Podcasting will be a $95 billion market by 2028 and its active subscribers will be more than 1.5 billion which shows how much this medium is going to be popular and first choice of media consumers. Therefore, it is better to know how much data does a podcast use and then its comparison to other platforms like Netflix, YouTube and Instagram.
On average, a podcast uses 1MB per minute and it will use 60MB for an hour podcast.
Let’s start discussing its interesting facts and details.
How Much Data Is Used By Podcasts?
More people are realizing not to watch or stream random content and rather spend quality time on informative content which can improve quality of life and also help us to be productive. This is why more and more people starts listening to religious, informative, life tips, philosophical and other useful podcasts which develops the mind and critical thinking ability.
Podcasts is also better option to avoid the annoying ads during the interesting content which ruins the experience. On average, the trend of podcasting is increasing and it has become a tough competitor even for big platforms like Netflix, Amazon and content reading websites.
The best thing about Podcast is not using too much data in comparison to streaming platforms meanwhile offering quality user experience. The audio of podcasts on big platforms like Spotify or Apple is too high which makes it worth listening. Since podcast is all about audio content which use too little amount of data.
How To Reduce Data Usage In Podcast ?
Audio is the second highest media type in consuming data and all big podcasting platforms like Apple, Spotify, Google and Stitcher offers high quality audio podcasts. They also provide the user an option to reduce its audio quality and save the internet data. It will help the user to save around half of total data usage while listening to podcast.
Podcasts Vs Social Media Apps
Podcast is one of the least consuming content in comparison to using social media apps. When a user streams video on 720p for one minute, it uses 25MB which is insanely high. It will take 1.5GB for streaming one hour video on 720p quality. In the comparison, high quality audio Spotify podcast will not use more than 60MB.
This shows listening podcast will also make you spend less money on data plan. Mostly podcasts are more researched and helps the listener understand the topic better than watching the video.
According to the statistical report, on average Facebook apps use around 160 MB per hour which includes browsing through the NewsFeed, viewing the photos and some watching random videos. This 160 MB data usage is mostly wasted because scrolling down is not going add some valuable information in our minds. Facebook costs us more and in return provides no value.
All big podcasting platforms offers Auto Downloading feature which allows the user to download every new podcast from selected channel automatically. This feature also saves the data you would spend on browsing the new videos from favorite channels.
User can active the Auto Downloading feature by tapping on Podcast Settings and will find the Auto Downloading feature. It is also likely that when you are connected to someone else Wi-Fi and podcast starts auto downloading your favorite content.
You can also try to be connected with free Wi-Fi because downloading 40-60 MB data will not take much time and can complete the downloading in two or three minutes. Podcasting will always be the easiest choice of enjoying content in terms of internet data usage.
There is one unique feature in Apple Podcasts Only News and it has to be turned-on, user needs go to Settings, then go to Podcasts and then select the option Download Episodes. User can either turn-off this feature or select Only New.
This feature will automatically download all new episodes from your subscribed podcast, if you have subscribed multiple podcast and this feature can allow downloading multiple new videos, then it will be a lot data consumption.
Once all episodes have been downloaded, you may find only one podcast interesting and rest episodes would be wastage of data. So, it is also better to stream the podcast instead of downloading.
Top 5 Most Listened To Podcasts On Apple and Spotify
These are most listened to Podcasts on Apple and Spotify discussed in the following.
The Criminal
This podcast is about true crime story and the whole incidence had been well-researched before starting the podcast. It includes one of the best voices which suits most for crime story telling. This podcast use 1.5GB data as complete story is divided into thirty-two episodes.
The Sporkful
This podcast is all about the food and discusses about different foods from different countries, cities and cultures. This podcast is very interesting for the people who loves food and try to taste a cuisine of other cultures. This podcast can at least introduce them with so many cuisines which they never heard about.
This podcast also use lots of data from internet plan.
