Some 76.0% of respondents in UAE had streamed music, podcasts, audiobooks, or other digital audio content in the prior month. Historically, younger internet users predominated in these audiences, but these discrepancies are no longer so marked. On the other hand, the sharpest decline in digital audio usage was in the oldest age bracket.

Seven in 10 respondents had streamed music, podcasts, audiobooks, or other digital audio content in the month prior. But penetration among 16- to-24-year-olds (87.3%) was more than double that in the oldest age bracket (40.2%). Voice assistants, too, are more popular with younger people. In the wider sample, 21.6% had used voice commands in the week before.

As in H1 2020, 65.4% of internet users polled had streamed music, podcasts, or other digital audio content in the prior month. Among those ages 16 to 24, that share was 94.9%; in the oldest group, ages 55 to 64, fewer than 40% were recent digital listeners.

On the entertainment side, music streaming also claimed more time this year than last, at 1:37 daily, on average. Consumption of podcasts, which GWI measured for the first time in H1 2020, accounted for 1:12 each day in H1 2021.

Time spent each day with music streaming had risen by 7 minutes, to 1:04 on average. Podcasts also claimed more time this year, at 30 minutes daily versus 21 minutes in 2020. Traditional audio broadcasters reached a wider public.

As last year, digital audio content—including music, podcasts, and audiobooks, for example—occupied marginally more time each day (1:44) than digital video but was less popular (used by 71.9% of respondents). That share had fallen in all cohorts except internet users ages 35 to 44. Offline media coexist with their digital counterparts, but the latter claim more attention.

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The audience for streamed music, podcasts, and other digital audio content was a good deal smaller, at 66.1% of internet users—though again, more than 92% of the youngest respondents had recently listened to such content. Daily time spent with online audio (1:07) was virtually identical to time spent with broadcast radio (1:06).

By contrast, consumption of music, podcasts, and other digital audio content was rather subdued, except in younger age groups. Nearly 90% of respondents ages 16 to 24 had listened to digital audio in the month prior to polling, but that share dropped by at least 10 percentage points with each decade of rising age, reaching just 40.6% in the oldest age bracket.

Our forecasts includes subscribers to YouTube Premium and YouTube Music. (In September, Google disclosed that audio listening accounts for one-fourth of all time spent with YouTube.). Most of YouTube’s overall viewers use the free version, but with the number of YouTube Premium subscribers is growing steadily from 29.5 million in 2021 to 46.6 million in 2025.

Amazon has more longevity in this business than Google, which recently consolidated its music streaming efforts around the YouTube Music brand after fumbling with different brands and business models. Amazon Music will stand at No. 3 among US services, with 49.8 million listeners in 2021, we estimate.