Understanding today’s complex media consumer habits means that advertisers need more granular data to stay informed and reach the right audiences.
The Record is a quarterly report card on how U.S. consumers spend their listening day, fueled by Nielsen and Edison Research. While advertisers are constantly tracking changes in consumer behavior to improve the impact of their cross-channel marketing, The Record helps cut through with a unique representation of the time spent with ad supported audio.
Daily audio consumption amounted to 3 hours and 54 minutes of daily listening across both ad supported and ad free platforms like radio, podcasts, streaming music services and satellite radio. In the fourth quarter of 2025, ad supported audio accounted for 63% of all listening.
Zeroing in on the ad supported audio universe, consumers spent 61% of their daily time in the fourth quarter with radio, 21% with podcasts, 15% with streaming music and 3% with satellite radio.
For advertisers planning for audio marketing campaigns, it is important to consider that 82% of all daily ad supported audio time goes to radio and podcasts, while only 15% goes to streaming music services.
A quarterly snapshot: Edison Research Share of Ear®
This chart shows how U.S. audiences spent their time with ad supported audio in Q4 2025.
