San Francisco, Oct 28 (IANS): Music streaming giant Spotify has reportedly surpassed tech giant Apple to become the top podcast provider in the US.

During the company's Q3 2021 earnings call, Spotify said that according to Edison Research and its own internal sources, it "recently became" the No. 1 podcast platform US listeners use the most, reports TechCrunch.

Given the US is the largest global podcast market, the milestone is significant and speaks to the sizable investment Spotify has made in podcasts over the past few years, the report said.

The company didn't break down its podcast listener numbers specifically, however. Instead, it shared its monthly active users overall grew 19 per cent year-over-year (YoY) to reach 381 million in the quarter, up from 365 million last year.

Premium subscribers also grew 19 per cent to reach 172 million, up from 165 million last year.

According to eMarketer's recent data, Spotify and Apple Podcasts have been neck and neck in terms of US podcast listeners.

Its analysts said last month that Spotify would reach 28.2 million monthly US podcast listeners by year-end, topping Apple Podcast's 28 million by a thin margin.

It forecast Spotify's number of US podcast listeners would continue to grow to reach 43.6 million by 2025.

Meanwhile, Edison Research confirmed the website that the podcast milestone is based on usage, not downloads.

The data is from the firm's second-quarter Podcast Consumer Tracker, its subscription service that covers the podcast industry.

Respondents were asked "what platform or service do you use most to listen to podcasts?" and Spotify came in at No. 1, at 24 per cent of weekly podcast consumers.

This put it ahead of Apple Podcasts for iOS (21 per cent) and YouTube (18 per cent). Edison Research said its sample is in excess of 8,000 weekly podcast consumers.