Adults Spend Over 50% More Time with Radio Than Streaming

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, March 15, 2023 | 3:47pm CT

Edison Research

In part two of Edison Research's four-part series on the strength of AM/FM radio in the U.S., the company finds listeners ages 18+ spend more than twice the amount of their daily audio time with AM/FM radio compared to streaming audio. Using the Share of Ear dataset, Edison compared the share of daily audio time spent with AM/FM Radio listening (including over-the-air and streams) with non-AM/FM streaming audio (including Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, Apple music, etc.). With adults in the U.S. clocking 71% of their time listening to AM/FM Radio, that's more than double the time spent with Streaming Audio (29%).

The graph below shows only AM/FM Radio (which includes streams) versus ad-supported streaming (not all streaming). Note that listening to SiriusXM, YouTube, podcasts, music channels on TV, owned music such as CDs and audiobooks are not included in these comparisons.

More than five times the amount of daily audio consumption among U.S. adults is spent with AM/FM radio, including radio station streams, (85%) than with ad-supported streaming audio (15%).

Much of the time spent listening to streaming sources isn't ad-supported; but these points illustrate a strength of traditional AM/FM radio and its streams when compared to ad-supported streaming (including Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, Apple music, etc.).