Report: Podcast Downloads Drop 10%

(NY Times photo)

"Since early March, when concerns around the coronavirus started to get more severe, people have been listening to podcasts a lot less," the fashion trade publication Women's Wear Daily writes:

"Downloads ... have dropped about 10 percent since the start of March, according to data from Podtrac ... Total unique listeners also dropped roughly 20 percent in the same time frame."

According to Axios:

Why it's happening: Many fewer people are commuting, and "everyone just wants the news, on TV and online, not a true crime podcast."

🤯 BUT so many people are at home, with all that commute time, so MORE people are making podcasts, the N.Y. Times' Reggie Ugwu writes ("Broadcasting From Closets at Home, Daily Podcasts Come of Age"):

Mike Pesca, host of the long-running daily podcast “The Gist,” said the pandemic could soon be regarded as the format’s breakout moment.

He compared it to World War II, when Edward R. Murrow’s man-on-the street radio broadcasts after the bombings in London captured the attention of anxious Americans at home.