As a podcaster, there’s nothing more valuable to you than a listener’s time. Every minute someone spends with your show is a sign you’re doing something right.

We recently published a feature exploring where podcasting fits into the current mainstream dominated by short-form, quick-dopamine-hit content.

When I was researching the article, it became clear from speaking to a number of podcasters and industry people that, as far as they were concerned, long-form discussion is what brings so many listeners to podcasting. Spending time with podcast hosts is very much part of the experience of the medium.

So when the results came in last week of this year’s Discovery Survey, it wasn’t so surprising to see that the data shows the culture of podcast consumption is to spend time with a topic.

We spoke to over 150 podcast listeners about what they look for in a new podcast. Here are some key insights from the survey data suggesting that podcast listeners are going against the short-form grain and spending more time with podcasts than ever.

Contra to this theory that short-form is the only way to capture audience attention, our survey shows that demand for short-for isn’t really there in podcasting. Not only this, but the desire for long-form has grown over the last 4 years since we last ran the same listener survey.

When we asked respondents what their ideal episode length is when looking for new shows, we learned the following:

When given these four options, no one we surveyed said they preferred shorter podcast episodes. In the 2020 Discovery Survey, 11% said they preferred shorter episodes.

Of course, this is not to say that there’s no market for short-form podcasts—there are plenty of popular mini podcasts out there. But what it does say is that, given the choice, listeners prefer to spend more time immersed in a longer episode than dip their toe in something short.

When you consider the fact that the most popular shows in the world are largely 1hr+ average episodes, it’s also safe to assume that most listeners won’t be put off by longer content.

2. There’s a Growth in Desire to Binge

Another interesting finding from the survey was that more listeners now want a back catalogue to binge on.

While the vast majority (55%) still said having a back catalogue doesn’t affect whether they choose to listen to a podcast or not, this number was higher in the 2020 survey, when 64% said this was the case.

Four years on, a combined 42% of those listeners we surveyed said they prefer it when a new show has some form of big back catalogue of episodes they can binge on right away. In the 2020 survey, this number was just 32%.

The number of people who said they don’t listen to back catalogue episodes remained super low, at just 3% (4% in 2020).

3. Listeners Give New Shows More Time

The amount of time listeners will spend with a new show before giving up on it has grown, too.

While the top 3 options remain the most popular, those who said they’d give new shows up to 15 minutes grew from 29% to 40%.

Meanwhile, those who said they’d only give a new show 5 minutes or less dropped from 27% to 17% and there was a 6% growth in those who said they would give a new show a full episode before giving up.

This shows a general trend towards having a bit more patience with new shows. It really goes against the idea we’re fed that our attention spans are shrinking and that the only way to capture engagement in the current landscape is to hook in your audience as quickly as possible.

Compare this to the advice commonly given to YouTubers, though, and it’s a case of how many seconds (not minutes or full videos) the creator has to convince their viewer to stick around. This is fine if you’re demonstrating the peeling of an avocado, but not so much if you’d like to do a deep dive into the theory of consciousness.

Patience Is a Virtue of the Medium

While the numbers might not be hugely stark, there’s a clear general trend towards slowing down in listeners’ consumption habits. The Discovery Survey data suggest podcast listeners have more patience, give more time, and even want to spend more time digging deep into a new show.

And as a side note, patience is something we know creators value too. In our Podcaster Census last year, ‘patience to play the long game’ was cited as the number one key to success as an independent podcaster.

So while other content trends may lean towards fast and quick-hit content, podcasting is doing what it has always done so well: resisting the hype, and going with what feels right.

We’ve collected a whole lot more insights on how listeners find new shows to listen to and what does and doesn’t attract them to new shows. Subscribe to the Podcraft Perspectives newsletter to get access to the full Discovery Survey Report when it goes live.