Apple Podcast Video vs YouTube Podcast

This is the 101st episode of the Video Brand Infusion Podcast, and I want to talk about the difference between publishing a video podcast on YouTube versus through RSS, where I host my audio on Buzzsprout.

About 90 days ago, I upgraded my Buzzsprout account so I could also host the video version of the podcast there.

Now that we're 100 episodes in, it's the perfect time to take a look at the numbers.

Does anyone actually watch video podcasts through Apple Podcasts, or is most video consumption still happening on YouTube?

Wondering if publishing an Apple podcast video is better than uploading to YouTube?

After 100 episodes, I dig into my stats from Buzzsprout and YouTube to reveal where the real audience is for Apple Podcast videos and traditional YouTube content.

VIDEO: Apple Podcast Video vs YouTube Podcast

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Apple Podcast Video vs. YouTube Podcast: What 100 Episodes of Data Taught Me

100 episodes.

Nearly 150,000 YouTube views.

Almost 9,000 podcast downloads.

And after about 90 days of publishing video through Apple Podcasts?

60 video downloads.

So… what does all of that actually tell me about Apple Podcast video vs. YouTube?

Well, I had a pretty good idea going into this experiment, but now that I've got more than two years of data from the Video Brand Infusion Podcast, I can actually look at what happened and make a much more informed decision about where I want my video podcast to live.

And honestly, the results aren't all that surprising.

Why I Started a Video Podcast in the First Place

I started the Video Brand Infusion Podcast a little over two years ago, back in April 2024.

And from the beginning, I wanted to experiment with video.

I'm a longtime podcast listener. I genuinely love audio podcasts, and I love the way you can listen while you're walking, driving, folding laundry, or doing something else entirely.

But I also know how powerful video can be.

So my thought was basically: why not have both?

The podcast could still be available as an audio podcast through RSS, while the video version could live on YouTube.

At the time, YouTube's podcast features were relatively new, so I was curious to see what would happen if I treated my podcast as a video-first piece of content.

Now we're 100 episodes in.

And because apparently I can't reach a milestone without turning it into a data experiment, I decided to compare the numbers.

100 Episodes of YouTube vs. Podcast Downloads

I went all the way back to April 4, 2024, when I published the first episode, and looked at the performance of all 100 episodes.

On the YouTube side, I'm looking specifically at the videos that are part of the Video Brand Infusion Podcast playlist.

On the podcast side, I'm looking at the episodes hosted through Buzzsprout.

And here's where things get interesting.

Over those 100 episodes:

Buzzsprout: 8,914 downloads
YouTube: nearly 149,000 views

That's almost 9,000 audio downloads compared with almost 150,000 YouTube views for the same number of episodes.

Now, before you start doing the math, I want to be really clear about something.

These aren't perfectly comparable numbers.

A YouTube view isn't the same thing as someone listening to an entire podcast episode.

In fact, my average view duration across those 100 YouTube episodes is only about 3 minutes and 44 seconds.

My episodes are often 20, 30 minutes, or longer.

So somebody could click on one of my videos, watch for a few minutes, and leave. That's still counted as a view.

A podcast download doesn't necessarily mean someone listened to the entire episode either, but podcast listening behavior is different. People often put on a podcast and let it play while they're doing something else.

So I'm definitely not saying 149,000 YouTube views equals 149,000 podcast listeners.

It doesn't.

But even with that huge caveat, there's something I can't ignore.

YouTube is getting my content in front of dramatically more people.

Why I Don't Look at 8,914 Downloads and Panic

If all I had were my Buzzsprout numbers, I might look at 8,914 downloads across 100 episodes and think, “Okay… something isn't working.”

I'd be wondering whether I needed to run ads.

Maybe I should be doing more promotion.

Maybe I need to create audiograms.

Maybe I need to be posting clips on Instagram every time an episode goes live.

But that's not what I'm doing.

I'm publishing the episode.

I send an email to my list the next day.

And that's pretty much it.

I'm not spending hours creating social media clips for every episode.

I'm not creating a bunch of audiograms.

