We’ve all heard the stats about how during the pandemic people started listening to more podcasts and streaming audio. The numbers spiked any many thought the usage would decline after the pandemic. But it hasn’t! It continues to increase which leads me to believe that people are just finding better content in less traditional places. Not to mention, we are an on-demand society. We want everything our way and we want it now. I guess Burger King was right (probably dating myself).
Last year, Mobile Device audio listenership surpassed AM/FM Radio Receivers for the first time, as you can see in the graph above. Well now, mobile devices are starting to take over the car. 23% of all audio consumed in a car was via mobile device and this doesn’t include SXM. 58% is still coming through the radio but this includes SXM. 19% came from other sources, perhaps family sing-a-longs. I can vouch for these stats having just come back from a road trip. We jammed to my wife’s Apple playlist through bluetooth while each of my boys listened to their own content with their headphones on.
So one can see how quickly mobile devices can take the overall lead when you factor in 3x the usage because of personal use while driving. All this leads me to promote audio advertising. I previously wrote about how ad dollars flowing to audio were about 3% compared to nearly 50% reach. Just like with digital advertising compared to traditional advertising in the early 2000’s, the spending needs to shift and the brands that do it first will win, in the short-term at least.
