Youth Love Spotify, Older Americans Stay True to Pandora

Almost 7 in 10 (68%) Americans ages 12+ listen to online audio on a monthly basis. And, while online audio adoption for younger Americans has leveled off, listening by older adults is on the rise, with the Infinite Dial report from Edison Research and Triton Digital finding that 76% of 35-54-year-olds and 42% of adults 55 and older listened to online audio in the month prior to being surveyed.

Marketing Charts reports Pandora continues to enjoy the distinction of having the highest brand awareness among online audio brands, with 85% of the more than 1,500 Americans ages 12 and older surveyed saying they have heard of the brand. However, it’s Spotify that can boast the most active listeners, per the survey, with 22% of respondents reporting having listened to Spotify in the week prior to the survey, up from 20% in 2019.

Pandora, on the other hand, has seen weekly listenership drop over the past couple of years, falling from 23% in 2018 to 18% in 2020. And while Amazon Music (10%) and Google Play (6%) have seen modest growth over the past year, they are a long way from threatening Spotify’s hold on the streaming audio market.

Spotify (28% share) and Pandora (24% share) are also the audio brands that are used most often by respondents. The fact that most listeners are primarily using either Spotify or Pandora amplifies recent research indicating that streaming audio listeners are still quite happy to use ad-supported streaming services.