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The brief outage of TikTok this past January 2025 revealed some underlying vulnerabilities in podcast discovery and listening, particularly for a Gen Z audience. Sending ripples throughout the creator economy, much more has been impacted than video.
What was once a simple upload destination for videos, TikTok has transitioned into one of the most important areas in audio content discovery and is very well-positioned to flip the script on podcast distribution with 20% of American podcast listeners now leveraging the service.
According to data from Edison Podcast Metrics™ and the Gen Z Podcast Listener Report-a collaboration of Edison Research and SXM Media-the impact of TikTok on podcasts has notably increased since Q4 2022. Juxtaposed against this backdrop, research reveals surprising trends: whereas 30% of listeners in the age category 13-24 years use TikTok to listen to podcasts, an astounding 80% of Gen Z podcast listeners reported their usage of TikTok to discover new podcasts, making TikTok the second most powerful platform in terms of podcast discovery, second only to YouTube.
The Key Points:
TikTok's podcast listening audience has grown from 17% to 20% of American podcast listeners since Q4 2022
Younger listeners, aged 13-24, are even more engaged, with 30% of them actively using TikTok as a platform for podcast consumption, according to the Gen Z Podcast Listener Report.
75% of Gen Z podcast listeners use TikTok, while 80% report discovering podcasts on the platform
TikTok is the second most-used platform for finding podcasts among listeners in Generation Z, after YouTube.
TikTok is used mainly to discover podcast content through teasers, not by consuming full episodes.
Why It Matters:
Think of TikTok as the modern equivalent of radio's "Top 40" countdown: it's become the place where younger audiences discover and sample new podcast content. The possible ban threatens to disrupt this critical discovery channel, potentially changing how millions of listeners-especially young audiences-discover and listen to podcast content.
The Big Picture:
The role of TikTok in podcasting has far-reaching implications beyond basic metrics. For podcasters, TikTok is a key marketing channel that allows unparalleled access to a younger audience through short-form, highly engaging content that invites audience interaction.
Producers have adapted their strategies with the inclusion of engaging moments within their audio, and this has meant the creation of more dynamic and shareable content. In fact, the whole podcasting industry has taken TikTok's short-form style into their marketing strategies, and to ban the site would therefore be highly risky for growth and audience-engagement strategies.
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