More to the Spoken-Word Audio Story: Listening by Age
By Edison Research
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Recently this newsletter spotlighted the steady growth of podcasts to being the most popular listening platform in terms of daily time spent listening to spoken-word audio, narrowly surpassing AM/FM radio. Our past insight focused on 13+ Share of Ear data from the past ten years. Given the popularity of that post, we decided to dig a bit deeper and look at how these figures differ among various age groups.
Among Americans 13+, 40% of time spent with spoken-word audio is spent listening to podcasts; 39% is spent listening to AM/FM radio (including AM/FM streams), the historic spoken-word listening leader.
Spoken-word listening time among Americans 13-34 is dominated by podcasts, with 53% of time being spent with that specific platform, versus 23% of time going to AM/FM radio. Radio does rebound among 35–54-year-olds but still falls short with 47% of their spoken-word listening time going to podcasts and 35% going to AM/FM radio. Our story completely changes among Americans ages 55+, who spend the majority of their spoken-word listening time with AM/FM radio, at 55%, and less than one-quarter of their time with podcasts at 22%.
The dominance of podcast listening among younger age cohorts can certainly be attributed to their preference for on-demand content that also includes visual elements, qualities specific to podcasts and not radio. AM/FM radio carries a wide variety of spoken-word offerings, ranging from sports play-by-play and sports talk, NPR programming, news and entertainment talk shows, to political talk.
Share of Ear tracks other spoken-word audio sources including SiriusXM and audiobooks, but this particular analysis is just for AM/FM and podcasts. Products like Share of Ear and Edison Podcast Metrics measure consumption of both video and audio-only podcasts. Contact us today to learn more about subscription to either product.
The Infinite Dial 2026 from Edison Research at SSRS with SiriusXM Media
Just last week, Edison Research at SSRS unveiled the 2026 The Infinite Dial, presented with support from SiriusXM Media. The Infinite Dial is America’s longest-running survey of digital media consumer behavior, tracked annually since 1998. The study provides important benchmark measures for usage and behavior around streaming audio, podcasting, radio, smart audio, social media, and debuting this year, never-before-seen data on AI usage. Find the full presentation and webinar recording on our website.
Industry experts at Edison Research at SSRS are available to be featured in your next podcast, event, or media story. Email us at info@edisonresearch.comto talk to a member of our team today.
