Weekly Insights 9.20.2023 – Newer model cars = more listening to SiriusXM

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When it comes to audio content and audio listening device, we could have a chicken-and-egg discussion – do you seek out a device to play the type of audio that you want to hear, or do you go to the most convenient device and choose from available audio? Whichever way those arguments shake out, we can show you that Share of Ear® confirms a link between newer car models and time spent with satellite radio.

The graphic below shows the percent of daily in-car audio consumption to SiriusXM by those who primarily drive or ride in older model year cars, versus newer model year cars.

For those who primarily drive or ride in model year cars 2010 and older, 5% of their daily in-car listening time is with SiriusXM. For those who drive or ride in model year cars 2019 and newer, the listening to SiriusXM is over four times that much – 22%. The data in between, for model years 2011-2018, follows the pattern of newer models = more listening.  
 
Newer autos have newer in-dash systems equipped with satellite receivers, and many new car acquisitions in the U.S. come with a complimentary trial of SiriusXM, so it stands to reason that SiriusXM sees bigger shares in newer vehicles. Last week we talked about the dominance of linear audio in-car, and it looks like SiriusXM is taking advantage of the linear-positive in-car audio environment. 

The fourth annual Latino Podcast Listener Report will debut in a webinar on Thursday, October 5 at 2 p.m. ET. This year’s study will focus on podcast monetization and advertising potential through the lens of the Latinx consumer.

The study from Edison Research was commissioned by LWC Studios, Latina to Latina, Libsyn, Latino Media Network, and SXM Media, and will be presented by Gabriel Soto, Senior Director of Research at Edison Research; Elsie Escobar, Director of Community & Content at Libsyn and Co-Founder of She Podcasts, and Briana Mendez, Senior Sales Marketing Manager at SXM Media.

Click here to register for The Latino Podcast Listener Report 2023

Want to get ready for the Latino Podcast Listener Report and do some networking? You have your chance tomorrow! A virtual networking event, Monetizing Latiné Podcasts: Pre-Report Networking, will be held by Libsyn and BIPOC Podcast Creators on Thursday, September 21 at 7 p.m. ET. The event will include a preview of the fourth Latino Podcast Listener Report and meaningful discussions on monetizing podcasts with Latino audiences.

Click here to register for Monetizing Latiné Podcasts: Pre-Report Networking

The Latino Podcast Listener Report 2023 — Save the Date

The fourth annual Latino Podcast Listener Report will debut in a webinar on Thursday, October 5 at 2 p.m. ET. This year’s study will focus on podcast monetization and advertising potential through the lens of the Latinx consumer.  

The study from Edison Research was commissioned by LWC Studios, Latina to Latina, Libsyn, Latino Media Network, and SXM Media, and will be presented by Gabriel Soto, Senior Director of Research at Edison Research; Elsie Escobar, Director of Community & Content at Libsyn and Co-Founder of She Podcasts; and Briana Mendez, Senior Sales Marketing Manager at SXM Media. 

Soto, Escobar, and Mendez will also share updates on baseline statistics from prior years and will present video interviews of U.S. Latino podcast listeners discussing how they’ve interacted with podcasts, what products or services they purchased after hearing about it on a show, and how they feel about advertisements on podcasts.  

A webinar recording will be available at the presentation’s conclusion, and English and Spanish versions will be available for download.  

A virtual networking event, Monetizing Latiné Podcasts: Pre-Report Networking, will be held by Libsyn and BIPOC Podcast Creators on Thursday, September 21 at 7 p.m. ET. The event will include a preview of the fourth Latino Podcast Listener Report and meaningful discussions on monetizing podcasts with Latino audiences.

 

Click here to register for The Latino Podcast Listener Report 2023
 

Click here to register for Monetizing Latiné Podcasts: Pre-Report Networking

Weekly Insights 9.13.2023 Linear Audio Still Rules In Car

This post is from Edison’s Weekly Insights email. Please click here if you would like to subscribe.

Two weeks ago, we talked about how the percent of daily audio time Americans spend with linear audio just was passed by the time spent with on-demand audio. That is true when looking at total listening, and we recognize that finding as a milestone in the story of audio in the U.S.

But what about listening in various locations?

In the graphic below, you can see that for listening in locations except for in-car, the majority of daily audio time is spent with on-demand platforms (60%) compared with 40% to linear platforms. This would include listening at home, at work, and other places such as taking walks, or when at the grocery store or gym. There is a very different proportion of linear to on-demand listening in the car, however.

In the car, 76% of the time spent with audio by Americans age 13+ is with linear platforms, which include AM/FM radio, radio streams, SiriusXM Radio, and other radio services. On-demand platforms, such as paid streaming services, podcasts, or owned music such as CDs, garner 24% of the total in-car listening time. Clearly, a very different picture than what is seen in other listening locations.

