Podcast Trends for 2024

In this blog post, we’ll predict the five top trends for podcasts in 2024:

Growth in video podcasting, especially YouTube
Greater use of AI tools by podcasters
Increase of advertisers
Steady rise in listeners
More political/nonfiction content

We have come up with these trends based on high-quality data, plus analysis of current events in and around the podcast industry. 🤓

Ready to take a peak into the next twelve months? Let’s go! 🥳

Trend #1: Growth in Video Podcasting, especially YouTube

When Google makes a move, you can be sure global markets will react. That’s why the #1 spot on our podcast trends for 2024 list is that there will be a growth in video podcasting. Let us explain:

Google has announced that it will be closing Google Podcasts in 2024. It will migrate those users to YouTube Music (Google owns YouTube). YouTube Music is integrated, as you may guess, with YouTube, the giant video platform that has 2 billion users around the world. YouTube Music users will be able to listen to and download podcasts just like they do on other podcast platforms (Apple, Spotify, etc), but there will be built-in infrastructure for video episodes. 📺

According to the Cumulus Media and Signal Hill 2023 Fall report, YouTube has grown from the most third most accessed destination for podcasts in 2021, to the number one spot in 2023. All signs point to YouTube continuing to outpace the competition.

Because YouTube has such a huge audience, and because it has such a big budget to promote itself as a podcast platform, it will have a significant impact on the podcasting industry. Podcasters will be pushed by YouTube to create video episodes for maximum engagement. 💪

What Does this Mean for Podcasters?

Distribute your podcast to YouTube. If you have Ausha, we automatically distribute your episodes to YouTube for you. We also have a video creator that automatically converts your audio-only episodes in to video files with your podcast logo and sound waves.

With our video creator, you don’t have to be on camera if you don’t want to. But if you are comfortable with the spotlight, check these video podcast equipment bundles we recommend. 🎥

One plus of creating video episodes is that you can then easily use clips from the video episodes for social media posts. Almost all social media algorithms give preference to video posts, so you definitely want this kind of content if you want to grow your audience.

Trend #2: Greater Use of AI Tools by Podcasters

Podcasters have had to wear many hats in the past: Producer, host, editor, social media marketer, website creator, contact manager, ads rep, SEO expert, etc. Now, they can give some of those hats over to AI. 🧢👒🎩

According to a Headliner survery in late 2023, 66% of podcasters have started using AI tools. However Headliner does admit that number is probably an overestimate based on their survey methods. So the true figure is probably closer to around 40-50% of podcasters.

One thing is for certain: In 2023, AI became available to the masses. In 2024, more and more podcasters will harness its power. 🤖

AI Editing

The episode editing process has been reinvented by AI. Now automatic transcription, text-based editing, and AI-powered audio sweetening are offered on several platforms including Descript, Riverside, and Adobe.

AI Production

Some productions are even testing out AI-created podcasts where an AI-generated voice ‘reads’ AI-accumulated text like recent news items. 👀

AI Marketing

In 2023, here at Ausha, we released an AI tool that writes your social media posts for you. The AI tool creates the posts based on the episode transcript that we automatically generate for you. ✍️

We also released a first-of-its kind podcast directory SEO tool. With the tool, podcasters can choose and manager the keywords that will help them rank high on search results on Spotify and Apple.

On top of those two major releases, we also engineered a more advanced version of our Smartlink. Our new “Deeplink” technology converts searchers to listeners more quickly and efficiently. 🔗

Of course these tools joined an already stacked tool box for Ausha members. For example, our tool that automatically creates a SEO-boosted website for a podcast, is still wildly popular among our users.

What Does this Mean for Podcasters?

Take a look at the tools you are using and see if they need an upgrade.

Podcasting should never become a cut-throat community, but the fact is, there is competition for listeners. As creating podcast episodes become easier, more podcasters will turn their attention to marketing their show. Make sure you are putting your podcast in a position to get discovered amidst all the noise. 📣📣📣

Trend #3: Increase of Advertisers

Next on our list of podcast trends for 2024: Money. 🤑

According to an Acast survey in late 2023, almost 50% of marketers across the world expect a significant increase in podcast advertising. Of the marketers who already invest in podcast advertising, that number jumps up to 62%. Over all, the marketers were ten times more likely to predict an increase rather than a decrease in spending.

And those are just the big players. As podcasting becomes more and more well-known, smaller businesses are likely to join the advertising party. 🙋

According the latest IAB study on the topic, podcast ad revenues are expected to grow a whopping 43% in 2024. 🤩

What Does this Mean for Podcasters?

Go get that advertising money.

