Industry Takeaways from the 2022 Multitude Listener Survey

Multitude’s annual summer survey is our favorite event of the year! It’s our chance to check in with our audience, get their feedback on what we’ve been doing, and decide what to try next.  So many of our favorite projects—from our new community Discord to our newest member show to the Multicrew itself—were first floated as survey questions. 

This year more than 1,000 people shared their podcast thoughts with us. Here are some takeaways!

Podcast Discovery

“Discovery” is in practically every headline about audio these days, but no one knows how to make it easier for people to find new podcasts to listen to. Multitude listeners weighed in:

Those top two answers make a lot of sense – guesting and recommending your favorite shows are as normal as ads for mattresses. The 88% for learning about new shows from guests is really, really high. This gives us some evidence to something we’ve suspected for a while: although the podcast that the guest comes on gets a cool new person to make content with, the guest is the one who’s getting the benefit of getting in front of a new podcast audience.

It should come as a relief that social media isn’t a great discovery tool for listeners. When podcast hosts and producers are already wearing so many hats, maintaining an authentic and prolific presence on multiple social media platforms can seem impossible. Paired with the 2022 Edison Infinite Dial findings that podcast listeners are 50% more active on Instagram than the average U.S. social media user, and you can probably let go of those daily Tweets and Facebook posts.

What really surprised us was how few of our listeners find new podcasts from dedicated podcast review and recommendation sites. We get a ton of questions from up-and-coming podcasters about what sites, newsletters, and journalists to pitch their new podcast to, and while it certainly can’t hurt, this doesn’t appear to be the best use of time. This may indicate a want for podcast criticism instead of recommendation-only newsletters. Reading reviews and analysis from experienced critics builds trust about what’s good and what’s wanting, while newsletters packed with links may only provide a scattershot of who has industry contacts or who is already successful in the space.

Recommendations

My favorite question on this year’s survey is something I’ve wondered about for ages: what makes a good rec? We got over 500 unique responses to this open-ended question, which is astounding. After analyzing all the responses (and making the word cloud above!), five qualities stood out for making an effective podcast recommendation:

• Naming a specific starter episode

• Comparing the show to something the person already knows and loves

• Including a link 

• Enthusiasm!

• Actually listening to an episode together

Recommendations work when they’re personal, actionable, and enthusiastic. This makes complete sense: I’m way more likely to try a TV show or book if a friend tells me it’s like something I already love, or they’re so enthused that I can’t help but be swept up by it. Playing sample episodes for friends when hanging out or driving somewhere is also a great way to show by example (but not in a trapped way. Or maybe being Jigsaw is the only way to get your friends to love your favorite shows?).

A word cloud from the “What makes a good podcast recommendation?” question.

Getting Better

We ask listeners all sorts of things that may hurt for us to hear as well. 

For example, what’s preventing people from joining the MultiCrew, our membership program supporting new work from Multitude?

71% don’t have room in their budget—totally understandable. But 7% aren’t interested in the rewards and 6% aren’t familiar with the benefits. We asked those folks what would convince them to join, and got a lot of great ideas:

We’ll be putting several of these into practice right away, including a permanent public sample feed where listeners can hear a few rounds of our Multicrew-only podcast Head Heart Gut before deciding to join. We also have exclusive merch and more live events on the way.

We also need to improve how we explain some of the existing benefits we’re excited about. Discord is hugely popular among the incredibly online set, the Multitude staff amongst them, but our survey data indicates that it might not be as widely known as we thought. 

Following Up

When shows take big risks, we hope our audiences are excited about changes in form as we are. Take this question we posted to listeners of our actual play podcast Join the Party in 2021, as we considered branching out into a new game system:

90% of respondents would be open to a new game system. And so we spent several months planning the Camp-Paign, a summer-long foray into the new-to-us game system of Monster of the Week. Now that we’re two episodes into the campaign, we wanted to know: is this cool?

Yes! Even better than last year, fully 95% of respondents are on board with the new system.

Pandemic-Era Listener Habits

The most common question I get when I tell people what I do for a living is no longer “What’s a podcast?”. People want to know, “How did the pandemic affect podcast listening?” So we asked!

