Episode 75
What the stats tell us about podcast consumption through December and January
I've gathered some valuable insights on podcast release schedules over the Christmas holiday period, drawing from data from over 60 global clients and deep industry analysis. Contrary to previous recommendations about taking a December break, the increasing global listenership suggests it might not be the best move anymore. I'd suggest podcasters don't halt content production in December. Instead, think about replaying your best episodes or batching your December content through November so that you can still take a break yourself.
Come January, there's a notable surge in listenership. It's vital to be ready with fresh content. Interestingly, the spike isn't uniform across all categories; health and true crime genres tend to peak early, while business sees a rise around mid-January. From what I've seen, June might actually be a more suitable month for a break especially for the Australian audience. But always keep in mind: it's essential to plan your breaks around your own needs and your podcast's broader goals.
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Transcript
What do you do with your podcast
Speaker:over the Christmas period?
Speaker:Do you take a break?
Speaker:Do you keep releasing?
Speaker:Today I wanted to chat to you about
Speaker:what I think you should do this year for
Speaker:2023 based on the statistics that I am
Speaker:seeing, the insights that I have tracked
Speaker:down, the download figures that I could
Speaker:find and also what we see in the trends
Speaker:from the clients that we actually have.
Speaker:So, to give you some context We're
Speaker:a podcast and video production
Speaker:company based in Australia.
Speaker:We have over 60 clients globally
Speaker:that release on a weekly basis.
Speaker:We track their download numbers on
Speaker:a monthly basis for the entirety
Speaker:that they work with us, which for
Speaker:a lot of them is quite a long time.
Speaker:And so we have years worth of data which
Speaker:is awesome to have a look at and then
Speaker:see how things are trending over time.
Speaker:What I want you to do this year
Speaker:is different to what I would
Speaker:have said last year, and I'm
Speaker:going to break it down for you.
Speaker:When we assessed the clients that
Speaker:we have on our books, and I look at
Speaker:the insights that I've pulled from
Speaker:PodTrack, what looks to be pretty
Speaker:clear to me is that taking a full
Speaker:on break for a month in December is
Speaker:something I wouldn't advise you to do.
Speaker:Traditionally in the past, I have
Speaker:said, yeah, take a break in December.
Speaker:Download numbers are lower anyway.
Speaker:but now listenership is climbing
Speaker:so much in Australia and the U
Speaker:S and in fact, globally, that.
Speaker:I don't think you need to take
Speaker:a break in December other than
Speaker:perhaps for your mental state.
Speaker:If you feel like you really need
Speaker:to take a break then take a break.
Speaker:But I don't think that December is
Speaker:necessarily the time to do it anymore.
Speaker:there's definitely a huge appetite
Speaker:for podcast listening in December.
Speaker:And then January, it goes bonkers.
Speaker:I would say if you want to take a break
Speaker:in December because you're overwhelmed,
Speaker:you want time off yourself, you're not
Speaker:going to be in your regular schedule.
Speaker:Don't take a break But instead, if
Speaker:your show is old enough, so probably
Speaker:more than six months old, go back
Speaker:through your back catalog and find
Speaker:three or four episodes that you think
Speaker:would be really good to run again.
Speaker:look at what the.
Speaker:popular ones were during
Speaker:the last maybe 12 months.
Speaker:I would run them as recasts and I would
Speaker:put at the beginning of them a new little
Speaker:intro thing where you say, Hey, I'm
Speaker:taking a break these are my top episodes.
Speaker:And I really think that if you haven't
Speaker:had a chance to listen to those, this is
Speaker:a great time to catch up on some past.
Speaker:Stuff that way you're still releasing
Speaker:over the period that we know people are
Speaker:actually still listening and then January
Speaker:goes up so high when I look Traditionally
Speaker:at the data that I have for all the
Speaker:clients that we have and then also the
Speaker:industry data that I can find January
Speaker:is a big month for podcasting it's a
Speaker:good time to be releasing new material.
Speaker:if you don't batch at any other
Speaker:time coming up to a period
Speaker:where you want to take a break.
Speaker:It doesn't mean your
Speaker:podcast has to take a break.
Speaker:It just means you need to be a
Speaker:little bit more organized and
Speaker:batch some flippin episodes.
Speaker:decide how many episodes
Speaker:you want to have as recasts.
Speaker:Do a little intro for those and
Speaker:then rerun them and then record
Speaker:in your content plan somewhere in
Speaker:November a couple of extra episodes.
Speaker:Instead of recording one
Speaker:episode in a week, record two.
Speaker:And do that for a couple of weeks
Speaker:through November So that when it
Speaker:comes time to December, you've
Speaker:got stuff that you can release.
Speaker:Hopefully you've got someone on your
Speaker:team or if you outsource to BambiMedia
Speaker:or some other production team, then
Speaker:there'll be a content plan ahead of time.
Speaker:It'll be scheduled in.
Speaker:people that you work with will
Speaker:have to batch the repurposing.
Speaker:So you need to put that into your
Speaker:spread of things to do in November.
Speaker:But to me, it really is worth it I've
Speaker:had this company now for nine years and
Speaker:I've seen what happens every year So
Speaker:I want you to go and think about that.
Speaker:What could I record for December now?
