Edison Research: AM/FM still leads Share of Music, but streaming and mobile are catching up

Edison Research has presented the latest installment of its Share of Ear series. The new report is titled Share of Music and it focuses on American adults’ music listening habits. This analysis reveals ongoing changes to where and when AM/FM radio still holds the largest share, as well as who is most frequently tuning in.

Within the average of 4 hours and 7 minutes of audio listening a day, 3 hours and 16 minutes (or 79%) are dedicated to music. News and talk/personalities each has a 9% share of the total audio time, while sports has 3%.

Vehicle listening still tops the location list, with 70% playing music in a car or truck on an average day. Home trailed close behind with 68%. Work ranked a distant third with 18%, while the catch-all of “other locations” had just 14%. However, listeners are spending more time listening in their residences; home has a 52% share of music listening time by location in contrast to 28% for cars.

The music sources American adults are using are continuing to shift. AM/FM radio still holds the biggest piece of the overall pie, but it’s less than half at 44%. Owned music has an 18% share, and streaming audio has 17%. YouTube secured 8% and Sirius XM netted a 7% share.

Specifically in vehicles, though, preferences change to more heavily favor radio. AM/FM has a 67% share of music listening in cars, but streaming audio drops to just 4%. Considering the average car in the country is more than 10 years old, that low percentage for streaming may be the result of a smaller share sporting digital dashboards and other features for easy mobile listening. In fact, only 12% of drivers said they had an in-dash infotainment system.

The report also examined brand awareness and preferences for specific streaming audio services. Pandora has the highest brand awareness with 82%, followed by Apple Music at 67% and iHeartRadio at 65%. Spotify was a tier lower with 52% and Amazon Music had 51%. Pandora also had the largest share of time spent at 49% across all adults. However, the 13-34 age group had a markedly more even split between Pandora and Spotify at 43% and 35% shares, respectively. For context, the 55 and older respondents had a 59% share for Pandora and just 9% for Spotify.

A final point hammered home the diverging listening habits by age group. For the entire adult population, AM/FM radio receivers decisively had the largest share of listening time by device at 41% and mobile devices took 23%. In the 55+ group, the lead stretches to a 54% share for AM/FM and 8% for mobile. The rankings are reversed for the 13-34 bracket, with mobile leading at 36% and AM/FM at 27% and closely followed by computers at 23%.