In the crowded streets of Kolkata, metros in Delhi, or bustling local trains of Mumbai, a new channel of story-telling has slowly and steadily captured the ear and hearts of millions. Podcasts and audio stories, once considered niche segments, have risen as a popular medium of entertainment. The quiet revolution can be assessed from the facts that, the number of audiobook listeners in India is projected to reach 416.4 million by 2029. In addition to that, user penetration is expected to be 23.6% in 2024 and is projected to increase to 27.7% by 2029, as per a report by Statista.
Indians have seemed to prioritise audio mediums as their source of information and entertainment. India has witnessed rapid digitalisation fueled by relatively cheaper Internet and increasing smartphone penetration. Driven by this phenomenon, users are also shifting towards content that can be consumed while doing their regular jobs. Audio stories and podcasts seem to be forms of consuming audio content that people used to do with radio. Starting from news and politics to fiction and personal finance, Indians, especially the younger generation have tuned in to podcasts and audio stories. Platforms like Spotify, Pocket FM, Gaana, and JioSavan among others have provided a wide array of content in several languages, covering different parts of the country.
Listening in veins
The culture of listening is deeply rooted in India. Whether it is Vedas or mythologies like Ramayana or Mahabharata, people enjoy the art of storytelling. Content creators in podcasts and audio stories have cashed in on this age-old practice to attract more numbers of users. Some of the popular genres of audio stories, and podcasts are still religious or mythological stories, and classic tales. Not only larger companies, independent creators have also emerged in the arena of podcasts and audio stories. In fact, one the most popular example of this is Raj Shamani, who established his podcast channel on YouTube which has over 3.58 million subscribers at the time of filing this report.
What nation wants to listen to….
Storytelling is the primary catalyst with one out of every three users prefer audio for storytelling. One out of four users tune in to audio for convenience and one in every six users prefers audio for content diversity, reveals a report titled,’ Digital Entertainment Insights’ by Pocket FM. Further, the report stated that t 40% of users prefer five to 15-minute episodes with 35% and 25% of users opting for 15-30-minute and 45-60 minutes episodes respectively.
Money matters
It is believed that people prefer the pay-as-you-go approach. Instead of paying a set amount of money per month or year, users have leaned towards paying for what they want to consume, as per the report published by Pocket FM. It is also mentioned that 23% of users were inclined toward subscriptions whereas 37% of users were open to pay for individual episodes. The report, published in December 2023 also stated that 40% of users were not ready to pay the subscription fee, they were looking to manage with ads and other promotions.
Road ahead
With the advent of newer technologies like AI and enhancement in user experience, the market expects growth from tier-two and tier-three cities. However despite the promising growth, the Indian podcast and audio story market faces several challenges. Monetisation has remained a hurdle for content creators as the USA is expected to generate the most revenue globally ($3,408 million in 2024) in the audiobooks market.