I'm not doing all of the things we sometimes feel like we have to do just to get people to notice that a podcast exists.

And yet, the content is still being discovered on YouTube.

That's one of the reasons I continue to believe that YouTube is such a powerful discovery platform for podcasts and businesses.

People don't have to already know who you are.

They don't have to already be subscribed to your podcast.

They don't have to be following you on Instagram.

They can simply be looking for something you happen to teach.

And your video can show up.

That's a very different experience from publishing a podcast and waiting for someone to find it in their podcast app.

Then I Tried Video on Apple Podcasts

About 90 days before recording this episode, I upgraded my Buzzsprout account so I could also host the video versions of my podcast episodes there.

The reason?

Apple Podcasts had started supporting video in a more streamlined way, and podcast hosts like Buzzsprout were making it possible for creators to distribute video through RSS.

And I thought, “Sure. Let's see what happens.”

I genuinely wasn't sure.

Would people actually watch my video through Apple Podcasts?

Would it become another meaningful way for people to discover the podcast?

Would people who had never seen me before suddenly discover the video version?

After about 90 days, I had my answer to at least one part of that experiment.

There were 60 video downloads.

Sixty.

Now, there's another important caveat here: I don't actually know whether those people watched the video.

The data tells me that the video was downloaded.

It doesn't tell me that someone sat down and watched the video from beginning to end.

So I don't want to make the data say more than it actually says.

But compared with nearly 150,000 YouTube views over the same body of content, the difference is pretty striking.

I Think User Behavior Has a Lot to Do With It

Here's where my own behavior comes into play.

I'm a podcast listener.

When I open Apple Podcasts, I'm usually there because I want to listen.

I'm probably doing something else.

I'm not necessarily sitting there thinking, “What video do I want to watch?”

And even when podcasts I listen to now offer a video version through Apple Podcasts, my reaction is usually something like, “Oh, cool.”

And then I listen to the audio.

If I actually want to watch the video?

I go to YouTube.

That's just how I personally use these platforms.

And I suspect that's an important distinction when we're thinking about Apple Podcast video vs. YouTube.

People have different expectations when they open different apps.

YouTube is a place where I expect to discover and watch things.

Apple Podcasts is where I expect to listen.

That doesn't mean Apple Podcasts video can't become something bigger.

It just means that, at least based on my own experiment so far, I'm not seeing evidence that it's competing with YouTube as a video discovery platform.

There's Another Problem: Discoverability

This is where I think YouTube has a pretty significant advantage.

YouTube is built around discovery.

Someone can search for a question, a problem, a topic, or something they're curious about and find your video without ever knowing who you are.

I've personally experienced the opposite when searching for information through Apple Podcasts.

Recently, I searched for something because I wanted the newest information on a particular topic.

And some of the top results were three or four years old.

That's not necessarily what I want when I'm trying to learn something current.

And that's one of the things that makes me question Apple's bigger video strategy.

If the goal is to make video a meaningful discovery mechanism, discovery itself has to work really well.

For me, YouTube is still the obvious place I'd go when I want to find a video that teaches me something.

But Don't Count Audio Out

Now, here's where I don't want this article to turn into “YouTube good, podcasts bad.”

That's not what I'm saying at all.

I think audio podcasting is incredibly valuable.

There's something really powerful about listening to someone's voice over and over again.

If you've listened to a podcast for months or years and then you see that person's blog post or social media post, you can almost hear the words in their voice.

You've developed a relationship with that voice.

That's a very real kind of connection.

So I don't think audio podcasting is going away just because video is becoming more popular.

I actually think there's something really nice about having both.

You can give people the audio experience they already love while also giving them the opportunity to watch you on camera.

And for the people who discover you through YouTube, they can eventually become podcast listeners too.

That's the best of both worlds.

Your Video Podcast Should Still Work Without the Video

There's one thing I feel pretty strongly about after doing this for 100 episodes.

If you're going to call something a podcast, I think it should still be enjoyable to consume in an audio-only format.

The video should be a bonus.

Not a requirement.

Now, I say that knowing that this particular episode is a little unusual because I'm showing my screen and talking through numbers and statistics.

