YouTube Dominates Competition with 1 Billion Monthly Podcast Listeners
By Movieguide® Contributor
YouTube continues to prove it is the top choice for nearly all forms of content as the company touted 1 billion podcast listeners in January.
“This milestone underscores how YouTube has come to play an essential role in podcasting for creators and audiences, and how our investments to improve the podcast experience on YouTube are paying off,” the company said when announcing the feat, per Variety. “Podcasts with video are more than just a trend, they meet audiences where they are: on YouTube.”
With this monthly number, YouTube would be massively outperforming Spotify in the podcast ecosystem as the music streaming platform only has a total active user base of 675 million monthly users. Furthermore, the company has stated in the past that more than 240 million of its users have ever opened a podcast, further revealing the potential gap in the podcast listener base between YouTube and Spotify.
Spotify is attempting to embrace video podcasting as well, increasing its investment in the medium last November by offering creators a “monetization program for video podcasts, improved analytics and audience growth tools, [and] new ways to get your podcast discovered on Spotify.”
READ MORE: SPOTIFY VS. YOUTUBE: WHO WILL WIN THE PODCASTING WARS?
With many creators choosing to start their podcasts on YouTube, or integrating over to the platform to reach its massive audience, the company has committed itself to continuing to improve the podcast experience, making it easier to discover new creators, while making improvement on the production side as well.
“We’ve long invested in the podcast experience and creators have found that video makes this format even more compelling,” YouTube CEO Neal Mohan wrote in a yearly overview. “This year we’ll roll out more tools to support podcasters, improve monetization for creators, and make it even easier to discover podcasts.”
YouTube’s dominance in the podcast sphere is a major concern for other streaming services like Spotify as YouTube also holds a large share in the music streaming business. In February 2024, the company announced YouTube Premium/YouTube Music surpassed 100 million subscribers for the first time, seeing a growth of 20 million users over the previous year.
READ MORE: YOUTUBE PREMIUM AND MUSIC TOP 100 MILLION COMBINED SUBSCRIBERS
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