The Gabby Petito, Ruby Franke, and Idaho student murders cases all captured national news attention and the public’s dark fascination. But perhaps even more impactful than the mainstream media coverage? The true-crime podcasts.
In a boom so strong that Hulu made a hit parody TV show about it, the true-crime-podcast industry has enjoyed steady success since This American Life’s Serial first made waves in 2014. As the genre has continued to expand, with dramatic and documentary TV and streaming series joining the fray, critics have raised ethical concerns about whether true-crime coverage can be exploitative, while fans have argued that victims’ stories deserve to be told.
The often gruesome topics themselves, as well as the ongoing ethical considerations, represent a push and pull that could make an advertiser pause. Should brands get in on true crime’s audience, or is the genre too much of a risk to brand safety?
“Advertising has always been challenging in the true-crime space, particularly for brands that are sensitive to brand safety,” Jordan Newman, head of content partnerships at Spotify, told us. “There are a lot of brands that don’t want to be associated with graphic subjects.”
Posing an additional wrinkle, brands that are okay with the subject matter may have more podcast advertising options than ever before, Newman said, “which is great, but it also means that attracting those ad dollars becomes more and more competitive.”
Can’t turn away
If Only Murders in the Building made anything clear, it’s that true-crime podcasts have tons of fans. An estimated 6.7 million Americans listened to the genre in 2019, according to data from Edison Research, but interest skyrocketed to an estimated 19.1 million listeners in 2024, making true crime the third-most popular genre in the US in Q2 2024.
Newman said that not only is this audience massive, it’s an actively engaged audience that is attractive to advertisers.
“In a world that is increasingly dominated by short-form, addictive content, true crime really allows you to dive deep and to spend hours and hours engaging in these really meaty stories that have so many twists and turns,” he said.
The types of brands most attracted to true-crime podcasts, Newman has found, are direct-response advertisers aiming to reach large audiences, usually companies with clear objectives tied to their ad spend and offer listeners something in return, like discount codes. Brand awareness–focused advertisers, on the other hand, might be a little less willing to place themselves next to true crime’s content, he told us.
Jennifer Kohl, chief media officer at VML, said she understands why some brands might be hesitant, but she finds the genre has more to offer than some brands might think.
“If you’re a pharmaceutical brand, if you’re a car company, if you’re, I would even say, a retail brand, I think you’re looking for the right audience,” she told us. “And if your demographic and your audience is leaning into podcasts, true crime or otherwise, you’re there, and you’ll see if that makes sense for you.”
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Some brands, though, are more likely to sit it out. “If you are Disney, the happiest place on earth, you are likely not going to be advertising within a true-crime space, podcast or otherwise,” she said.
The genre’s enduring audience appeal is what podcast creators Morgan Absher and Kaelyn Moore, hosts of the show Clues, believe will ultimately keep advertisers and listeners hooked. Both Absher and Moore hosted podcasts about Reddit tales and scary stories, respectively, but Clues, which debuted earlier this year as part of Pave Studios’s Crime House, marks both hosts’ first focused forays into true crime. Moore said the genre provides seemingly endless topics to keep listeners tuning in.
“It’s never going to stop being interesting,” she said. “I know there are ethical concerns around it, and Morgan and I do a great job on the research…But this is something that’s just always going to be popular. It’s never not been popular.”
Beyond the pod
Despite the topic, Absher and Moore said the format offers brands and audiences opportunities to build deeper connections—not just with the stories they’re telling, but with the hosts themselves.
“Brands enjoy personalities that people care about, at least in my experience, more than they are hesitant to advertise on certain types of content,” Moore said. “If Morgan and I are the types of personalities that people want to listen to, they’re still going to listen to our ads, and they’re still going to buy the products. I haven’t really seen it be as much of an issue as people say it is.”
Podcasters Sylas Dean and Mary Stew, who host the true-crime show CreepTime, have branched out beyond direct ad monetization. The duo also sells merchandise, goes on tour, and offers premium content that accounts for “a huge bulk” of their show-related revenue, Dean told us, which is hosted through Spotify’s platform for podcasters.
Because of the challenges in monetizing the ultra-popular genre, Newman said that Spotify has worked to find ways to help creators continue to monetize. Most recently, the Spotify Partner Program, which rolled out earlier this year, has offered the creators of video podcasts with high engagement rates an additional revenue stream—the more Spotify Premium users spend time engaging with a show, the more its creators have the potential to make. It’s a method that Newman said is less reliant on advertisers’ preferences and could thus be particularly advantageous to true-crime hosts. Since joining the program, CreepTime has seen revenue increase by more than 30% and consumption grow by 20%, according to Spotify.
“There are people spending hours and hours immersed in their favorite true-crime podcast, so the revenue opportunity for [creators] is actually quite significant,” Newman said.