According to the IAB study, 90% of ad revenues are through dynamic ad insertion. So make sure your podcast host provides you with dynamic ad insertion technology. 🎞️

At Ausha, we provide our users with pre-roll and post-roll dynamic ad insertion. And we don’t take a cut. You get 100% of your ad revenue. 💯

Our platform is also integrated with Podcorn so if you want to use that advertiser matching service to find your perfect sponsor, it is ready to go for you!

Trend #4: Steady Rise in Listeners

According to the 2023 Podcast Consumer Report by Edison Research, podcasts have more listeners than ever before. Plus, those listeners are spending more time listening than ever before. 🎧

And podcast listeners have a long lifetime of podcast listening in front of them. According to the same Edison Research report, almost half of monthly podcast listeners are between the ages of 12-34.

According to Insider Intelligence’s Global Podcast Listeners Forecast 2023, approximately 40 million people will become first time podcast listeners in 2024 around the world. In the US specifically, about 6 million people will start listening to podcasts, driving the overall number to about 150 million Americans. 📈

What Does this Mean for Podcasters?

You can be super successful this year! Whether you are starting podcasting for the first time, or you have been at it for a while, you have a good chance at growing your podcast audience in 2024.

And you don’t need to make a show that is perfect for everyone. There are enough podcast listeners, and the audience pool is diverse enough, you can just target a small subset and still be very successful. 🎯

So be bold, be brave, be hopeful! Go out there and earn your audience!

Trend #5: More Political/Nonfiction Content

The last item on our podcast trends for 2024 list has to do with content. We predict there will be more nonfiction, political content this year.

Why?

2024 is a huge election year for a lot of countries. According to the World Economic Forum, over 2 billion people will be voting in major elections in 50 countries. That includes a US presidential election which always dominates media content. 🌎

Podcast listener demographics overlap strongly with voter and civically engaged demographics. Plus, podcast listeners themselves have indicated they listen to podcasts for “edu-tainment.” They want to learn about what’s going on in the world around them, in an interesting, engaging format.

In fact, according to Pew Research, 29% of US podcast listeners listen to podcast for the main reason of staying up to date about current events. 30% listen to hear other people’s opinions. 55% listen to podcasts to learn. 😁

In other words, in a major election year, podcast listeners are likely going to want to listen and learn about political related topics.

Not to mention, campaigns and organizations will likely use the proven power of branded podcasting to get their message across. 📢

What Does This Mean for Podcasters?

Be mindful about this phenomenon when you are analyzing your data in 2024. There’s a good chance that how you talk about politics, or if you talk about politics, will impact your listener behavior. 📊

This doesn’t mean that you need to change your content in any way. It just means if you see an unexplained change or blip in your analytics, you should consider that this might be a reason.

Also keep advertisers’ brand safety in mind as you produce your content. Again, you shouldn’t change your content just for the sake of conformity. Just be mindful of what you say on the mic, even if you are in the heat of debate or a hearty commiseration session with a guest. 🫶

Finally, if you’ve been thinking about starting a new podcast about politics, especially local politics, now might be a perfect time for you. In the US especially, there are fewer and fewer local news outlets left to cover local elections and political content. As a podcaster, you may be able to fill an important niche for listeners.

On the other hand, some listeners may want a complete break from politics, so don’t be discouraged from starting whatever podcast you want. As long as you are passionate and consistent, you’ll provide your target audience value! 🥰

Trend #6: Optimize your PSO (Podcast Search Optimization)

The final strategy to adopt in 2024: PSO.

PSO stands for “Podcast Search Optimization”, a term we coined at Ausha. Simply put, PSO is the SEO for podcasts. It consists of a set of practices and techniques aimed at improving the ranking and visibility of a podcast or episode in the results of listening apps like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. 💪

These listening apps work the same way as Google: when you make a query with a keyword in the search bar, it displays a list of results that the search engines consider closest to your query.

According to a study by The Podcast Host, 40% of listeners discover a new podcast directly on listening platforms, and of these, 58% use the search bar to find one.

This means that it’s absolutely crucial to properly define the keywords you want to rank for and the keywords your listeners are likely to type to find you. Once that’s done, integrate them into the metadata of your podcast, i.e., in your titles and descriptions.

Podcasts that adopt an effective PSO strategy clearly benefit from better visibility on listening platforms. This logically leads to an increase in the number of downloads.

However, it’s difficult to realize the impact of our PSO strategy without being able to evaluate and analyze it. That’s why at Ausha, we created the PSO Control Panel: a comprehensive dashboard that allows you to identify your keywords, track and analyze your podcast’s position in Apple Podcasts and Spotify search results. 🔥

You no longer have an excuse not to integrate PSO into your Podcast Marketing strategy in 2024.