When you hear the word ‘podcast’, chances are you’ll picture someone with headphones on that is listening to their favourite podcast show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts while commuting or doing the dishes or some other activity. What if I told you that there is a likelihood that a podcast consumer is watching their podcast instead?
The very idea of video podcasting might be confusing to some consumers. “If it’s a podcast, doesn’t its video format defeat the whole definition of podcast?” I hear you, but the truth is, ‘podcast’ as a definition is expanding to be more than something you only listen to. In more recent times, it has been used to refer to something you view too. But there’s no denying the rising popularity of video podcasts. Not only are more of the top-ranked podcasts on Spotify filming in video formats, there has been a growth in the number of video podcast shows across the platform as well.
This trend won’t be slow down anytime soon. Spotify released a major update earlier this year, allowing non-hosted podcast creators to upload videos onto the platform. This has been a long time coming, and is no doubt Spotify’s response to accommodate this new direction of video podcasting.
This move is not without reason. On the consumer end, we’re seeing many listeners intentionally choose video over audio; 1 in 3 of actively monthly listeners are engaging with video podcasts, and 50% prefer to actively watch their podcasts.
When talking about the rise of video podcasts, it’s impossible not to discuss the role that YouTube plays. The platform has become almost synonymous with video sharing, it makes sense that the podcast scene on YouTube is growing day by day. In fact, YouTube’s disruption of the podcast space is multifarious.
YouTube As The Overall Preferred Platform
Surprisingly, YouTube emerges as the most used platform for podcast consumption. 31% of weekly podcast consumers use YouTube the most, followed by Spotify (21%) and Apple Podcasts (12%). This preference in favour of YouTube holds up across almost all behavioural segments too; from those who’ve just started listening within the past year to those who have been listening for years, even avid consumers who listen for more than six hours weekly.
Using YouTube for Podcast Discovery
More specifically, we’re also seeing that YouTube has become more of podcast discovery platform; that is to say, listeners are using YouTube to discover and find more new shows. 31% of weekly podcast consumers who listened to a new podcast in past six months used YouTube to do so. In 2024, 52% of listeners report using YouTube to find new podcasts; this trumps using Spotify, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, recommendations from other podcast hosts, and even surfing the Internet.
Evidently, this makes joining YouTube as a creator extremely appealing, especially for those looking to break big amongst the wider mainstream audience.
Good News for Advertisers
The best news of all is that YouTube appears to be pretty lucrative when it comes to advertising. It is estimated that a 60-second video ad read, as compared to a strictly audio one, earns 60% more revenue per 1,000 listens. Those are not small numbers.
Why YouTube?
Why are listeners choosing YouTube over incumbents like Spotify andApple Podcasts in the first place? Well, according to consumers themselves, the top two reasons are the ‘video aspect’ and the ‘community aspect’ — both of which are not key distinguishing features of Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
There are multiple reasons why the very essence of video has captured the attention of so many podcast listeners. Not only is it more cognitively stimulating (with the presence of both visual and audio information for us to digest), being able to see our favourite podcast hosts or co-hosts elevates the intimacy of the already personal podcast experience. Going from merely listening to their voices to observing the body language, physical interactions, and the environment contextualises every listening experience to make it more entertaining.
It's the same reason why community is such a big pull for listeners. Humans are inherently social creatures. The wiring that makes us want to listen to beloved personalities talk about a subject for hours is also what makes being able to interact with other listeners through the comment section so enticing to us. We will always crave social interaction and engagement, in whatever form it comes.
Time For You To Join YouTube?
There are definitely more reasons why you should join YouTube than why you shouldn’t, but just to provide a fair perspective, here are some considerations you might want to take note of before jumping in.
Because you’re making use of their platform, unfortunately, revenue will be split with YouTube. YouTube’s RPM, or revenue earned per 1,000 views, is based on several factors; this includes the ads on your video, channel memberships, and YouTube Premium revenue. Generally, YouTube takes about 45% from your ad revenue, so you’re left with the remaining 55%. While this number is not very encouraging, it’s worth noting that both Spotify and Apple Podcasts take a chunk out of your earnings as well, albeit maybe not as much as YouTube does.
Previously, RSS feed integration used to be an issue for YouTube. Thankfully, YouTube launched a breakthrough update early this year that allowed podcasters to connect their RSS feed to YouTube Studio. This makes video podcast creation on YouTube that much easier and faster. However, existing RSS analytics can’t be integrated just yet, so we’ll have to hang tight for that.
Ultimately, It Depends On Your Audience
While listeners of all consumption habits use YouTube, the platform interestingly draws in a certain demographic more than others.
60% of listeners that use YouTube are male, as compared to 48% on Spotify and 50% on Apple Podcasts. Additionally, 47% that use YouTube and Spotify are reported to be 18 to 34 year old youths. As for genre, consumers of the news and current events genre are the most likely to prefer to actively watch their preferred podcast, followed by sports, then comedy podcast consumers.
What does this mean for you? If your target customer profile is a 18 to 34 year old male who is interested in the news, sports, or comedy genre, hopping on the YouTube train would be a good idea for you.
A good way to figure out exactly who your potential audience is, is with PodSeeker’s database. With the ability to filter podcasts according to gender of audience, genre of podcast, and more, PodSeeker allows you to find the podcast that best aligns with your target audience.
In Conclusion
The Internet moves fast, and shifts in the online space are something we have to learn to predict and prepare for. This is just the beginning for YouTube, and it’ll be interesting to see how other players in the game react, keep up, or maybe even change the game entirely.
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