes to radio: podcast listeners spend 21% of their daily audio time with AM/FM radio and radio streams. That is followed by streaming music at 17%.

The data conforms with the 'rabbit hole' thesis, when people discover the endless number of options and the entertainment and informational value provided by podcasts, they devote more and more time to this ever-emerging new medium.