Signal Fall 2019 Newsletter

12 www.alliancecom.net When It Comes to Podcasts, We’re All Ears Online audio consumption is surging, and podcasts are a big reason why Greatest Thing Since Radio It isn’t hard to see why podcasts have become so popular. For one thing, there’s the convenience. You can listen to a podcast anytime, from anywhere, as long as you have a connection to the Internet (or have downloaded the audio file to your device). The majority of podcast listeners are tuning in from their smartphones, meaning they’re literally taking their podcasts with them wherever they go! Podcasts are great for passing the time during a workout, a long commute, or while walking the dog. The topics and format are as varied and individual as the podcast hosts themselves. They can be entertaining, educational, or even dramatic. Some podcasts have gained such large followings that they’re regarded as “must-listen” content, much like so-called “must-see” TV in the traditional media world. Podcasts are Here to Stay Podcasting is no flash in the pan. Accord- ing to recent data, more than half of the U.S. population say they’ve listened to a podcast. While not everyone is a regular listener, nearly one third (32 percent) reported having listened to a podcast in the past month, and almost one-quarter (22 percent) said they’d listened to a podcast in the previous week. And those weekly listeners? A whopping 84 percent of them listen to more than one podcast, catching an average of seven podcast episodes per week. 1 So how are audiences finding these podcasts? It turns out that people usu- ally discover new podcasts through social media, other podcasts, and good old-fashioned word-of-mouth. That Audio content used to be limited to whatever was on the radio or in our own music collection—but not anymore. In addition to music streaming services, audiobooks, and Internet radio, podcasts (a term coined by combining “iPod” and “broadcast”) have transformed the way people learn, share ideas, and entertain themselves.