Black and Latino audiences drive podcast growth, but ownership lags

Axios
by Delano Massey
March 14, 2026
2 views
2 min read

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The Bottom Line

Black and Latino audiences drive podcast growth but lack ownership of the platforms they help make popular.

How This Affects You

If you're a podcast creator from these communities, you may build audiences without capturing significant revenue from your content.

AI Summary

Black and Latino audiences are driving the fastest growth in podcasting, with the medium now surpassing talk radio in spoken-word listening share. Black listeners spend about an hour more per day with audio than the rest of the U.S. population, while Latino audiences over-index on podcast consumption partly due to their younger demographic profile. Despite fueling this growth, most creators from these communities don't own their distribution platforms, which are dominated by Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. Notable exceptions include Charlamagne Tha God's Black Effect Podcast Network launched in 2020 and Angel Livas's Alive Podcast Network, which now hosts over 100 podcasts and splits its $4.99 monthly subscription fee with creators. Livas is opening Alive Studios as a production hub in downtown Washington to give creators more ownership control over their content.

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