Podcasting has taken the world by storm, stoked by a global audience with more time during the COVID19 pandemic, enforced lockdowns, and especially for travel-focused podcasts – a burning desire to plan and dream about travel again.
Following its successful launch in October, multimedia travel platform TellMeWhere2Go (TMW2G) reports the top three podcasts are about timeshare, Maldives and an aviation museum, and the most popular platform is Spotify, then Anchor.
TellMeWhere2Go has just completed its third season, with diverse stories and reviews from eclectic street walks in Cairo, a Singaporean’s experiences in Honolulu, Lighthouse accommodation, Bill Bensley’s inspirations, kid-friendly destinations, discovering Papua New Guinea and some transatlantic antics on Queen Mary 2.
According to one TMW2G storyteller, Belinda Jackson, the process of podcasting was made much more comfortable when all she needed to do, was write the story, and read it in exactly the way she had intended it to sound, as she wrote it, with passion.
Others, such as Paul Chai and Selena Oh, preferred the coached, live recording method, where the producer monitored them for each word, and could quickly correct a mistake if needed.
Visit Sunshine Coast found the process so simple, to commission the stories they wanted, with the writer of their choice, and having the narrative match their campaign. From commissioning to completion, the process took less than 8 days.
The most-read stories since launch have been about the Maldives, the Sunshine Coast and Hawaii. Popular social posts have been Jason deCaires Taylor’s underwater sculpture at the MOUA in Townsville, and the baby gorillas in Rwanda, plus the regular giveaways.
TellMeWhere2Go.com was launched as the global podcasting market size is expected to reach USD 41.8 billion by 2026.
In Australia alone, according to the latest Roy Morgan Single Source research, over 1.6 million Australians now download audio or video podcasts in an average four weeks, up from under 1 million just four years ago. Though this still represents only a small slice (8.1%) of the Australian population aged 14+, this is nevertheless an increase of nearly 700,000 Australians since 2015, and the market has grown by an impressive 70% during this time. Driving the growth in podcasts are downloads to mobile phones which have more than tripled since 2015, growing to over 1.3 million Australians today. This is an increase of over 900,000 over the last four years, an increase of over 215%.
Apple reports there are currently over 1,500,000 podcasts available with over 34 million episodes as of October 2020, including content in over 100 languages. Highlighting this growth, Apple had confirmed there were over 550,000 podcasts in early June.
According to Podcast Insights, in the US, nearly 50% listen at home, 22% listen while driving, listeners subscribe to an average six shows, and listen to an average of seven different shows per week, and an encouraging statistic for producers is that 80% listen to all or most of each episode. Reflecting today’s fast-paced society, 19% increase the speed to listen faster. Comedy is the most popular, then education and news.
South Korea leads globally for those who have listened to a podcast in the past month (58%), followed by Spain (40%), Sweden (36%) with Australia a close 4th at 33%.
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