Spotify has presented its “Report 2021”, in which it has reviewed podcast consumption habits, this time focusing on Spain, which is a market where Eduardo Alonso, Head of Studios at Spotify, already told us that there had been a explosion.
Eduardo told us in the first half of the year that the market was “less mature than in the United States”, but that the accelerator had been stepped on. And it is just what the report reflects. According to this, 51% of those surveyed already listen to podcasts from time to time, and 33% listen to podcasts quite frequently. 16% have yet to be released. In other words, according to these figures, a little more than half of the population already frequents the format, which represents a great growth compared to other years.
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Comedy, music, culture and health are still the star genres
The most listened to podcasts in 2021 are “Nobody Knows Nothing”, “Understand Your Mind”, “Takeover”, “The Wild Project”, “Modern Life”, “Today’s Horoscope”, “Stretching the gum”, “Meditated” , “Curiosities of National Geographic History” and “The Commander’s Office. Thus, Comedy, Music, Society and Culture, Style and Health, and Art and Entertainment continue to be the most listened to categories.
Another current feature of the podcasting in Spain is that Discovery depends on what friends and family tell us in 47%, 43% through social networks, 19% by celebrity podcasts and 12% by podcast applications. These answers to a multi-answer question are one more proof that word of mouth is what works for the sector, and that the recommendations via application have much to improve.
Reuters Institute figures point to another reality in the growth of podcast listening
The figures are very high compared to other similar studies. In the case of a recent one by the Reuters Institute, focused on news consumption, Spain appeared as the second European country that consumes the most podcasts for information, with 38% of the surveyed population. In the 2020 Reuters report, the percentage of the population listening to podcasts was higher than this year, at 41%. In 2019, the percentage was 39%.
Although the two reports are different, we therefore speak of there is disagreement that the podcast has grown so much in the pandemic, or even that it came from so low as a way of informing. It is possible, of course, that there is a lot of consumption of delayed audio in traditional radio applications that is not considered podcast, which is what Reuters points out to happen in some countries.