That newer addition outpaces the growth of Apple’s iconic hardware and includes Apple TV+, Apple Music, and more. News stories about Apple used to focus on product releases, but the company’s biggest headlines in recent memory have been about podcasts and streaming originals.

The US podcast audience grew tremendously in 2019, as significant investments from major audio streaming services made podcast content more accessible. We now estimate that there were 92 million monthly US podcast listeners in 2019, up more than 15 million from our previous estimate of 76.4 million.

In this study, podcast listening didn’t see a discernible bump in engagement. September 2020 data from Ad Alliance (the advertising arm of media company Bertelsmann), though, indicated that among podcast listeners, dwell time could have a significant impact on digital audio time. It showed that 28% of listeners in Germany ages 16 and older spent between 40 minutes or less with the medium each week.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecommerce growth has slowed since 2020, but the leading digitally native brands remain popular. In December 2021, the Peloton website raked in 6.7 million visits worldwide, far more than the sites of Warby Parker, Casper, and other top digital natives in the D2C space.

Stephen Smyk, senior vice president of podcasting and influencer marketing at agency Veritone One, spoke to us about the pandemic's impact on podcast advertising, where advertisers can find opportunities during the crisis and how ads will look as more dollars are invested into programmatic.

Low Impact: Podcast Listeners. The podcast audience was already on a strong upward trend even before lockdowns started, and the pandemic hasn’t changed that. In 2020, monthly US podcast audiences will increase 16.0% YoY to 106.7 million, only a slight change from our previous forecast of 105.6 million.

Spotify is still expanding its podcast listenership in the US, while Apple Podcasts’ has essentially stagnated. In fact, Spotify will narrowly surpass Apple in this metric by the end of this year.

Audio services spent the year battling for the attention of podcast listeners and creators, while social media services spent the second half of the year launching a number of social commerce-oriented features. Additionally, multiplayer video games like Fortnite and Roblox partnered with music advertisers to hold virtual, in-game concerts.

Podcasting will continue on its upward trajectory: However, stakeholders will need to assess their priorities when it comes to advertising as fragmentation continues to present an interesting challenge.

Spotify and podcasts are set to benefit most

Listening habits have been steadily moving online in recent years. From music streaming to podcasts, there’s been a growing appetite for digital audio. While the assumption might be that the coronavirus pandemic has increased audio streaming, the picture is less straightforward. Pure music streaming via platforms like Spotify and Pandora is being eschewed in favor of music videos.

There’s certainly still interest, as evidenced by Clubhouse’s recent $4 billion valuation, but the days of explosive quarantine-fueled growth are likely over. As far as podcasts go, Facebook will find it hard to catch up to Spotify, which is now the US market leader in terms of podcast listeners.

While Gen Z’s use of those services appears to lean toward music rather than podcasts, this is a function of the generation’s age span (roughly 9 to 24 years old in 2021). The older members are more attuned to podcasts than their younger counterparts, and trends will shift even more toward podcasts as Gen Z matures. Gen Z’s Appetite for Gaming Is Insatiable.

We expect a rebound next year of 26.8% growth. But podcast advertising is a bright spot of growth within digital radio. Spending on all types of podcast ads, including host-read sponsorships, will rise by 10.4% this year to more than $780 million. Next year, podcast ad spending will surpass $1 billion in the US for the first time as growth rebounds to 44.9%.

Programmatic accounts for an even smaller share of the podcast ad market, but it’s growing rapidly. We expect US programmatic podcast ad spending to more than double this year—again—though it will still come in well below $100 million. What’s changed: We increased our estimate of digital audio services ad growth dramatically between July and October.

The pandemic has driven much of TikTok’s recent growth in the US, but even before lockdowns ensued, the app was quickly gaining ground. US social media users were already spending more time on TikTok in October 2019 than any other platform except Facebook, according to Comscore data. Read More:. Podcast: Oracle Wins TikTok Bid, the 2021 Summer Olympics, and Paramount+.

With US digital ad spend projected to increase nearly 15% this year, brand partnerships can be a valuable component of the marketing mix. Transformational partnerships, in particular, power growth opportunities with many distinctive benefits.

US adult listeners will spend an average of about 34 minutes a day on podcasts, according to our latest estimates. Time spent is 2 minutes less than last year due to the pandemic's impact on listening behavior, but it should return to pre-contraction levels by 2022.

By contrast, consumption of music, podcasts, and other digital audio content was rather subdued, except in younger age groups. Nearly 90% of respondents ages 16 to 24 had listened to digital audio in the month prior to polling, but that share dropped by at least 10 percentage points with each decade of rising age, reaching just 40.6% in the oldest age bracket.

They rank first across every digital category we measure, including smartphone use and podcast consumption. Millennials’ shopping habits are very digital and intentional. More digital buyers are in the millennial cohort than in any other generational group.

On today's episode, we discuss what to make of YouTube ad impressions moving over to TV screens, our connected TV ad spending estimates, and how to make TV ads more actionable. We then talk about what's driving Amazon's ad business, whether NBCUniversal can get primetime TV ad rates for slots on Peacock, and what impact Nielsen's new Podcast Ad Effectiveness+ solution will have. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom.

See: Spotify's exclusive podcast strategy, Amazon buying Wondery, etc. Amp is presenting shows from some of the biggest names in music as part of the limited beta. Nicki Minaj's radio show, Queen Radio, will return via Amp in the near future.

On today's episode, we discuss the likelihood of an attention recession, if Peloton's troubles are temporary, what shoppers think of SMS marketing, Amazon's podcast moves, TikTok for small businesses, the best work-from-home perks a company can offer, how the weather can make you friendlier, and more. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer director of reports editing Rahul Chadha, analyst Blake Droesch, and principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna.