State of Podcasting by Muck Rack Recap – Minisode – Podcast Transcript

Lexie Smith 

Hi guys, it’s Lexie obviously, and today I’m doing a mini sewed recap on the state of podcasting 2022. And I will be referencing a study that was conducted by MK Gregg, if you’re wondering what MK rack is, I recorded an episode with Linda. I’m the Director of Communications. So go ahead and listen to that. Alright, so this podcast report, quick look at what’s inside. There’s 35% More podcasters are offering premium content than last year 67% recorded videos of their podcast which by the way, I have to fully call myself out. Honestly, the reason I don’t is simply because that would involve me getting camera ready a heck of a lot more. So oops. 53% work on two or more podcasts. 39% Prioritize guests who pay to appear on the show. Hard stop. I have been coming across this more and more and more where a client is pitching for a podcast in their met with. Okay, great. Yes, we’d love to feature you. If you pay us. Definitely reach out to me on Instagram or shoot me an email about your thoughts here. from the business standpoint, I respect it. From the PR standpoint, I think it sucks, right? It’s decreasing our chances, earned opportunities. Anyways, 86% received pitches for people to be on their show I am in that 86% 64% believe podcasts will be more popular in the next two year. And 55% believe there are too many podcasts. So that’s just a quick summary of some of the stats, but quick overview of who was surveyed. So Muckrock surveyed 591, professional podcasters from September 15 Through October 5 2022. I actually participated in this study. So that’s kind of cool to come full circle. All right, so let’s dive into some specifics. So first that I thought was interesting is 45% have 10,000 or fewer listeners, right? So 45% less than 10,000. Okay, so flipside of that, let’s talk about the top of the top only 2% of podcasts have more than 10 million listeners. 2% also only have three to 10,000,002% of one to 3 million. So really, there’s a small sector of podcasts out there that are getting really large listener stats. Current events are leading the source of inspiration for podcast content. So the majority of podcasters 81% are responsible for sourcing original content, current events 45%, ongoing areas of research 35% and audience requests. 32% are the top three sources of inspiration for new episode ideas. Interesting to know so 81% of podcasts featured guests sometimes or often. That’s a healthy amount. So I think that’s good for all of us looking to get on podcasts or pitch podcasts more podcasters are relying on their team to book guests. So I’m going to comment on this one for me and listen up. If you’ve ever wanted to be on the show I on the PR inc.com/podcasts have a form that you can click to to submit to be a guest. That is how I prefer to be pitched. If you cold pitch me I will for you to my team and my team will reach out and ask you to pitch there. I do look at every guest submission form that comes in. I then tap over to my team to coordinate so I guess

