eMarketer: Spotify is on track to reach US monthly podcast listenership of 28.2M by the end of this year and surpass Apple's Podcasts for the first time
Context & Ripple Effects
Spotify entered this forecast after reporting a catalog of more than 500,000 podcasts and sharp growth in listener usage during 2019, making the projected audience crossover part of an already accelerating podcast expansion.
The projection also foreshadows Spotify's later claim that it had become the most-used US podcast platform, while its subsequent push into advertising and video shows why listener leadership mattered beyond a rankings milestone.
First-order effects
- eMarketer's forecast places Spotify on course to take the US monthly podcast-listener lead from Apple Podcasts for the first time, with 28.2M listeners by year-end.
Second-order effects
- A listener lead gives Spotify a stronger audience base for the advertising and video podcast strategy covered in its broader podcast investments, while Apple Podcasts faces a newly visible competitive benchmark in the US.
Third-order effects
- If Spotify sustains the lead it later claimed as the most-used US podcast platform, podcast competition is likely to be organized less around standalone directories and more around platforms that combine audience reach with monetization and formats such as video.
The trend: Podcast platforms are competing for leadership through integrated audience scale, advertising, and expanded media formats rather than catalog size alone.