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Radio Commands Highest Cumulative Audience – While Streaming Rules Overall Listener Preference

According to BPR’s latest study on the All-Audio listening landscape, Streaming continues to dominate listener preference across all formats in the audio landscape – with the majority of audio listener’s favoring the on-demand platforms.

But there is some great news for radio, with it still holding the top spot for cumulative listening across all audio platforms – meaning it still manages to hold the highest audience overall.

A study conducted by BPR late last year, which focused on the listening habits of people from a wide range of regions and demographics, retuned some fascinating results.

4500 surveys were conducted in September 2022. The study was conducted with 18-54 Men & Women, who had listened to some form of audio in the past week.

As a global study, it featured 500 respondents from 9 different key international cities to give a wider perspective on the trends in audio listening across many western markets, with the results of all 9 markets averaged as the total used in this report. Those cities are:

• London, United Kingdom
• Berlin, Germany
• Paris, France
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Madrid, Spain
• Sydney, Australia
• Los Angeles, USA
• New York, USA

The results we are seeing here highlight the shifting allegiances within the audio space. Radio has the wider reach, but music streaming is the first choice for a slightly larger portion of the marketplace.

• 47% of Radio listeners said it was their main source of Audio, with 34% for Music Streaming, 12% for YouTube & 5% for Podcasts.

• For Music Streaming listeners, 62% said Streaming was their main audio source, 15% said Radio, with 10% for YouTube & 7% for Podcasts.

• Just 21% of Podcast listeners said it was their main audio type, with Radio at 17%, Music Streaming at 43% & YouTube at 10%, again highlighting that podcasts are a supplemental choice for many of its listeners.

The lower performance of podcasting is also worth highlighting here, with just 8% of respondents saying it is their main audio type. Podcasting is still seen as an ancillary medium even amongst its users, something to supplement their radio & streaming listening rather than being the main attraction in of itself.

With the un-deniable success that on-demand streaming has seen over recent years, it has been difficult for other formats to compete with. Many have fallen in and out of style with listeners over the years, but Radio, deservedly, still manages to hold the top spot for cumulative listening.

We think this really demonstrates the strength of Radio as a format, with the majority of audio listeners still turning to it for its enjoyable and informative moments.

Despite the numerous trends in popularity with different audio formats through the years, Radio as a format still manages to grip and entertain its audience, resulting in many listeners of streaming taking a break from their on-demand platforms from time to time to enjoy the comfort and familiarity that radio continues to bring them.

Survey information provided by the BPR All-Audio Report 2022. Download the full report here