Two years and 100 episodes; that's the average investment independent podcasters need to show results, but fewer than 7 percent reach those milestones, according to new industry research.
The data, compiled by PodMatch, focuses on independent, interview-based podcasts, removing celebrity shows and those supported by big media networks. In other words, they're looking at the average podcaster.
Fresh weekly content is coming out from about 125,000 indy podcasters, with 407,000 more inactive or sporadically updating, according to the report.
Just 12 percent of independent podcasters will reach the one-year, 50 episode mark, and almost half of them will drop out before doubling those numbers and reaching profitable status.
Over half of all podcasters (52 percent) will throw in the towel before their eighth episode, PodMatch said.
As far as downloads and rankings, it only takes 29 downloads in an episode's first week to be considered a top-half show, and 112 downloads in that time period places a show in the top 25 percent.
472 weekly downloads pulls a show into the top 10 percent. At the 4,740 weekly download number, it's a one-percenter.
It's important to note that the download numbers are based on information from hosting platform Buzzsprout, who partnered with PodMatch to produce the report. Buzzsprout controls enough of the audio-podcasting market to consider their data as an industry average, according to the report.
Importantly, however, there numbers don't take video podcasting into account, so views from YouTube or other video platforms - and their impact on reach, profitability and impact- aren't considered in these statistics.
