Fifth of young Americans stream radio rather than listen on traditional radio sets according to a recent blog post by Edison Research. Using their Share of Ear survey that measures the full audio space and how much the audio average American consumes in a typical day using a nationally representative sample of those aged 13+. Since 2015, the total portion of radio listening time that comes from streams has more than doubled, from 6% to 13% among those age 13+ in the US, according to their latest Share of Ear data.
There is a demographic story as well. As the graph shows, the portion of listening to AM/FM radio via streams is increasing at about the same pace among all age groups. Naturally the younger group streams the most, but even radio listeners age 55 and older are now getting 9% of their radio-listening time from streams.
It is worth noting that a large factor in the pace of change is how much radio listening happens in the car. While anyone with a smartphone can listen to radio streams while driving, Edison Research’s estimate is that only about 1% of in-car radio time is via streams.
Recently, they reported that time spent with all audio on the phone surpassed time spent on a radio set for the first time.
