Podcast listening continues to grow

Podcast listening continued to climb in April, with Podtrac’s latest publisher rankings showing gains for many of the industry’s largest networks as iHeartMedia tightened its grip atop the chart, reports Inside Radio.

The iHeart Audience Network, continues Inside Radio, “remained the largest podcast publisher measured by Podtrac, reaching 62.9 million U.S. monthly listeners and 343 million downloads and streams in April. Compared with March, the network’s audience increased roughly 4%, while downloads and streams climbed about 7%.

“Podtrac says iHeartPodcasts also posted another month of growth, rising to 31 million U.S. listeners and 170.9 million downloads and streams. That represented an increase of approximately 6% in audience and 9% in downloads month-to-month.

“Behind the iHeart pair, the rest of the leaderboard remained largely stable. Acast held the No. 3 position with 24.1 million listeners and 88.2 million downloads and streams, while the NPR Sales Network stayed fourth with 19.6 million listeners and 112.1 million downloads. Libsyn rounded out the top five, growing to 18.8 million listeners and 85.9 million downloads and streams.”