Podcast Industry Report: Podcasting will be a $1 billion industry by 2021 — here's how Spotify, Apple, and others are innovating to make it happen and where brands fit in

Executive Summary

Podcasts have been around for nearly two decades, but the format has only just entered the mainstream — in fact, US listenership has more than doubled since 2015, ushering in a spike in content volume, investment from both news publishers and tech companies like Spotify and Google, and celebrity interest that have come together to form a virtuous cycle for the industry.

Three Key Questions This Report Will Answer:

• How has the podcast industry grown?
• What are the key regions to watch?
• How can brands take advantage of the rapidly evolving space?

WHAT'S IN THIS REPORT? As more and more new podcasts have popped up, listenership has climbed — and it will only grow further from here. This listenership spike has brands interested — by 2021 podcast ad spend is expected to more than double its 2018 total in the US. The result is an industry in a particular moment of creative and innovative renaissance, from content creation to discovery. In this report, Business Insider Intelligence will provide an in depth look at the podcast industry, focusing specifically on key drivers of its recent boom and the audiences that are pushing it to new heights. The ultimate goal of this report is to give readers a clear understanding of how the major players and components of podcasting function so that brands can more readily take advantage of the many opportunities this dynamic digital media format presents.