In this episode: "Which app do most people use to listen to podcasts?" There are a ton of apps out there on Android and iOS. Podcast hosting companies can track this data because they record every single download that occurs and they can tag that download to a specific application. So first up, we have data from Transistor, whom I work for. And on Transistor, the top listening app is Apple Podcasts with 51.7% of the market share. Spotify is number two, 27.8%.
And then the next app that shows up, after Transistor's mobile player and desktop player, is Google Podcasts, which, as you'll recall, is being sunsetted, killed, by Google. Google Podcasts has 2.1% of all downloads on Transistor. Overcast has 1.6%, which is actually pretty impressive considering it is iOS only and also just built by one person. And then we have Castbox with 1.4%. Pocket Casts is a lot lower than I'd like it to be at 1 percent and Podcast Addict is underneath 1 percent at 0.8%.
Over on Buzzsprout, the trend is the same, although the percentages are a little different. 44.4% of their downloads happen on Apple Podcasts. On Spotify, only 28.6%. And then Google Podcasts has a 3.5% market share there. Castbox with 2%. Apple iTunes with 2% the old iTunes player. Amazon Music has 1.6%. Overcast under 1% at 0.9%. And Pocket Casts right underneath that with 0.7%. So why is this information interesting?
Well, for the platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, I think they want as much market share here as they can. Um, Apple podcasts, especially now that they are launching these Apple podcast subscriptions, wants as many people using Apple podcasts as possible. Apple recently announced that they have 2 billion active devices. That's iPhones, iPads, Macs. And that's a big install base for Apple Podcasts.
Spotify, of course, is one of Apple's main competitors on the music side, and they've been investing heavily in podcasts. They want as many people listening to podcasts, and really audio, in the Spotify player as possible. The interesting variable in all of this is Google and YouTube. On one hand, it seems crazy for Google to abandon Google Podcasts, which is in the top 5 most popular podcasting apps.
But when you see they only have 2-3 percent market share, it makes a lot more sense for Google to look to YouTube. Now, YouTube Music, which is the replacement for Google Podcasts, only has about 80 million active users as of last year. But YouTube has 2.7 billion active users. It is the second largest search engine in the world, and many podcasters are uploading video of them speaking on microphones, maybe with a guest, maybe on a panel. to YouTube already.
Plus, we have these other studies that are showing that YouTube may already be the number one platform for consuming podcasts. This study from The Morning Consult shows that 33 percent of respondents preferred YouTube, 24 percent preferred Spotify, and 12 percent preferred Apple Podcasts. It's interesting how Buzzsprout and Transistor's data skews so heavily to Apple Podcasts, where a lot of these studies here show Spotify above Apple Podcasts and then YouTube even higher.
Another study by Cumulus Media and Signal Hill shows that YouTube is the number one most used platform among consumers, regardless of tenure or heavy use. Podcast newcomers prefer it, podcast pioneers prefer it, and heavy podcast consumers apparently prefer YouTube.
And at Podcast Movement, Coleman Insights and Amplify Media presented findings that showed that consumers preferred using YouTube for consuming podcasts to Spotify and Apple in terms of enjoyability, ease of use, and better podcast recommendations. So we'll see if Google swapping out Google podcasts for YouTube music pays off; if it's able to grab more of that podcast listening market and not just the video market.
And YouTube says they have plans to consume traditional podcast RSS feeds in YouTube music, which could mean that podcast hosting providers like Transistor could start tracking those downloads. And then we'll see! We'll see how YouTube stacks up in the list of most popular podcast listening apps. That's it for this week.
If you liked this episode, it'd be great if you subscribe to us or followed us on your favorite podcast listening app, whether that's Apple, Spotify, Google, try out Pocket Cast if you haven't tried it already, it's a great app. It's, uh, now run by the same people who run WordPress and I don't think it gets enough press. You can also watch this episode on YouTube and leave a comment there. That's it for this week. I'm Justin Jackson and we'll see you next episode.