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%).

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

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

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.

Spotify will see double-digit growth in 2018, according to eMarketer estimates. We expect 58.4 million people in the US to use Spotify, which represents 20.8% of internet users. This and other digital trends are included in this year's Global Media Intelligence report. Today, we take a look at the streaming audio market.