Share of Audio 2019 – Podcasts overtake music, radio stays on top

Australians are spending seven minutes more time every day listening to audio entertainment than last year, with radio staying dominant and podcasts overtaking owned music for the first time, according to the fourth annual GfK Share of Audio study.

In a typical day, consumers spend three hours and 28 minutes listening to audio, seven minutes more than last year.

Australian radio remains the most popular choice, accounting for 61.3% of daily listening, followed by music streaming on 15.0%.

Podcasts jumped into third place with a 7.3% share of listening (up from 3.8% previously), moving ahead of owned music, which includes CDs and digital purchases, on 7.0%.

“We’ve seen an overall resurgence of audio with radio staying dominant and podcast listening enjoying a big jump. For the first time in history, consumers are spending more time listening to podcasts than to their own music collections,” said Joan Warner, chief executive officer of industry body Commercial Radio Australia.

Podcast listeners are most likely to be under 40, managers and professionals, and parents with children under 17. Time spent listening to podcasts rose to an average of 15 minutes per day from seven minutes a year ago.

Radio continued to perform strongly despite the increase in listening choices, with Australians spending on average 2 hours and 7 minutes per day listening, up 2 minutes from last year and little changed since the first survey in 2016.

Music streaming was also relatively steady at 31 minutes a day compared to 30 minutes a year ago. Within that, ad-free subscription streaming accounted for 21 minutes of daily listening and ad- supported services made up nine minutes.

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