Song Exploder
Song Exploder is basically a podcast and then Netflix made a show on the idea. This podcast offers good listening experience who loves music and wants to know how their favorite songs were created and the origins of their favorite songs.
This podcast is worth-listening and will consume less than 1GB data from your internet plan.
The Lazy Genius Podcast
This podcast is amazing for those who love reading but they do not want to start a book full of waste of time. The host of the Podcast recommends books and helps you in creating a book reading list. This podcast also recommends some good stuff on travelling and how can one get most out of outdoor trip.
This podcast offers more than 200 episodes and listening full podcast going to use couple of GBs internet data.
Every Little Thing
This podcast is going to answer about all little things which we never realized how they invented and becomes an integral part of our lives. Each episode offers new idea and how it turned into reality. For Instance, one of the episodes of Podcast on discussing how Pant and shirt was invented and how they realized the need of this dressing ?
This podcast is very interesting and you would not mind using GBs of data which is equal to couple of bucks.
Market Share of Podcast Streaming Platforms
We are going to sharing the market shares facts of all podcast streaming platforms.
Spotify
Spotify is the market leader in podcast streaming industry and the oldest streaming platform among all competitors. It used to be dominating the industry by higher margins and second largest platform was way behind the Spotify, but now they are losing the market share to toughest competitors and likely to also lose the status of market leader. They enjoy 30% market share which makes them standing at top position.
Apple Music
Apple Music is the toughest competitor of Spotify and more likely to win in the race of becoming a market leader. They enjoy 25% share of the market which makes them earning billions of dollars on annual basis.
Amazon Music
Amazon Music is third in the list and maintaining 12% market share and in discussion with celebrities to come up with big podcasts ideas. Amazon is a rich company and can afford expensive celebrities and podcasters to join them which would also increase its number of subscribers.
Others
YouTube Music and Pandora are also offering podcast streaming services and they do not enjoy good market share but still fighting against the big competitors.
Podcast Data Consumption
Millions of GBs data is consumed on listening to podcast on daily basis. The trend of listening to Podcast is increasing at higher rate and it has become a threat for other types of entertainment services. Mostly youngsters ages 18 to 34 are more interested in Podcasting than streaming YouTube or Netflix.
These are trending because of the valuable content is coming on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, lots of big celebrities are joining these big audio streaming services and Joe Rogan recently joined Spotify by signing $100 million deal. This shows that how profitable this podcasting business is and how many active listeners are consuming the podcast which makes it high-revenue generating business.
It is also a bad news for Internet businesses because podcasting use ten to hundred times less data comparing to video streaming.
Highest-Earning Podcasters
These are the highest-earning podcasters discussed in the following.
Joe Rogan
Joe Rogan is a decade-old podcaster and recognized as the world’s most popular podcaster who made $100 million of deal with Spotify offering podcasting services Spotify enjoys exclusive rights.
Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
They are good at storytelling and always about murder & crime. Its number of downloads has reached 35 millions, they enjoy a lot live shows on Karen and Georgia channel.
Dave Ramsey Show
Dave Ramsey belongs to old-school style and offers his expertise by giving finance lessons and also teaches how to use budget tools. There are 13 million listeners who enjoys his podcast every week.
Dax Shepard
He plays as a comedian and enjoying the audience of 20 million. He earns $9 million from the Spotify.
Bill Simmons
Bill Simmons covers the sports and interviews athletes, sports commentators, players and also invites his friends. He has also been worked for ESPN sports channel and enjoys huge audience. He earns $7 million by running a podcast on Spotify.
Final Words
Podcast does not use much internet data and using ten to fifty times less data comparing to video streaming. 1080p YouTube uses 50MB data for one minute and high-quality audio podcast consume only 1MB per minute.
The trend of podcasting increasing because people enjoys listening to interesting topics. Spotify enjoys 170 million subscribers and Apple Music is offering services to its 80 million subscribers, both companies are enjoying double digit growth.
