What Are The Top Podcast Genres of 2024?

In the first episode of our ongoing series, PodQuesting Lab, we explore the top podcast genres by reach in 2024. Whether you're just starting your podcasting journey or you're a seasoned pro, this episode will give you valuable insights into what’s trending in the world of podcasting.

This information is sourced from Edison Research’s latest study on U.S. podcast genres:

https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-top-podcast-genres-in-the-u-s-q1-2024/.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is Podcasting where I'm on a quest to conquer the podcasting realm, and I'm bringing you along for the journey to help you achieve your own podcasting success.

(00:11):
Today we are diving into a study done by Edison Research. Edison Research is a company that specializes in podcasting metrics and audio data. So we are going to dive into this study that is comparing the top podcasting genres from quarter one of 2023.
to the top podcasting genres of quarter one 2024. So let's take a look at this graph here that is comparing them and let's dive right into it. All right, so as we can see here, number one is comedy, of course, no change. Comedy is king.

(00:45):
So if you are a comedian, good news. If you're not Joe Rogan though, or famous, it might be hard to become successful in this genre. But if you are a comedian, maybe this will help you grow your reach in some capacity. Society and culture has gone up, which is interesting by reach.
And then news has gone down, which is kind of surprising to me. Interesting. We'll see how this goes within the next quarter, considering what we have coming here in November in the US. I forgot to mention this is data from the US.

(01:17):
There is a UK one, I believe on their website, if you want to check that out if you are in the UK as well. True crime, sports, those are also going to be in the top 10, of course, genres and there's no change there.
They are, of course, popular. True crime is one of the podcasting gold mines, if you will, for genres. And then, of course, if we go down to what I'm interested in is TV and film has gone down a little bit, which I find interesting.

(01:45):
And then fiction, though, so not TV and film, but fiction has gone up actually two points for this growing, showing on this graph. And so I find that interesting if you are interested in a podcast in fiction in that genre.
Well, good news. It might be a good time to start. And then music is hitting a high note with a plus two as well, which is pretty cool. So music and fiction are on a rise, which makes sense. They're both creative genres and something people are interested in and passionate about.

(02:20):
So how can we utilize this graph, this study to help us if we are starting a podcast, starting in this quest, or maybe we're a successful podcaster or an established podcaster? How can we utilize this study?
Well, for a new podcaster, what you can do is something I've done is go through this graph, look at all the different genres. This has all the different genres listed on podcast or Apple podcasts, rather. So you can go through here, find ones that you are passionate about or interested in and come up with different podcast ideas.

(02:54):
Right. So let's say you're interested in fiction, you enjoy reading or you enjoy storytelling. Well, fiction is on the rise. So great news. Start a podcast, maybe doing a weekly story where you are narrating a story that you've created or you're reading other people's stories that you've gotten permission from.

(03:15):
Of course, you need to do that first. Or maybe you are doing book reviews. BookTube here on YouTube is super popular. Maybe you don't want to do YouTube videos, but you are interested in podcasting in that nature.
So maybe start reviewing fiction books on a podcast. If you are not new, but established, you can take a look at your genres or genre that your podcast is in and see what you can do to evolve and expand your reach in your podcasting genre.

(03:46):
If it's going down from showing this Q1 to Q1 comparison based off of the last year and this year. So say you are in the one of the ones that are going down to TV and film. Right.
So now, of course, this is just from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024. There's no real, it's not like it's a 10 year, like a couple years showing that, oh, TV and film podcasts are dying. It's just showing a comparison. So maybe this will help you a little bit by showing you maybe what can you do to evolve your podcast and get more reach.

(04:21):
Maybe start a YouTube channel, a YouTube podcast, most social media, etc. That will help you expand your reach. This is a graph that is on Edison Research's website. I'd highly recommend checking out their website for more information.
I will put a link in the bottom for this study as well as their website. I believe there's a newsletter you can sign up to, to receive information for these studies. So I'd recommend doing that. And of course, I would recommend checking out their website periodically to see more studies to hopefully help you.

(04:55):
And I will be diving into more studies based on this Edison Research company to dive into as well on this channel. So check those out in the future when I do post those. But if you do want to get access to those when I do post them, make sure you like and subscribe.
So we're hopefully we can avoid pitfalls and avoid any pesky orcs that are in our path on this podcasting journey. That's going to do it for me guys. But I hope you enjoy this. I hope this was helpful for you on your quest to a successful podcast.