In this episode of the Christian Publishing Show, Thomas Umstattd shares a special podcast version of the talk he gave at the 2019 ECPA Leadership Summit, an industry event where the leaders of Christian publishing houses gather to talk about trends and the future of the industry.

Thomas was asked to talk about the trends regarding audiobooks and podcasts. No recordings of the event are made so this is a special encore session of the talk.

There is no transcript but we do have links to the recommended gear, as well as the statistics that were passed out as a handout.

Recommended Gear

• Logitech H390 USB Headset $25
• Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB $70
• Audio-Technica ATH-M20x Professional Studio Monitor Headphones $50
• Neewer Adjustable Microphone Stand $15
• Amazon Echo Dot $30

Many of the above links are affiliate links. Also, the prices often fluctuate around the price listed.

Podcast Statistics

Podcast listeners are:

• affluent. 45% of monthly podcast listeners have a household income of over $75K – vs 35% for the US population.
• educated. 27% of US podcast listeners have a 4-year college degree – vs 19% for the US population.
• influential. 94% of podcast listeners are active on social media – vs 81% for the US population.

Source: Edison Research

Podcast listening is
surging. 51% (144 million) of
Americans have listened to a podcast.

Source: Edison Research

There are a lot of Christian
podcasts. The iTunes category
“Religion & Spirituality: Christian” has more podcasts than all other
categories.

Source: Pacific Content

Audiobook Statistics

• Smart speakers are growing
  in popularity for audiobook listening. 24% of audiobook listeners
  say they have listened on a smart speaker.
• Millennials love audiobooks. Nearly half (48%) of frequent audiobook listeners are under 35.
• Podcast listeners are
  audiobook super readers. Listeners of both podcasts
  and audiobooks listened to twice as many audiobooks as non-podcast consumers.
• Fiction is more popular than
  non-fiction in audiobooks. 70.6% of audiobook sales
  are fiction.
• Digital audiobooks have
  replaced CDs as the dominant format. Only 5.8% of audiobook unit
  sales were on CD in 2017, down from 27.8% in 2013.

Source: Audiobook Publishers Association

Source: Audiobook Publishers Association

Source: Audiobook Publishers Association

Sources:

• https://www.edisonresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Infinite-Dial-2019-PDF-1.pdf
• http://www.edisonresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Edison-Research-Podcast-Consumer-2019.pdf
• https://www.statista.com
• https://blog.pacific-content.com/the-most-crowded-categories-in-apple-podcasts-7123447660cf
• https://www.audiopub.org/uploads/pdf/APA-FACT-SHEET-2018.pdf
• https://www.audiopub.org

The post 023 – The Future of Audiobooks and Podcasting appeared first on Christian Publishing Show.