The Q1 2025 report reveals a yawning gap in agency/marketer perceptions of audio audiences. Pierre Bouvard. Chief Insights Officer of the Westwood One Audio Active Group®, has shared some Advertiser Perceptions from a study of 303 media agencies and marketers conducted in August 2024 found the perceived combined audience share of Pandora/Spotify is 43%, much greater than the perceived share of AM/FM radio (27%).
AM/FM radio’s actual share (68%) is 2.5 times larger than what advertisers perceive (27%)
Agencies and advertisers vastly overestimate Pandora and Spotify shares. According to the Q1 2025 “Share of Ear,” AM/FM radio’s persons 18+ share of ad-supported audio (68%) is 14 times larger than ad-supported Pandora (5%) and ad-supported Spotify (5%).
Ad community perceptions of media audiences are often completely opposite to reality. Duncan Stewart, Director of Research, Technology, Media & Telecommunications at Deloitte, puts it best: “Why do people think that nobody listens to radio anymore? Because there is a narrative that new media kills old media, so nobody bothers to look at evidence that doesn’t fit the narrative.”
AM/FM radio dominates ad-supported audio share of time spent; Podcasts are a strong number two
AM/FM radio is the leader of ad-supported audio with a 68% share of ad-supported audio time spent among persons 18+. Podcasts take the second-place spot with a 20% share. Ad-supported Pandora (5%), ad-supported Spotify (5%), and ad-supported SiriusXM (3%) lag distantly.
2025 versus 2017: AM/FM radio is dominant, AM/FM radio streaming grows to beat ad-supported Pandora and Spotify, and podcasts grow by 5X
➤Read Bouvard's entire column: HERE