Speaker:So that I can take a break, my
Speaker:team can take a break, and I
Speaker:can still have things releasing.
Speaker:there's a few categories
Speaker:that really benefit.
Speaker:if I look at the data that we
Speaker:have here from PodTrack, true
Speaker:crime, very beginning of
Speaker:January, has fantastic growth.
Speaker:Health and fitness towards
Speaker:the end of December.
Speaker:And beginning of January goes well.
Speaker:Business is a little bit
Speaker:slower during that period.
Speaker:Business really starts to kick
Speaker:back in around January 15th ish.
Speaker:think about what category you're
Speaker:in, and then when you're planning
Speaker:out the content that you want
Speaker:to release through December.
Speaker:Think about what your industry would
Speaker:want to know about in December.
Speaker:And!
Speaker:In saying that as well, is that
Speaker:knowing that January is such a high
Speaker:month, even if your podcast listener
Speaker:doesn't connect with you for a couple
Speaker:of weeks in December and you've
Speaker:released some content in January,
Speaker:they're probably going to listen to it.
Speaker:Because they're going to have more
Speaker:time and they're going to see that you
Speaker:have past episodes that they haven't
Speaker:listened to yet and they're going to
Speaker:engage with them as well because that
Speaker:Christmas holiday rush is over and now
Speaker:there's new stuff that they're excited
Speaker:to listen to and they may have more
Speaker:time than just the one episode a week.
Speaker:That they were actually
Speaker:investing in you before that.
Speaker:That is absolutely the case for me.
Speaker:If I have a podcast that I love and
Speaker:I've had a particularly busy couple of
Speaker:weeks, when I get my time back to be
Speaker:able to listen to it again, I'll binge.
Speaker:And if they've released good stuff, I'm
Speaker:going to listen to four or five episodes.
Speaker:Because, I mean, that's the industry
Speaker:I'm in, I love it, obviously.
Speaker:But, something to be aware of there.
Speaker:Don't just think, December,
Speaker:cool, I'm going to take a
Speaker:break and release nothing.
Speaker:can I release some recasts?
Speaker:Can I batch up and continue to
Speaker:release stuff and just be a little
Speaker:bit more organised And I would argue
Speaker:that looking at our statistics,
Speaker:certainly from the Australian clients
Speaker:that we have, that June is probably
Speaker:a slower month than December is.
Speaker:So if you want to take a
Speaker:break, June might be a little
Speaker:bit more of a time to do it.
Speaker:And what I really want you to
Speaker:take away from this is that if you
Speaker:need to take a break, take one.
Speaker:If you're buggered and content is
Speaker:like the last thing that you want to
Speaker:be thinking about through November,
Speaker:To try and batch, take a break.
Speaker:I get it, I understand it, but if
Speaker:you want to get fired up for 2024 and
Speaker:the podcast is a massive part of your
Speaker:marketing and you're trying to grow
Speaker:this audience, I wouldn't take a break.
Speaker:I would recast if I needed
Speaker:to, a couple of episodes.
Speaker:Give myself a little bit of breathing
Speaker:room, and then record maybe two or
Speaker:three more than I usually would during
Speaker:November, so that December is set.
Speaker:it's all about priorities, and if your
Speaker:podcast is a high priority for you, then
Speaker:you will make batching content possible.
Speaker:You will find those extra hours that
Speaker:you need to record and repurpose, or
Speaker:you will reach out to your production
Speaker:company and say, this is what I'm doing.
Speaker:For us here at Bambi Media, we send an
Speaker:email to all our clients at the very
Speaker:beginning of November, outlining what
Speaker:it is that we would like them to do.
Speaker:And also when we're taking a break,
Speaker:because we take a break, the whole
Speaker:company Has a break for about a month.
Speaker:And so we go nuts and batch every
Speaker:client up, anyone that's got content
Speaker:for us prior to the break so that
Speaker:everything still gets released.
Speaker:And we see the that for the amount
Speaker:of consumption that is still
Speaker:happening for these podcasts.
Speaker:And also we have clients
Speaker:that reach out to us and go.
Speaker:Thank you so much for making me batch
Speaker:because I got a lot of stuff done and
Speaker:I still get the benefit of releasing.
Speaker:I wish I could batch all the time
Speaker:make a list, prioritize what you
Speaker:need to prioritize, take a break if
Speaker:you need to, recast if you need to.
Speaker:And batch yourself up so that you
Speaker:can take a break and the podcast
Speaker:doesn't necessarily have to.
Speaker:That's it from me today.
Speaker:I hope you've enjoyed it.
Speaker:If you have, please hit the like
Speaker:button, the subscribe button, little
Speaker:notification dingy belly thing.
Speaker:Uh, if you have any ideas for
Speaker:the podcast, please let me know.
Speaker:Please leave in the comments.
Speaker:I love the comments.
Speaker:I love replying to comments.
Speaker:And I'm so excited.
Speaker:There's so many of you that reach out
Speaker:and actually comment on things too.
Speaker:That's something that podcasting doesn't
Speaker:allow a lot of on podcast platforms.
Speaker:So that's why I'm over
Speaker:on YouTube doing that.
Speaker:Thanks everybody.
Speaker:Have a great day.
