Mae Mariyam Thomas is a Journalist and Podcaster who runs a podcast consultancy and production company called “Maed in India” in Mumbai, India.
She spoke about the state of podcasting in India, a growing industry with untapped potential as the country saw burgeoning podcast content in the last 5 years; the biggest podcast platforms making in-roads into the country; a growing listenership base; brand interest / investment and more.
So, what is the state of podcasting in India?
Last year in a Fox survey called ‘The State of the Podcast Universe’, India was the as the 2nd fastest growing podcast listenership in the world. In 2019, a Price Waterhouse Cooper said that India was the world’s 3rd largest podcast market after China and the US. It had over 40 million monthly podcast listeners in 2018 which grew by 60 percent from the previous year. It’s estimated that by 2023, it could grow to 176 million.
“While the biggest players in the audio streaming market globally would be Apple and Spotify, but the biggest giants in India are Gaana, with a 185 million monthly active users, and Jio Saavn, with a 104 million. Both have been active for almost a decade. Spotify, which entered India in Feb 2019, has 74 million, and Audible also launched their Indian app in the same year with more than a 100 original shows,” Mae said.
In 2016, Mae was a part of 'Saavn Originals', which was the first time a big streaming company in India was investing in new original audio content. This is when podcast distributor Audio Boom also entered the market and stations like Red FM were repurposing their live segments into podcasts.
In the last year alone Spotify, Gaana and Jio Saavn saw a 42 percent increase in time spent on their platforms.
So what kind of podcasts are Indians listening to? “Most media people in India know ABCD – A for astrology, B for Bollywood, C for Cricket and D for devotion. Some of the most popular genres in podcasting are definitely spirituality and religion, sports – particularly cricket and India is also a nation that loves storytelling, so romance, crime, mystery also draw an active listener base.”
A recent report by Spotify said that at least 45 percent of Indian millennials listen to five podcast genres regularly. 77 percent of Indians listened to podcasts on their mobile devices.
Some examples of popular podcasts include an economical and policy show called ‘The Seen and the Unseen’ which has more than 150,000 listens a month. News media company Indian Express has a popular daily podcast called ‘Three Things’. Mae has been running her own Indie music podcast called ‘Maed in India’ where she does studio sessions and interviews with artists. She also does a woman’s podcast called ‘She Says She’s Fine’ with a woman gynaecologist, where you have a chance to hear women talking about orgasms, motherhood and topics like miscarriages – topics which are not happening in mainstream. There are Bollywood celebs with popular podcasts, soprts shows, LGBTQ shows, entrepreneur shows, tech shows, parenthood shows, science podcasts and more, and yet there is so much that has not been done in podcasts in India.
One of the most interesting aspects of 2020, even though it was a difficult year, was the growing attention from brands and many new artists released their debut singles, EPs and albums who were featured in one of her shows.
She said: “It’s an exciting time for podcasting in India. We are at the crest of a wave when in comes to podcasting. India is also not a homogenous country and diversity is our middle name whether it’s regional languages, culture, food, urban or rural, there are so many unheard voices and untold stories in this country.”
Related coverage:
Anything to do with home, health and wellbeing has had huge increases: #RadiodaysAsia
Launching new channels in Singapore: #RadiodaysAsia
Subscribe to the radioinfo podcast on these platforms: Acast, Apple iTunes Podcasts, Podtail, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, or wherever you get your podcasts.