Spotify reveals growing podcast listenership amongst older Australians
Spotify’s latest Podcast Trends report for 2023 has revealed a global trend of rising listenership amongst mature audiences.
In Australia, the highest year on year growth was seen in the 65+ demographic (67%) followed by the 55-64 demographic (64%), demonstrating a significant shift in what has historically been an underrepresented audience in the podcast category.
Commenting on the trend, Spotify AU/NZ podcast account director, Sam Moles, said: “We hope this reflects a fundamental shift in the audience cohort that generally has the highest % of non-podcast listeners, which in turn will increase the opportunity for advertisers looking to reach this highly valuable audience.”
In the Australian market, the top five podcast categories by total listening hours were comedy (29%), lifestyle and health (20%), society and culture (17%), true crime (11%) and health and fitness (7%).
From a global perspective, the report also suggested that podcast listening spikes around key cultural moments, with events such as the Met Gala, Eurovision final and Barbie film release driving upticks in consumption of related content on podcast.
By comparing podcasting trends to Google Search and social media trends, the digital audio platform demonstrates how podcast content drives cultural conversations, underlining the influence of podcast hosts and creators.
Moles said that it was “no surprise” to see the alignment of culture and content given the exponential growth of podcast creators and listeners in recent years.
“What’s exciting about this alignment for brands is that advertising in podcasts is a way for them to be a part of these conversations in a way that’s authentic to the environment and the listener.”
He continued: “Being able to show up in these moments in the right way is one thing but being able to then measure the influence and impact on business outcomes is crucial and that’s where platforms like Spotify Ad Analytics now can help by measuring events such as website visits, app installs and sales.”
Last month Spotify added to its offering with the launch of Premium Audiobooks – a catalogue of 150,000 audiobooks available to stream through the existing Spotify Premium tier.
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