A new study by eMarket estimates that by the end of this year, Spotify’s podcast listeners will surpass Apple Podcasts listeners in the United States. As Spotify has been expanding podcast listenership in the country, the Swedish music streaming service will be able to achieve the first position with a narrow margin.
In recent years, Podcasts have emerged as a lucrative segment in the audio entertainment industry which is expected to generation $1 billion in ad revenue. And Apple and Spotify are competing to capitalize on the growing market in the U.S.
The audio entertainment industry was already on a rise before the COVID-19 pandemic, but stay-at-home health restriction boosted its growth in the U.S. Edison Research and Triton Digital estimates that 116 million Americans, or 41% of the country’s population over the age of 12, are monthly podcast listeners which is an 11% increase over 2020.
Spotify’s narrow gain in monthly listeners over Apple Podcasts this year will widen in coming years
As per the forecast of analyst Sara Lebow, Spotify will take over Apple Podcasts monthly listeners in members by the end of this year. She also added that estimated narrow gain will widen in the future.
Spotify is still expanding its podcast listenership in the US, while Apple Podcasts’ has essentially stagnated. In fact, Spotify will narrowly surpass Apple in that metric by the end of this year. The Swedish streaming company will have 28.2 million monthly podcast listeners over Apple’s 28.0 million, a razor-thin lead that will widen in the years to come.
Based on current projects, she predicts that in the coming years, Spotify’s monthly podcast listeners will be double than Apple Podcasts’ listeners in 2024 in the United States.
In 2024, podcasts will reach about 40% of the population and 45% of internet users in the US at least once a month. By the end of the following year, there will be 142.7 million monthly podcast listeners. Among them, 43.6 million will listen via Spotify and 29.1 million will listen via Apple Podcasts.
