The latest Edison data shows that mobile devices have taken the lead when it comes to time spent consuming audio. Gradually America’s listening has shifted to mobile phones, a trend that has been observed for years. But the latest Edison Research Infinite Dial study shows that 88% of Americans age 16+ own a mobile phone, and as the availability of audio apps and podcast apps has increased, so has consumption on a mobile phone.
Looking inside the data, Edison Research says that we can see mobile listening had surpassed "radio set" listening long ago in every location except the car, where listening on a radio far surpasses the listening that happens from connecting one's phone to the car system, or perhaps a teenager in the backseat with earbuds in.
"And yet, when we look at the in-car environment, we see that slowly but surely, listening on the phone is chipping away at listening to a "radio" - noting that Edison Research doesn't consider listening to SiriusXM satellite radio (one of its clients, and a major player in the car in the United States), as "listening to a radio set" for this analysis.
"As of today, listening on a radio exceeds phone-listening by 2.5 to 1. But as the graph below shows, every time we update our data, the mobile device number inches forward a little more. The margin has shrunk from 62 percentage points in 2015 to 35 points today. At the current pace, it will still be years before the mobile device is the leader in the car that it is at home, at work, and other places," the company notes.
"But like Pac-Man, every day this device munches away a few more dots of listening. The battle for the future of audio consumption is the battle on the phone, at least until some other kind of device comes around to eat its own dots along the way."
Edison Research’s Share of Ear database has been tracking audio consumption on various devices since the beginning of 2014. The graph below shows the percent of all audio, not just radio content, that is consumed via mobile device versus via a traditional radio receiver. In 2014, around half (49%) of ALL audio content was consumed on a traditional radio receiver, compared with 18% that was consumed on a mobile phone. The years since showed steady growth for mobile devices as time spent with traditional radio receivers declined.
As of Q4 2021, radio receivers still had the slightest edge over mobile, with 33% of all audio being consumed on a radio and 32% on a mobile phone. With the latest release of Q3 Share of Ear data, consumption of audio on a mobile device just passed radio receiver consumption, 33.3% to 33.1%. Radio receivers with their single-use functionality, just have not been able to compete.
Be sure to separate the content from the device when interpreting this data. The graph shown doesn’t reference radio content, which can also be consumed via smart speakers, radio station apps (also on a mobile phone), SiriusXM receivers (also a form of radio content) or smart TVs. It references the hardware – actual radio receivers. Mobile devices are considered as multimedia devices, providing content from many sources.
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