What is it about the car that makes the linear audio experience that much more appealing? Listening to on-demand audio means more time navigating phone menus and making choices, when the road demands one’s attention. Linear audio is, for many people, just easier in-car. The hardware is simple and making an audio choice requires fewer decisions. AM/FM and SiriusXM offer listening experiences where there is no pausing or rewinding, and the content choices are made by program directors – all positives in a linear environment. As for AM/FM, there may be the added element in some cases of actual, live people, speaking to listeners in real time, which could provide companionship while driving.

As in-car audio systems make on-demand listening more streamlined and accessible, we are likely to continue to see on-demand listening grow in cars. For now, though, linear audio takes the lion’s share of audio time among those age 13+ in the car.

Weekly Insights 9.5.2023 Podcasting’s “Luxury Brands”

This post is from Edison’s Weekly Insights email. Please click here if you would like to subscribe.

Edison Podcast Metrics is the only service that measures the entire podcasting market. Unlike opt-in services for download counting, each and every podcast that one might listen to in the United States (and coming any day in the UK) is measured.

As such, we are able to tell publishers, advertisers, and other interested parties what the biggest shows are, as we recently did when we published our list of the 50 biggest podcasts in the second quarter of 2023.

In addition, we can look at our sample of over 40,000 interviews with podcast listeners and profile the audiences of the biggest shows with a precision and completeness that no other service can match.

One way we can look at the list of shows is which ones have the highest concentration, or index, of different audience groups. These shows aren’t necessarily the biggest shows among a target audience group – they are the most efficient.

So, this week we take a look at which shows are most efficient at delivering high-income listeners. Here are the top ten shows, and each of them have well over half of their listeners in households with more than $100,000 annual income:

As one can quickly see, sorting the data by people who make a lot of money finds a lot of shows about money and business. Also, there are several shows from creators who are affiliated with other platforms that are known to deliver high-income groups, for instance The New York Times.

Podcasting has a story to tell to pretty much any advertiser, but in this case the Rolex and Maserati folks should be taking notice.

Weekly Insights 8.30.2023 Kids Today, Listeners Tomorrow

This post is from Edison’s Weekly Insights email. Please click here if you would like to subscribe.

We are in a moment when podcast listening is at an all-time high. Today, 42% of Americans age 12+ listen to the medium every month, according to The Infinite Dial®. However, there are still generations of Americans that podcasting is overlooking. Last week at Podcast Movement 2023 in Denver, Edison Research Senior Director of Research Gabriel Soto demonstrated why each generation of Americans, from Boomers to Kids, is crucial to the growth of podcasting and why each is worth appealing to. But the most important generation to appeal to might just be today’s kids.

As you can see from the graphic below, of the five age cohorts Soto analyzed in Denver, the highest reach of weekly podcast listening occurs among U.S. Millennials (currently age 25-42). Half (50%) listen to the medium every week. Listening rates diminish as we go down (and up) in age.

Looking at the younger generations (the bottom two bars in the graph), thirty percent of Gen Z (age 13-24) and 23% of Generation Alpha (kids 6-12) are weekly podcast listeners. Podcasting has not done enough to appeal to listeners under 25 — the absence of podcasts like Disney’s Frozen before this year’s Podcast Movement is an example of that. If that were the case, Gen-z and Gen Alpha podcast listening would be similar to that of Millennials. Historically, the hope has been that future generations will adopt podcasts as Millennials once did — as they get older. But this state of complacency could hinder podcasting’s growth.

It’s impossible to know if Gen-Z and Generation Alpha, two generations inundated with hundreds of competing digital platforms, will adopt podcasts as much as Millennials by the time they mature to the same age (25-42). But we do know the medium can significantly influence its destiny.

Ages 6-12 are some of the most transformative years of our lives. It’s why boomers still listen to radio – because they grew up with it, why Soto says he still plays Pokémon — because he grew up with it, or why Gen-Z’s go-to medium is YouTube – because they grew up with it. Taking a shot at appealing to kids today might just lead to podcasts – your podcast — defining their generation.

According to the Gen-Z Podcast Listener Report from Edison Research and SXM Media, 13-24-year-olds who started listening as children spend an average of three hours more per week with podcasts than those who started listening later in life. As with many behaviors, starting young is a pathway to developing an affinity for podcast listening.

We encourage you to take a few minutes and click this link to watch one video from the Kids Podcast Listener Report that highlights today’s kids are not only the listeners of tomorrow but also the creators of the future.

Click here to read more about Gabe’s presentation from Podcast Movement 2023.