An upcoming “Spoken Word Audio Report” produced by Edison Research and NPR, which will be released in two weeks, will document that, according to Edison’s sample of “Share of Ear” diarykeepers, podcasts are now Americans’ primary source of personality/talk (as distinct from music, sports, and news) audio listening.
As shown in the chart below, 74% of listening to programming categorized by diarykeepers as “personality/talk” was to AM/FM in 2014, but that percentage dropped to 39% in 2022. At the same time, podcasts’ share of that “personality/talk” listening increased from 12% in 2014 to 41% in 2022.
During the same period, “other” platforms (which presumably includes such platforms as satellite radio and YouTube) increased their share from 14% to 20%.
That said, the 2022 percentages vary wildly by demo.
In 2022, older adults (age 55+) got 68% of their personality/talk programming from AM/FM and only 21% from podcasts, whereas today’s young people (age 13-34) got 60% of their personality/talk programming from podcasts and a mere 13% from AM/FM, as shown here:
Pretty definitive I’d say Kurt!… now more than just a pandemic “blip” now!
Best Lee