In a recent founding, a survey by Spotify and YouGov in India discovered that female listeners are increasingly tuning in to podcasts on Spotify and make up the majority of the listeners. Spotify is the world’s most popular music streaming app and has been actively launching podcasts in India over the past few months. It has been found that the Anchor platform which is used for creating and distributing podcasts has recorded a 1,100% yearly growth for Hindi podcasts. The 18-24 year age demographic has emerged as the largest audience among the first time podcast listeners on Spotify in 2020.
Spotify’s annual Wrapped data suggests that as six podcasts out of the top 20 podcasts for India are Spotify Originals. They are –Maha Bharat with Dhruv Rathee, Bhaskar Bose, Gita for the Young and Restless, The Michelle Obama Podcast, The Big Fat Indian Ghotala, and 22 Yarns with Gaurav Kapur. The Anchor-powered Telugu podcast PURIJAGANNADH was featured among the top 10 most-streamed podcasts. TED Talks Daily, The Ranveer Show, and On Purpose with Jay Shetty are the most-streamed podcasts on Spotify in India in 2020.
According to the survey findings, around 50 percent of the podcast listeners prefer listening to one episode per week. 62% of the respondents said that listening to celebrities and experts through a podcast makes them feel closer to the host.
“Podcast listening is growing in India, and this medium is a great way for listeners to discover the enriching and entertaining content they want. Whether in the car, cooking, exercising or doing household chores, with podcasts there’s an opportunity also to use that time to listen to a riveting story, catch up on the news, get in a laugh, or learn something new,” says Spotify.
Nightime has come up as the most preferred time for listening to a podcast whereas contrastingly the afternoons have emerged as the least popular time. Podcast listeners in India are actively preferring genres like Education followed by Lifestyle & Health, Society & Culture and Arts & Entertainment.
