From ‘A-Ha!’ Moments to Analytics: 4 Things We Learned About Podcasters This Month

Every week, we ask our 29k+ newsletter subscribers a quick poll question. This helps us all learn more about independent podcasters’ aspirations, processes, challenges and opinions about the podcasting industry.

Here’s what we learned about the independent podcaster community in May 2025.

1. Podcasters are inspired by their community 🤝

We asked what usually sparks their ideas for new podcast episodes.

It made us all warm and fuzzy inside to learn that the most popular source of inspiration for podcast episodes was speaking to other people in the community.

A massive 43% said their next episode ideas normally come from podcast guests, friends or listeners.

29% said they take inspiration from whatever’s trending in their podcast niche, while 14% said they usually pick up ideas from something they watched or read.

The remaining 14% told us they follow a pre-determined content calendar. This would suggest they potentially get their ideas from a whole load of different places.

2. Podcasters still prefer audio ✊

We asked if participants prefer to watch or listen when consuming their favourite podcasts.

We’re under no illusions here: the vast majority of our newsletter subscribers are podcasters. Therefore, it was always likely that this poll’s result would skew towards audio.

But 94% is 94% 😮

That’s how many podcasters told us they prefer to listen to podcasts. Only 6% said they prefer to watch on a video platform.

The general theme in the comments was that audio is more convenient, allowing us to multitask – driving, walking, exercising, doing chores – while we listen.

3. Podcasters are self-learners 🤝

We asked podcasters to share where they got their biggest “aha!” moment since becoming a podcaster.

In other words, how they learned that one major tip or insight that changed everything about how they run their podcast.

Turns out podcasters are big self-learners! 43% said their best podcasting tip was something they just figured out themselves.

29% said they got the tip from another podcaster they know, and (surprise!) 24% heard about it on a podcast about podcasting.

7% said they learned their best podcasting tip through something they saw on social media.

4. Podcasters love data 📈

We asked how often podcasters dip in to look at their podcast stats.

Respondents to this poll showed a fair bit of commitment, with 44% checking in on podcast data every single day. That’s some pretty dedicated metric tracking!

36% said they logged in to check their numbers weekly, while 18% were happy to have a peek once a month.

Only 2% said they never check their analytics. Could that be pure confidence, indifference… or fear, I wonder? 😅

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