Latino Podcasts Are Gaining Popularity, Favored by Most Audiences

Latino community is becoming one of the fastest-growing audiences in podcasts. According to Latino Podcast Listener Report 2021 of Edison Research, 36 percent of U.S. Latinos aged 18 and above, equivalent to 16 million people, have listened to a podcast in the past month, a 44 percent increase from 2020 (25 percent).

The recent study showed that the dramatic increase is due to both English-dominant and Spanish-dominant listeners, BeLatina reported.

One factor to contribute to the changes observed is the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Edison Research, over half or 54 percent of Latino monthly podcast listeners say they began listening to podcasts during March 2020 and after.

Within the last year, non-Spanish-dominant Latino account for 44 percent of the population in the U.S., and 57 percent of Spanish-dominant Latino became monthly podcast listeners, indicating that the amount of content available to Latino listeners is growing.

Latino Produced-Content Tops Apple, Spotify Podcast Charts

As it became evident that the top of Apple and Spotify's podcast charts were still mostly targeting white audiences, demand for Latino content produced by and for Latinos grew in recent years.

And as Latin music's popularity expands beyond the Hispanic community, podcasters see room for growth in their community.

Disney's 2021 movie "Encanto," which spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and Bad Bunny's upcoming stadium tour, El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo, which became the fastest tour to sell out on Ticketmaster since 2018, were examples of the recent popularity surge.

Marlon Bishop, vice president of podcasts at Futuro Studios, the new creative wing of the nonprofit multimedia news organization Futuro Media Group, told The Los Angeles Times that podcasts had been envisioned and created for "this very small group of white, affluent people" for a long time.

Based in New York City and founded in 2010 by award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, Futuro Media is the longest-running national Latino news program on public radio.

By collaborating with the political website Latino Rebels and later developing limited series such as the 2020 podcast "Anything for Selena," Futuro Media expanded its digital footprint.

In an innovative blend of investigative journalism and autobiography, host Maria Garcia spliced critical analysis of the Tejano singer's cultural and business afterlife with recollections of her childhood in El Paso, presented in both English and Spanish.

Now an executive editor at Futuro Studios, Garcia told the Times that listeners often express how the Spanish versions helped their families connect with their interests.

iHeartMedia Launched New Podcast Series to Elevate Latinx Voices and Stories

Last year, iHeartMedia, America's leading audio company and top podcast publisher, debuted "My Cultura," a new standalone podcast dedicated to elevating Latinx voices and producers and sharing the Latinx experience with millions of listeners.

iHeartMedia also offered its limited podcast series "In the Heights: El Sueñito," which hosted Eva Longoria and Lin-Manuel Miranda, known for creating the Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton, and the soundtrack of Disney's Encanto.

In the spring, the Audible app aims to publish a bilingual Latin music series titled "Punk in Translation: Latinx Origins," an eight-part audio documentary tracing the Latin American roots of punk rock, in collaboration with podcast start-up Fresh Produce Media.

As time goes by, content and platforms are diversifying, making room for tales and voices that directly address the demands of the Latino audience.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: GROWING UP HISPANIC FT SUAVE - From AyySebas