Podcast Listening Takes Surprising Dip Amid Coronavirus

Since early March, when concerns around the coronavirus started to get more severe, people have been listening to podcasts a lot less. Downloads in the space overall have dropped about 10 percent since the start of March, according to data from Podtrac, which follows trends and usage in the space. Total unique listeners also dropped roughly 20 percent in the same time frame. For both metrics, the drops became more precipitous around March 9, the same day financial trading in the U.S. was briefly halted after stocks fell so far so fast around ongoing economic concern given what were then only conversations about how to limit the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. It was only the first day of a lockdown in Italy, now one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus. Podtrac found that last week, the entire American audience for podcasts fell 8 percent after declining 2 percent the week prior. While most podcast listening tends to happen during commuting and other solo activity, government orders in major states like New York and California for citizens to stay at home and the stop of all nonessential business seems to have zapped people’s interest or ability to listen.  The

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