In The Infinite Dial 2024 released today by Edison Research, we see that monthly online audio listening increased its monthly reach among age-13+ Americans to 76% — an estimated 218-million people.
That is the headline metric in the Online Audio section of the influential annual report. Edison has been tracking this metric since 2000, when five percent of American teens and adults streamed audio. At RAIN, we remember the excitement when the percentage of monthly listeners crossed 50 percent. (RAIN coverage HERE.)
While the acceleration of this trendline has slowed, the numbers continue inching upward:
Interestingly, nearly all of the monthly listeners (above) are also weekly listeners; an impressive consistency:
That stickiness implies that once discovered, online audio becomes habitual for most people.
Edison asked respondents about brand recognition in the online audio space. Very interestingly, Pandora — which is a SiriusXM subsidiary and which has reduced its brand marketing from when it was independent — is the most recognized online audio outlet in Edison’s survey.
And that is despite Spotify being the most used online audio service weekly (29%) compared to Pandora (11%).
The Infinite Dial 2024 is freely available at the Edison Research website.