Our clients ask us lots of questions about podcasting, and we do our best to answer them all. Here’s a recap of the most frequently asked questions we’ve gotten over the past year:

How many people listen to podcasts?

As of 2023, 42% of Americans ages 12 and older have listened to a podcast in the past month. Of those, 31% said they’ve listened to a podcast in the last week, up from 26% in 2022. (Edison Research)

How many podcasts do people listen to?

The average podcast listener consumes 9 podcasts during the week. The most engaged listeners listen to 11+ podcasts every week.  (Edison Research)

What day of the week should we publish our podcast episodes?

The best day to release podcast episodes is Tuesday, with Wednesday and Thursday coming in second place, according to Megaphone by Spotify.

How long should a podcast episode be?

Our advice is “as long as it’s interesting.” If an episode has 18 minutes of compelling content, then it should be 18 minutes long. No need to cut out good parts to meet a timeframe … and also you never want to bore your audience just to make an episode longer. Make the episode the right length to ensure it’s good.

The facts and figures: The most common episode length is between 20 and 40 minutes (32% of episodes). According to Buzzsprout, across 123,539 active podcasts as of October 2023, episode lengths came in at:

• Less than 10 minutes > 16%

• 10 – 20 minutes > 15%

• 20 – 40 minutes > 32%

• 40 – 60 minutes > 21%

• More than 60 minutes > 16%

How frequently should we publish?

As we’ve noted previously, we have two answers—which may seem at odds with one another:

1. Publish regularly (at least monthly) to develop and maintain your audience; and

2. Only publish when your episode is completely ready!

The facts and figures: The most common podcast publishing frequency is every 8 to 14 days, according to Buzzsprout. 

The percentage of podcasts and the frequency by which they release episodes:

• 0 – 2 days > 7%

• 3 – 7 days > 36%

• 8 – 14 days > 38%

• 15 – 29 days > 18%

• More than 30 days > 2%

How many listeners is considered “good”?

While ROI needs to be measured based on your company’s specific KPI and goals, we’re often asked about listening in general and how our clients are doing in comparison to podcasts in general. Here are the numbers of listeners per episode needed to qualify for the “top” percentages of podcasts, as of October 2023:

• Top 1% of Podcasts > 5226 listeners

• Top 5% of Podcasts > 1155 listeners

• Top 10% of Podcasts > 477 listeners

• Top 25% of Podcasts > 120 listeners

• Top 50% of Podcasts > 31 listeners

If you have a question for us, just reach out!