Despite worried headlines at the beginning of the pandemic, people are actually listening to podcasts more often now than pre-2020: 67% listen more, while just 9% listen less. 27% listen at different times and days of the week, and in our follow-up question, elaborated that they listen throughout their day instead of just during their commute. 

The major difference is how people listen, which we asked respondents to elaborate on in an open-response follow-up question. Since fewer people listen exclusively in the car during commutes, more use headphones and devices like TVs or speakers to play the audio out loud when they’re home (alone or with family members). More people also multitask while listening, since when you’re working from home, you have more control without a manager looking over your shoulder! Our audience’s most common activities while listening to our podcasts are working, chores, walking (alone and with pets!), cleaning, cooking, hanging out at home, playing games, and running errands. 

A word cloud drawn from the follow-up question: “Can you tell us more about what you do while listening to podcasts now?”

30% of respondents also noticed a change in the kind of podcasts they’re listening to now. Genres like comedy, storytelling, pop culture, and educational shows are all more popular, along with immersive styles (scripted fiction) and methods of listening (marathoning dozens of episodes of a new show in a row). News, politics, and crime-oriented shows fell in popularity because, uh, well, *gestures outside*

Ads & Monetization

I talk, write, and tweet (a lot) about podcast ads. Selling ads for our own podcasts and a stable of 25+ incredible independent podcasters is one part of Multitude’s business, so it’s something I care a lot about. And I’m worried that no one else cares as much as I do. Over the last few years podcast ads have become shorter, louder, more annoying, and more proliferated (with way more ads in an average podcast episode than there used to be). This is because cramming more ads into episodes is the easiest way for giant media companies to make money on podcasts at scale. And as more investment money pours into podcasting from tech and venture capital companies, that’s only going to get more intense.

So I was really curious to ask how our listeners felt about all of this. First we asked:

This makes total sense to me! I definitely prefer when hosts read their own ads. But how about where ads fall in an episode? 

Or, in other words, 87% of respondents think more than 3 ads in a 45-minute-long episode is too much. 

Another trend we’re noticing among big networks is making podcasters build multiple ad breaks into their episodes. This makes podcasting feel more like radio or TV, where commercial breaks interrupt content much more frequently. But I wanted to see what our listeners thought, so we asked:

Our listeners strongly prefer minimizing disruption by having one break in the episode where all of the ads live. Some don’t mind a preroll as well, but the numbers are clear: whatever we do, we won’t interrupt our episodes with multiple midroll breaks. 

Survey respondents also agreed that giving money directly to a podcaster on Patreon (or another membership platform) is the best way to show their support. And they don’t need extra stuff in order to do it. This is something our Head of Creative, Eric Silver, mentioned in his recent resource on designing Patreon memberships: 

We’ve found there are really two reasons someone will support you on Patreon: 1) you’re offering more regular content and they will pay for it or 2) they want to give you money for nothing in return.

84% of respondents that have joined the MultiCrew did so to help make new work happen from Multitude. That’s all. Not to listen to our weekly debate show Head Heart Gut (43%), read our behind-the-scenes newsletter (25%), enjoy the exclusive merch (11%), or even attend VIP receptions at digital and physical live shows (5%). Just to help us. Just because they want to be part of us taking chances and making new things. 

So if you’re a podcaster or creator worried about the time or effort launching a membership might take, let this be your permission to just do it. Just start. You may be surprised how your audience will come through for you.

In Conclusion

Survey-takers are the best people on earth! Seriously, we can’t believe how many of our listeners took time out of their busy days to give us such generous and detailed feedback. When making an independent living in digital media feels tough—and it sometimes does—we have actual data to turn to that tells us we’re doing pretty well.

But even more important than the compliments are the critiques. (And, yes, I did remind myself of my college poetry professor when I said that.) All creators and business owners know how vulnerable it feels to ask for feedback, but it’s so worthwhile. Your audience wants you to succeed, so why not let them help you? If you’re a podcaster, use our resource and make a survey of your own. 

If you liked this roundup, let us know! Survey Summer will return next year.