As the title is explanatory, let’s get to it. RAIN’s most important 2018 coverage of research and metrics in digital audio.
Research & Metrics
March is a giant month for research knowledge about streaming audio, with two annual reports of top importance in that month. One is The Infinite Dial, a decades-long continuing consumer survey of how Americans listen, produced by Edison Research and Triton Digital. From our perspective at RAIN, Infinite Dial is the most important knowledge event of the year.
The Infinite Dial
RAIN coverage of The Infinite Dial 2018 ran to five parts:
- Pandora tops the audio brand charts
- Steady growth for podcasting, especially in the car
- AM/FM radio still leads in-car audio
- Monthly and weekly online audio listening reach new highs
- Smart speaker ownership nearly tripled in the past year
Infinite Dial has an Australian version, too. Online audio and podcasting were on the rise in the 2018 edition.
(Inifnite Dial Canada launched in 2018; RAIN’s coverage is HERE.)
RIAA and the Recording Industry
The other report we eagerly await in march comes from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), detailing the revenue breakdown of streaming music and purchased music. the headline bullet point of the 2018 report (covering the full-2017 period) was that streaming represented 65% of revenue to the record industry, and was initiating a rebound in overall industry outlook.
- RIAA 2017: Streaming leaps to 65% share
- The RIAA releases a half-year report in September. This year, that burst of info showed streaming to represent 75% of record industry revenue.
- On the global scale, London-based MIDiA Research unleashed its comprehensive report in April, documenting streaming music revenue of $17.4 around the world.
- The IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industries) is charged with creating a global report similar to the RIAA’s role in the U.S. In the 2018 edition (reporting on full-year 2017), the IFPI asserted that streaming was the world’s top music revenue source. (And here is the IFPI half-year report issued in October.
More Key Research
- Edison Research, supported by Triton Digital, performs consumer survey work specialized to podcasting. In the 2018 edition of The Podcast Consumer, the “share of ear” doubled from previous reporting.
- In the IAB’s annual report of the preceding year, across all digital advertising categories, digital audio advertising was up 39%.
- HD Radio doesn’t have great traction in the U.S., but the DAB/DAB+ standards do well abroad. The WorldDAB reported 12-million receivers sold in 2017.
- Jacobs Media produces an annual Techsurvey, which surveys avid radio listeners about their preferences. In the 2018 edition, radio performed strongly, of course, as podcast and smart-speaker listening grew.
- The IAB partners with PwC to produce a much-scrutinized annual podcast advertising revenue report and projection. In June, the 2018 report predicted podcast ad revenue soaring to $659-million in 2020.
- Along the same line, PwC issued a report projecting that Australian podcasting revenue and audience will nearly double by 2020.
- From MusicWatch, a September report showing growth in music subscribers, and raising some questions.
- From an Audio Monitor U.S. Report, a “growing disconnect” as youth favors streaming while older groups continue tuning. (Verified by the Gen-Z Panel at RAIN Summit Orlando in September.)
To See All of RAIN’s Research Reporting…
…go HERE. (Nearly 200 articles covering research in 2018.)