Why Gen-Z Isn’t Listening to Your Podcast (and What They Really Want Instead)

You might assume Gen-Z prefers straight-to-the-point, short-form content, but you would be incorrect. 

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Polls posted on Zoplo have established Gen-Z’s true content preferences, and it might surprise you. 40% of Gen-Z prefer long-form content (10+ minutes), and 49% prefer medium-form content (1-9 minutes). Reading this you might think, Podcasts must be the route to targeting Gen-Z consumers. Well, we found that 44% of Gen-Z do not listen to podcasts, whilst only 20% love them. So why, we ask, is everybody trying to make a podcast? The current over-saturation of podcasts, with PodcastIndex finding 4,198,326 podcasts as of June 2024, is pushing Gen-Z to disengage.

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Most new podcasts struggle to break through the noise in their genre and battle to get the listener's attention. With the podcast industry witnessing a meteoric rise in 2014 and 2019, when Spotify entered the podcast streaming arena, successful podcasts have already carved their niche by 2024 and are considered go-to options for listeners. The 20% of Gen-Z voters who love podcasts will likely be tuning in to these as listener loyalty is firmly established.

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We found that of those 20% who love podcasts, a significant amount of them listen to true crime podcasts, a market you are unlikely to get into unless your company has a Netflix-worthy skeleton in your closet. Moreover, an overwhelming 91% of Gen-Z voted that they would rather listen to music than a podcast, and 67% voted that they would rather read a book than listen to a Podcast, making the pastime an unpopular choice for escapism with Gen-Z. 

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Whilst one could argue that 20% loving Podcasts is a sufficient portion, especially when you are not aiming to please everybody, it is important to note that podcasts are one of the more complex formats to make work. They can be quite costly, with Riverside reporting the average cost of starting a podcast between £80 and £3800, and their success is often unpredictable. McKinsey & Company found that consumers demand personalisation, which is difficult to achieve with Podcasts when targeting specific consumer interests within Gen-Z. 

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When considering your media mix, it is wise to take the path of least resistance, such as TikTok, the voted preferred app of 67% of Gen-Z. Gen-Z told us they want medium-form content on social media, and with most brands targeting short form content, we believe there to be a huge opportunity here. 

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