US adults spend significantly more time listening to terrestrial radio than to any other ad-supported audio format.

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He built the company to fill a critical gap in marketing: the ability for businesses to make the same kind of data-driven decisions about audio marketing as they do about everything else, so they can maximize the massive opportunity in podcasting, streaming, radio, sonic branding, voice, and more.

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.

The ad industry refers to digital radio as streamed radio stations from terrestrial and satellite radio providers, but our estimate also includes on-demand audio from online platforms untethered to radio stations. Our new definition, with a focus on audio and not just radio, aims to make it clear that our forecast captures digital audio ad spending more broadly.

More respondents now listen to online music, podcasts, audiobooks, and other digital audio options than to broadcast radio, though by a small margin. Almost three-quarters (74.9%) of internet users listened to digital audio content in the month before polling, with younger cohorts more engaged than their elders.

Broadcast radio, like live TV, maintained a sizable audience. Broadcast radio reached more of the online population in Poland than in most other nations surveyed, at 82.7%. The share of respondents accessing music, audiobooks, or other audio content on digital platforms was effectively static at 62.3% in H1 2021, and live radio occupied 40 minutes more than music streaming on a typical day.

Broadcast radio does moderately well in Saudi Arabia. More than half (54.2%) of internet users tuned in to live radio programming in the month prior to polling in Q1 2021. Yet nearly 71% of respondents had recently streamed music or accessed podcasts or other audio content from digital sources.

Live TV, radio, and print media were still popular—though time spent with radio and print declined. About half of internet users ages 16 to 64 still engaged with print media regularly. In Q1 2021, 50.4% had read a print newspaper at least once in the previous month, and 49.5% had read a print magazine. Males were much more likely than females to read either.

Most internet users engage regularly with live TV and radio, while print media has a more limited reach. Audiences for broadcast TV and radio remained robust in France. Some 92.4% of internet users ages 16 to 64 had watched live TV in the month prior to polling in Q1 2021, and 74.8% had listened to live radio shows.

Radio was also very popular, reaching 81.3% of internet users in Q1 2021. Females, affluent and rural residents, and respondents ages 35 to 64 were more likely to tune in to live radio. Digital music and audio appealed more to younger web users in H1 2021.

Amid burgeoning digital consumption, radio and print media are struggling to retain audiences. As in other countries, radio, print newspapers, and print magazines are gradually losing appeal for many internet users. In Q1 2021, fewer than 46% of those polled had tuned in to a live radio broadcast in the prior month, for example.

In Q1, 4 in 5 respondents had listened to broadcast radio at least once in the prior month. As in the past, older internet users and those in higher-income homes were more likely to be radio listeners than younger respondents and those with lower incomes. Live radio was also more common in rural areas than in suburban and urban households.

Penetration of broadcast radio may be dropping, as just 47.6% of the sample population had tuned in during the prior month. However, more than half of males were recent live radio listeners in Q1, as were respondents in the most affluent homes and those ages 35 to 44 and 55 to 64. In fact, uptake of digital audio has long surpassed broadcast radio.

Older, affluent internet users remain the primary audience for live radio and print media. More than 58% of male internet users in Russia, and nearly 49% of females, had tuned in to broadcast radio during the month prior to the survey in Q1 2021. Among affluent respondents, 61.8% had listened to live radio, while engagement was far lower among the youngest adults, ages 16 to 24, at 34.5%.

Digital audio’s reach also surpassed that of broadcast radio. Some 58.1% of the sample had tuned in to live radio programming in the month prior to polling. In contrast, 81.6% had listened to music, podcasts, or other digital audio content—and for longer periods of time.

Broadcast radio is less widespread in China than in most other countries. In H1 2021, just 46.8% of internet users had tuned in to live radio programs in the prior month. Time spent with those shows had risen, though, from 1:08 to 1:13 per day, on average. Social media and messaging are a near-universal habit.