Proposal: <podcast:demographics> to provide information about the demographic characteristics of the podcast's audience, such as age, gender, and geographic location.

[baditaflorin]

podcast:demographics: This tag could be used to provide information about the demographic characteristics of the podcast's audience, such as age, gender, and geographic location. This could be useful for advertisers who want to target specific demographic groups, and could also help data scientists to understand the demographics of the podcast's audience and how they change over time.

[baditaflorin]

Format
The podcast:demographics tag is a container element that can contain one or more sub-elements that provide specific demographic information. The sub-elements can include the following:

podcast:age: This sub-element can be used to provide information about the age of the podcast's audience. It can contain a single integer value that represents the average age of the audience, or it can contain multiple values that represent the distribution of ages in the audience.
podcast:gender: This sub-element can be used to provide information about the gender of the podcast's audience. It can contain a single value that represents the gender of the audience, or it can contain multiple values that represent the distribution of genders in the audience.
podcast:location: This sub-element can be used to provide information about the geographic location of the podcast's audience. It can contain a single value that represents the location of the audience, or it can contain multiple values that represent the distribution of locations in the audience.

<podcast:demographics>
  <podcast:age>
    <podcast:value>18-24</podcast:value>
    <podcast:value>25-34</podcast:value>
    <podcast:value>35-44</podcast:value>
  </podcast:age>
  <podcast:gender>
    <podcast:value>male</podcast:value>
    <podcast:value>female</podcast:value>
  </podcast:gender>
  <podcast:location>
    <podcast:value>United States</podcast:value>
    <podcast:value>United Kingdom</podcast:value>
    <podcast:value>Canada</podcast:value>
  </podcast:location>
</podcast:demographics>

Usage Notes
The podcast:demographics tag is optional, and may not be included in all podcasts.
The sub-elements of the podcast:demographics> tag are also optional, and may not be included in all instances of the tag.
The values provided in the sub-elements of the podcast:demographics tag can be represented as either a single value or as a distribution of values.
The podcast:demographics tag should only be used to provide information about the demographics of the podcast's audience, and should not be used to provide personal information about the people who create or contribute to the podcast.
Benefits
The podcast:demographics tag can provide several benefits for advertisers and data scientists, including:

It can help advertisers to target specific demographic groups with their advertising efforts, by providing information about the age, gender, and location of the podcast's audience.
It can help data scientists to understand the demographics of the podcast's audience and how they change over time, by providing detailed information about the age, gender, and location of the audience.
It can provide a standard format for representing demographic information about podcasts, which can facilitate data sharing and analysis across different platforms and tools.
Limitations
The podcast:demographics tag may have some limitations, including:

It relies on self-reported or estimated demographic information, which may be subject to errors or biases.
It may not provide a complete picture of the demographics of the podcast's audience, as it only includes information about specific demographic characteristics.
It may not be supported by all podcast platforms or tools, which could limit its usability and impact.

[theDanielJLewis]

What's the value to the audience?

I think this could be used to help indicate age-appropriateness, as I've tried to advocate for in #151.

[keunes]

That's a good question. But to determine age-appropriateness, these demographics are utterly useless. Whether you're a podcaster of 15 or 50, swearwords will probably have a bigger impact on appropriateness than age.

If anything, demographics might help with search.

[theDanielJLewis]

I would be referring to the minimum age of the audience, not the age of the podcaster.

[keunes]

Call me woke, but publicly exposing these self-defined target audience will make things worse rather than better.

As a podcaster, it's great for you to develop an image of your target audience, including basic demographics. Even though many podcast coaches will tell you: rather try to find your niche, a narrowly defined topic that you want to focus on.

You do you (as podcaster), but don't tell me if I should be interested in your podcast based on archaic definitions. If you have a podcast 'how to understand your husband' then is your demographic 'gender:female'? No, I'm gay, and interested in your podcast.

This smells like the big business advertising model: let me tell you what you like. No, you describe what you make, I'll (let my app) determine if I'm interested. EDIT The proposal is to support the advertising industry. Thanks but no thanks.