Podcasts growing in popularity in Australia
Podcasts are growing in popularity in Australia and over 1.6 million Australians now download audio or video podcasts in an average four weeks, up from under 1 million just four years ago.
Though this still represents only a small slice (8.1%) of the Australian population aged 14+ this is nevertheless an increase of nearly 700,000 Australians since 2015 and the market has grown by an impressive 70% during this time period.
By way of comparison a year ago Roy Morgan reported that around 2.2 million Australians visited leading streaming music site Spotify in an average four weeks, 1.3 million visited second-placed SoundCloud and just over 520,000 visited third placed Triple M.
Driving the growth in podcasts are downloads to mobile phones which have more than tripled since 2015 growing to over 1.3 million Australians today. This is an increase of over 900,000 over the last four years, an increase of over 215%.
The growth in podcast downloads to mobile phones has come at the expense of Australians downloading podcasts to computers which peaked in 2016 at just over 570,000 and has since declined significantly to just over 410,000 downloaders in 2019. In addition around 210,000 Australians download podcasts to their tablets in an average four weeks.
Research conducted directly with real people is qualitatively and quantitatively more valuable than information drawn only through automated processes from web browsers and complicated algorithms. It’s the only way to learn how many real people – not bots, devices, clicks, or impressions – visit a site.
These are the latest results from Roy Morgan Single Source derived from in-depth face-to-face interviews with 1,000 Australians each week, 50,000 each year.
Australians downloading podcasts in an average four weeks
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source: April 2014 – March 2019. Average interviews per year n=50,730.
Base: Australians aged 14+.
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says podcasts are growing in popularity in Australia with nearly 10% of Australians now downloading audio or video podcasts in an average month:
“Podcasts are a relatively new part of the media landscape but are making an increasing impact as audiences for the service are on a steady growth track up an impressive 70% over the last four years to over 1.6 million Australians in 2019.
“The ability to listen to your favourite podcast while commuting to and from work and tuning out from the hustle and bustle on crowded public transport, or just relaxing in your spare time to catch up on what’s been happening in an area of personal interest is appealing to a growing number of Australians.
“Driving the growth in podcasts is the convenience of being able to download the podcast directly to your mobile phone which obviously allows you to listen to the service wherever you want. Over 1.3 million Australians now download podcasts to their mobile phone in an average four weeks up from only 421,000 in 2015 – a stunning increase of over 215%.
“2015 was also the last year more Australians downloaded podcasts to their computer than mobile phone and as the capabilities and computing power of mobile phones has increased they have increasingly become the primary channel to use for the latest podcast.
“Analysing podcast downloaders by socio-economic quintile shows the sought after members of the AB socio-economic quintile are the most likely to download a podcast and the top two quintiles comprise 59% of podcast downloaders.
“By generation Australia’s most avid podcasters are Millennials who constitute over 40% of podcast downloaders ahead of the younger Gen Z (29%) and slightly older Gen X (21%) while Victorians download at a higher rate than any other state and men are slightly more likely than women.
“These results are produced from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey derived from face-to-face interviews conducted with over 1,000 Australians each week, and over 50,000 per year. Research conducted directly with real people is qualitatively and quantitatively more valuable than information drawn only through automated processes from web browsers and complicated algorithms. It’s the only way to learn how many real people – not bots, devices, clicks, or impressions – visit a site.”
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Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
