As digital audio consumption increases, the advertising market in Canada is developing rapidly to reach new listeners.

Canada’s digital audio audience is growing faster than any other digital medium we track in the country, including digital video viewers and social media users. This year, digital audio will match terrestrial radio in listenership and exceed it in engagement, according to our forecasts.

Digital audio consumption followed a very similar pattern: More than two-thirds of the youngest cohort and 44.0% of affluents had streamed music, podcasts, or other digital audio material in the month prior; males were more likely than females to do so. Japan’s internet users spent an average of 2 hours, 45 minutes (2:45) per day with PCs and tablets in H1 2021.

Digital audio consumption experienced the opposite age-related pattern in H1 2021. Some 83.0% of internet users ages 16 to 24 had streamed music, podcasts, or another form of audio content in the prior month, but that share fell in near-direct correlation with rising age, to 52.0% in the most senior group. Income and household location were less significant factors in digital audio usage.

The same age-related pattern was evident in digital audio consumption. 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.

Digital audio consumption may be suffering from the rise in other digital entertainment activities. The share of internet users who had listened to music, podcasts, or other audio content accessed online dropped from 91.8% in H1 2020 to 85.9% this year. Part of this decline may be due to the exclusion of Google Play Music from the list of monitored audio services in 2021.

A pandemic-fueled rise in digital video and audio consumption has continued into 2021. Broadcast TV still attracted a vast majority of internet users. As of Q1, 90.4% of those ages 16 to 64 had watched live TV in the prior month. More than three-quarters (78.2%) of respondents had used a TV channel’s catch-up or on-demand service, and nearly 57% had recorded TV programs to watch later.

On today's episode, we discuss how Spotify did in Q1, what to make of its new subscriptions for podcasts, and how we expect audio consumption habits to change this year. We then talk about why people still listen to the radio and best practices for voice ads. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Peter Vahle.

Canada is a beneficiary of—and a contributor to—the global English-language podcast ecosystem, and its digital audio consumption patterns reflect that status. English-speaking adults in Canada are much more likely to listen to podcasts than their French-speaking counterparts, according to Signal Hill Insights polling from September 2020.

The news: Spotify’s newest “Culture Next” report provides insights into Gen Z’s listening habits and the audio giant’s efforts to get young users interested in its podcast investments.