Latest data from Insider Intelligence predicts that podcasting in the US will cross the $1 billion mark this year. Podcast ad spending is on track to exceed $2 billion by 2023 and growth estimates have been upped due to a 36.8% spike in spend during 2020, estimated growth of 38.7% this year and 31.1% in 2022. Uk figures look certain to follow similar patterns. A survey on weekly podcast listening in the United Kingdom in the first quarter of 2020, broken down by age, showed that more than one out of three respondents aged between 26 and 35 years said they listened to podcasts on a weekly basis. How many podcasts are there in total? Apple Podcasts alone hosts 1.96 million podcasts as of March 2021 compared with 2018 when there were 550,000 active podcasts on iTunes

Even before Civid, a recent Ofcom siurvey in 2019 showed that around 7.1 million people in the UK listened to podcasts each week. That’s one in eight people and was an increase of 24% over the previous year – and more than double over the previous five years. Ofcom research also found that half of listeners had joined the podcast wave in the preceding two years.

Ofcom also collected data from a range of sources, including RAJAR, Chartable and the BBC, to explore the continued rise in podcast listening. Findings included:

  • Entertainment was the most popular podcast genre, followed by comedy, then discussion and talk shows
  • Half of those surveyed had been listening to podcasts for less than two years
  • Podcasts are helping listeners to discover new radio programmes
  • The BBC had the highest reach of all podcast publishers among those surveyed
  • On average, regular podcast users listened to around seven podcasts each week
  • 22% of people who owned a smart speaker used them to listen to podcasts – one in five homes in the UK owned one or more smart speakers

So if you’re new to podcasts, where to start? Here are some lists of the best podcasts in 2021 that might help and are certainly worth a browse, depending on your demographics and interests:

Top Digital Marketing Podcasts to follow

Podchasers 93 Best Marketing Podcasts

Good Housekeeping Top 45 2021 podcasts so far

Esquire Magazine Top 64 right now

WIRED UK best podcasts at the moment for curious minds

ELLE Magazine – 77 podcasts you must listen to right now

Vogue Magazine 42 of the best March 2021

TechRadar’s best podcasts

If you fancy having a go at podcasting yourself as a business – you know where we are! Give us a call and we can help.