The rapid growth in the numbers of podcast shows and podcast listeners has made room for podcast influencers, spoken-word audio content creators who are seen as knowledgeable about specific topics. Interest in podcasts has grown consistently over the last ten years, and exponentially in the past 18 months. In 2018, the number of podcast shows was reportedly between 500,000 and 550,000 based on numbers released by Apple, FastCompany, and Variety. In 2021, there are more than 2 million podcast shows and more than 48 million individual episodes available.
As more and more brands begin directing their advertising dollars to podcast marketing and other spoken-word audio formats, you have probably also noticed major social media platforms like Twitter adding audio features that allow content creators to broadcast live audio directly to their audiences.
This trend toward more audio-focused content creation isn’t going anywhere any time soon. The average blog reader spends just 37 seconds reading content. By comparison, Trinity Audio reported the listen-through rate of audio versions of news articles and blog posts is more than 55 percent of audio up to 5 minutes long, and 70 percent for audio over 5 minutes long.
As it relates to influencer marketing, the uptick in the number of creators looping spoken-word audio into their available content formats means a wider audience gleaning even more value from the content being created. So, there are more opportunities for brands to partner with influential creators to reach their existing audiences and find new ones.
We put together this infographic to illustrate some of the data we highlighted in a recent post we published on podcast influencers and podcast influencer marketing.
