Exploring Podcasting's Explosive Growth In 2018

Triton Digital's Infinite Dial 2018 report is out, and there are lots of great nuggets that show just how much podcasting grew in 2018. On this short episode, I'll highlight the most germane points. Like:

• Big shakeup in Social Media Brand Awareness that businesses will love. LinkedIn gained "share of mind" to beat out Twitter! And while Facebook still commands a larger piece of the pie, it's shrinking, with an estimate 15MM fewer users in 2018 vs 2017. Wow.
• Smart Speaker ownership is soaring, now at 1 in 4 Americans. Even more interesting: a quarter of them say they own 3 or more smart speakers, which is up from only 11% in 2017.
• Online Audio is way up in all age ranges, but growth among seniors (55+) is staggering. It was 33% in 2017, but now it's at 40%!
• Really interesting to my former life: audiobook listening is up for the first time ever! It's been hovering at 44%, but the 2018 report shows it at a full 50%!
• Podcasting in-car is growing (duh) and now has reached parity with online radio listening (26%), which beats the pants of satellite radio listening!
• And while podcasting awareness was up to 70% from 64%, the pull quote of the article is this: More than half (51%) of the US population report listening to podcasts at least once a month. Hooray! And the individual demographic breakdown is interesting:
• 12-24 grew from 30% all the way to 40%! Wow!
• 25-54 also grew significantly, from 32% up to 39%. 
• 55+ is up as well, from 13% to 17% in 2018. 
• But among self-reported Spotify listeners aged 12-24, we get this little nugget: in 2017, 32% said they listened to podcasts monthly. In 2018, now that Spotify has over 100,000 added, that usage has shot up to 52%! Holy cattle! If you list it, perhaps they will come!
• And finally, weekly listening (the brass ring to me) is up to 22% over 17%.

Every single number is great and shows what strides we made last year. And now, with the pouring of resources and increased attention, we should expect even more from 2019. Here's to making it happen! 

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