But even then, I tried to describe what I was showing so that someone listening to the audio version could still follow along.

That's important.

If your audience has to see your screen to understand what you're saying, you're creating a video presentation that happens to have an RSS feed.

That's a little different from creating a podcast that also happens to have video.

And I think that distinction matters.

The Bigger Reason I Still Want You on Camera

There's another reason I think video is worth the effort, and it has less to do with views and more to do with trust.

We're living in a world where AI can create incredibly convincing content.

And that makes showing up as a real human increasingly valuable.

We used to put so much pressure on ourselves to make videos look perfect.

Perfect lighting.

Perfect scripts.

Perfect delivery.

Perfect production.

And now I'm not convinced that perfect is always what people want.

In fact, I think overly polished content can sometimes make people wonder whether what they're seeing is even real.

You don't have to show up with perfect hair, perfect lighting, or a perfectly scripted presentation.

You can show up as yourself.

You can laugh.

You can stumble over a word.

You can pause.

You can talk like a human.

That's part of what makes video powerful.

People can see your face.

They can hear your voice.

They can get a sense of who you actually are.

And for a business owner, that's a pretty powerful way to build trust.

So, Should You Put Your Video Podcast on YouTube?

After 100 episodes, my answer is a very enthusiastic yes.

If you're excited about the idea of putting your video podcast on Apple Podcasts, I think you should be even more excited about putting it on YouTube.

Not because audio doesn't matter.

Not because Apple Podcasts doesn't matter.

And not because every podcast needs to become a video podcast.

It's because YouTube gives your content another opportunity to be discovered by people who don't know you yet.

And that's the part that matters most to me.

I don't want to spend all of my time promoting my podcast.

I want to create something useful and give it a chance to find the people who need it.

YouTube lets me do that.

And yes, my YouTube channel already had some momentum before I started publishing the podcast there. There was already an audience watching my video content.

So I'm not pretending my results will look exactly the same for everyone.

But the experiment still tells me something important.

Video gives your content another life.

Your podcast can live in someone's earbuds.

Your video can live on YouTube.

And someone can discover you months after you published the episode because they were looking for exactly what you talked about.

That's a pretty compelling reason to turn on the camera.

100 Episodes In, I'm Still Going

I'll admit it.

I considered stopping the Video Brand Infusion Podcast at episode 100.

A nice, round number.

A clean ending.

Walk away.

And then I recorded episode 101.

So… apparently we're not done yet.

I'm going to keep creating the video podcast because I still believe in the experiment.

The podcast players are there for the people who want to listen.

The video is there for the people who want to watch.

And YouTube gives the content a chance to reach people who aren't already part of my audience.

For now, that's enough for me.

And if you're wondering whether you should add video to your own podcast, I wouldn't get too caught up in making the video version perfect.

Turn on your camera.

Make something useful.

Make sure someone could still enjoy it without watching the screen.

Then put it somewhere people can actually discover it.

Because if you're already going to spend the time creating the content, why not give it the biggest possible stage?

Conclusion

After 100 episodes, I don't think the question is really Apple Podcast video vs. YouTube.

I think the better question is: What role do you want each platform to play?

For me, audio podcasting is about accessibility, connection, and giving listeners the experience they already love.

Video is about putting a face to the voice, building trust, and giving the content another opportunity to reach people.

And YouTube?

That's where I see the biggest opportunity for discovery.

My numbers aren't a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, and I don't want to pretend they are. But nearly 149,000 YouTube views compared with 8,914 podcast downloads across the same 100 episodes tells me enough to keep doing what I'm doing.

And 60 video downloads through Apple Podcasts after about 90 days?

I'll keep an eye on it.

Maybe that changes.

Maybe Apple Podcasts eventually becomes a much stronger competitor for video discovery.

If it does, I'll be back with another update.

But for right now, if you're a business owner or podcaster wondering whether it's worth putting your podcast on YouTube, my answer is simple:

Turn on the camera.

You don't need to make it perfect.

You just need to give people a chance to find you.

And that's exactly why I'm still creating video podcasts at episode 101.

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