Lexie Smith 

it’s a team approach over here at the pigeon and sipping podcast. The average podcast episode is between 20 and 40 minutes long. More than half published new episodes once or more a week and more podcasters we talked about this briefly are offering premium content intent. But what does this mean? So 38% are offering exclusive bonus episodes. 32% are offering early release or new episodes, so on so forth. So I’m going to pause here because this is a really interesting category and a way that people are starting to monetize their shows. This is not something I’ve done with Pidgin and sip. And this is not something I plan to do. But as a listener of many podcasts, I’ve actually been running into this one of my favorite podcasts, which I’m big into true crime, I listen to a podcast called morbid, they just went premium. So it’s a lot like a paywall, which we’re seeing a lot of digital publications doing, I feel split because I totally respect it from the business side of things. And, of course, want members of the media and journalists to have a healthy income they deserve it. From from the flip side, you know, it’s making it our access to content harder and harder without pain. So I don’t know, I’m super curious about your guys’s feelings on it. Again, this is a call to action to reach out, I’d love to have a discussion. Alright, so the next section of the report, speaking of money is on measurement and monetization. So the average podcaster uses three success metrics with downloads as the leading metric. So 46% are tracking downloads as a success. We also see that 37% are looking at listener statements, and 34% are looking at the consumption rate. And we have total subscribers coming in in fourth place at 29%. And 29% is holding strong also for social media shares and podcast rankings. So some interesting stats to have on your radar. enjoyment and passion is the top goal for podcasting. So revenue and awareness and education were close behind in second and third place. For me this is completely and totally a education. Or I hope it will be an educational resource for brands for journalists for publicists. So that’s my intention. That’s my goal. Okay. Apple remains the leading platform for podcast streams. So 46% are on Apple. Second place, Google podcasts 17% and Spotify is in third place at 11%. Paid Subscriptions, premium content and paid guests are becoming as we kind of just discussed popular ways to monetize. The first most popular is paid subscriptions 38%. Ads will came in second at 34% premium content at 29%. And 27%. Say they don’t monetize their podcast just yet. Section four of the report was publishing promotion and social channels. So Lipson, SoundCloud, and Buzzsprout are among the most popular publishing platforms. I published this podcast on Buzzsprout I believe it’s about 1299 a month and it’s super simple. I enjoy it. It’s very streamlined, easy to use. Podcast hosts reach their followers on Twitter the most although this report did come out before Elon Musk officially took over Twitter so I’m curious to see how this report changes in 2023 most podcasters cross post episodes or clips across three or more channels. So what are the top channels that people are cross promoting on number one, Facebook 51% Number two Instagram 48% Number three, a blog or a website up 46% Number four, we have twitter at 44%. So just something to keep in mind. 70% rely on social media to promote their podcast Hi number their 54% are relying on their blog or website 34% are relying on their email marketing. Number five is pitching preferences. Now we talked about this at top of show but as a quick reminder, 86% receive pitches for people to be on their show. Lack of personalization, confusing subject lines and bad timing are leading reasons why podcasters will reject a pitch which honestly is exactly like the reasons for other forms of pitching in mediums like digital and print. So that seems despite the medium of media that seems to rank high. One thing I will say an ad from my personal experience as a flop when it comes to pitching is not respecting if a given podcast has a way they prefer to receive guests, meaning a guest submission form a lot of podcasts have one of those. I have one of those so I Oh We say start there, respect to their process before you straight up, go for that cold pitch. Phone and mass email are the channels where podcasters do not like to be pitched. I will say an amen to that. And again, really, really similar to what we see when we talk about pitching other mediums of media. More podcasters are open to pitches via Twitter, TBD, to see how that unfolds this upcoming year 55% prefer pitches that are 200 words or less. This one’s interesting to me, because this is what we see typically for digital pitching. But most of the podcast pitches I’ve seen be successful, are a little bit longer than a traditional digital pitch. So interesting to see, most had no preference on the day of the week to be pitched. So 32% said they don’t care. Now, but beyond that, the most popular day that people voted they received or they prefer to receive pitches was Tuesday, but that was only 14%. So really not that high. podcasters. Want PR pros to do their research before pitching, please. That’s pretty much everyone said that. So they want you to review their website and content review their social media presence. Listen to multiple episodes, or at least listen to one episode. Only 13%. So they don’t want people to research them or they don’t expect it. So you know 100 minus 13. We’re at 87% prefer you do and number six the future of podcasting. So we already discussed that more than half agree that podcast will be even more popular in the upcoming years. mobile lifestyle followed by convenience are the top reasons why podcasts are popular. More than half believe that there are too many podcasts again, a stat we reviewed top of show. So 55% said too many. But we had 26% say there are too few. And 19% said just enough, most believe that the hosts personality, interesting point of view and guest quality are key for a successful podcast. And one thing I will say is I have stellar guests, and I will say jury’s still out on personality and my point of view, hopefully if you guys are listening, you don’t mind it. Okay, and that that does it That wraps up the state of podcasting report for Muckrock. If you guys would like to actually download the report yourself, we’ll include a link to that in the show notes full credit goes to Muckrock super helpful to track data each and every year and I’m really really interested to see how things progress in 2023 Until next time, cheers Hey guys, if you are enjoying the pigeon and sipping podcast, please do me a huge favor and leave a review wherever you are listening. If you want to connect with me to learn more about the PR bar Inc. You can do so on Instagram at the PR bar underscore inc or you can check out my website at the PR bar inc.com Cheers