YouTube is the preferred podcast platform among US listeners of this medium, according to Morning Consult. Spotify takes second place, followed by Apple Podcasts and Pandora.

After strong growth, digital audio subscriber numbers will slow. And a handful of companies will shape what US digital audio users will listen to—and how they will listen—in the coming years.

Spotify is the No. 1 digital audio service among US teens and adults, with 35% digital audio listeners ages 12 and older using that platform the most. YouTube Music comes in at No. 2, with 18%, while Pandora rounds out the top three at 15%.

Podcast listening keeps making gains, and the medium is becoming a bigger part of marketers’ audio strategies.

In 2021, more than three-quarters of the time that US adults spent listening to ad-supported audio went to AM/FM radio. Podcasts trailed way behind traditional radio, capturing just 11% of ad-supported listening, while Pandora, SiriusXM, and Spotify each accounted for less than 10%. AM/FM radio held a majority share across adult age groups and was the most listened-to ad-supported audio not only in the car (88%), but also in the home (72%) and workplace (68%).

YouTube is the leading podcast platform among US adults who listen to 5 hours or more of these shows per week, with 55% tuning in there. Streaming audio platforms Spotify and Apple Podcasts take second and third place, respectively, while Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and Facebook round out the top five.

Marketers within the insurance industry will zero in on how to best utilize digital ad budgets, as spending growth settles at more modest levels.

Spotify has the most users among digital audio platforms, followed by Pandora, Amazon Music, and Apple Music. Amazon will surpass Pandora in listeners next year.

Due to listener growth, advertisers no longer find digital audio advertising experimental.

Hispanic Heritage Month is upon us: brands are making strides in reaching out to this growing demographic at this time of year, but what about the other 11 months?

We project the number of paid digital audio subscribers in the US will hit 121.9 million this year, up 11% over 2020's total.

Podcasts were one of the few areas to have weathered the pandemic without sustaining ad spending losses.

Pandora outpaces Spotify for brand recognition in US

Early in the pandemic, digital audio took a huge hit in user engagement and in the amount of time listeners were spending with the medium. Many observers, including us, predicted dire results in the short term. However, the rest of the year played out very differently than those early weeks, and we ultimately revised our 2020 estimate from a 1.0% decline in the time US adults spent with digital audio to 8.3% growth, for a total of 1 hour, 29 minutes (1:29) per day.

Amazon Music will increase its user base by 18.5% to 45.8 million this year, which represents 21.3% of digital audio listeners, according to our latest estimates. As it continues to invest and grow its audio strategy, we expect Amazon Music will surpass Pandora in monthly listeners by 2023.

The pandemic put pressure on media budgets and changed users’ listening behaviors, forcing advertisers to restructure their audio strategies.

eMarketer senior corporate account director Michael Civins, forecasting analyst Peter Vahle and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss which music platforms Americans use and the growing significance of podcast listening. They then talk about whether TV networks are being too optimistic about H2, how many more voice assistants there are and movies going from theaters to digital platforms much faster.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss TikTok's chances of not getting banned, Spotify video podcasts, Pandora's interactive voice ads, HBO Max sign-ups so far, TV ads in console games, why American farmhouses are typically painted red and more.

The US podcast audience grew tremendously in 2019, as significant investments from major audio streaming services made podcast content more accessible. We now estimate that there were 92 million monthly US podcast listeners in 2019, up more than 15 million from our previous estimate of 76.4 million.

Listening habits have been steadily moving online in recent years. From music streaming to podcasts, there’s been a growing appetite for digital audio. While the assumption might be that the coronavirus pandemic has increased audio streaming, the picture is less straightforward. Pure music streaming via platforms like Spotify and Pandora is being eschewed in favor of music videos.