Podcast trends 2022: exclusive content, direct subscriptions...

The audio platform iVoox has compiled several of the trends that it believes will shape the podcast business during 2022.

In its report, the audio platform, which closes the year with more than 700 million listens, more than 5 million unique users per month, and more than 2 million euros generated for content creators (through its different monetization schemes), focuses especially on the monetization capacity recently acquired by many of these formats.

One of the main axes that will mark the industry during 2022 will be the exclusive content addition in one platform. According to Ivoox, in a global market with about 900,000 active podcasts, differentiate is going to be the “great challenge” for creators, who will have to focus on increasing their audiences, betting on consolidated platforms that help them reach their target audience and provide them with reliable metrics.

Each podcasting platform will have its own catalog of free or paid podcasts, unique and exclusive, and that “will not be an impediment to the listener”, since 55.9% listen through different platforms. "We are facing a consumption model similar to that of video streaming services, where users choose where to watch the content based on the platform that has what they want. Likewise, the content published on different platforms prevents the podcaster from really knowing its reach, which makes marketing difficult," says iVoox, which currently has 60,000 exclusive episodes.

Professionalization and investment in the sector

On the other hand, according to iVoox, podcasts will continue to position themselves as an “ideal” channel to reach broad audiences within companies' marketing strategies. The platform gives this key based on several market studies, which confirm that in Spain 59% of brands use online audio in their marketing strategy, and that advertising linked to podcasts and digital radio will end 2021 with a growth of 38.5%. Globally, it is estimated that investment in this type of content will increase to reach $1.6 billion in 2022.

Brands will prioritize in their advertising strategy the branded content en el podcast, ya que el 73% lo consideran una prioridad a día de hoy. Aunque todavía son un 39% las que la emplean frecuentemente, se prevé que en 2022 esta cifra crecerá de manera exponencial. Se trata de un formato publicitario integrado, que permite a las marcas vincular sus valores a podcasts ya creados a través de menciones, reseñas o incluso episodios dedicados, o bien creando sus propios contenidos e impulsándolos en plataformas como iVoox con acciones personalizadas.

Podcast de pago por suscripción

Finalmente, iVoox defiende la relevancia de la suscripción a podcast específicos. According to an internal survey by the company itself, in 2021 listeners' interest in direct subscription methods to their favorite podcasts has increased, and 54.6% are willing to pay to access exclusive content from a podcast. This trend will grow in 2022, just as the television sector did years ago, allowing creators increase the monetization of your podcasts y “have the opportunity to live off your audience.”

As iVoox highlights, this trend is “a global behavior”, since, according to data from Edison Research in the United States, 47% of listeners subscribe to paid audio, more than double that of 2015.