This month marks the 5 year anniversary of Podtrac’s Top Podcast Publisher ranking which first published in May 2016 with data for April 2016.
Podtrac’s Top Podcast Publisher ranking was the first of its kind for podcasting providing insight into the size of the industry at a time when such data was not available elsewhere.
Industry firsts for the Podtrac ranking include:
Multiple podcast publishers participating in a ranking that displays their audience and download counts publicly, and uses a consistent measurement method
The unique monthly audience metric available in podcasting for the first time
Advertisers, publishers and the industry at large have a transparent method of tracking industry growth by key publishers over time
For the past five years, the Podtrac Top Publisher ranking has provided podcast publishers the ability to showcase their industry position.
“Podtrac created a valuable way for us to benchmark our audience and get a wider view of the industry,” said Anya Grundmann, SVP for Programming and Audience Development at NPR, which was #1 on the ranking for 40 straight months. “The insights we gather from the tracker have been a valuable part of our toolkit as we imagine new shows and build out our portfolio.”
“As we’ve expanded and refined our podcasting efforts, the Podtrac Top Publisher ranking has provided us valuable benchmarking information that was not available to us anywhere else,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of the iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group which moved into the #1 position for the first time in August of 2019 and has held that position for the past 7 months.
The rankings launched as a Top 10 Publisher ranking and expanded to the Top 20 Publishers in March of 2020. Besides the number of publishers on the list, a lot has changed in the podcasting space in the past 5 years. Both Unique Monthly Audience and Global Downloads & Streams have increased dramatically over this time for top publishers, showcasing the overall growth in the space.
“We at Wondery value the Podtrac ranker as both a clear and accurate barometer for the growth of the podcast industry, and a great resource for keeping a pulse on industry trends. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the innovative team at Podtrac.” commented, Jen Sargent, CEO of Wondery, who has been a Top 10 Publisher every month since their debut on the ranking in June 2017.
Said Mark McCrery, CEO of Podtrac, “We look forward to tracking and sharing industry growth by top publishers and podcasts in the years to come”
Highlights of the April 2021 ranking include :
Two of the Top 20 publishers saw an increase in US monthly Audience in April over March, while 6 saw an increase in Global Unique Downloads and Streams over the same period.
The average US Unique Monthly Audience for the Top 20 publishers was down 7% month-over-month and up 13% over April 2020.
Global Unique Streams & Downloads decreased for the Top 20 publishers by 2% from March and increased by 3% over April 2020.
