Radio As Strong As Ever, Despite More Audio Options

Edison Research, the leaders in studying American audio use, just published their Q3 2018 Share of Ear report. The quarterly tracking study provides an in-depth view into U.S. audio usage.

The latest Westwood One blog highlights key takeaways from the study include:

• Advertisers and agencies incorrectly perceive the audience size of Pandora and Spotify: Advertisers Perceptions finds that advertisers and agencies believe Spotify has a 23% share of audio time spent while Pandora is slightly less at 21%. AM/FM radio is perceived at 36%. The truth: AM/FM radio has a 47% share while ad-supported Pandora is 4% and ad-supported Spotify is only 2% of audio time spent.
• Americans spend substantially more time daily with AM/FM radio than Spotify and Pandora: AM/FM radio dominates daily time spent with nearly two hours daily among persons 18+ compared to Pandora’s 12 minutes and Spotify’s 10 minutes daily.
• AM/FM radio outreaches all other ad-supported platforms: The Q3 2018 Share of Ear study has AM/FM radio’s daily reach at 72%, 7 times larger than Pandora and 18 times larger than Spotify and SiriusXM.
• Spotify’s ad-supported audience has not grown in over two years: all of Spotify’s growth comes from their commercial-free subscription service: Spotify’s audience growth over the last three years has been completely driven by its ad-free subscription service, up +150% since Q2 2016.
• Smart speaker ownership soars to 24% of all Americans in October 2018: Smart speaker ownership is still on the rise, tripling in just 2 years.