Young listeners prioritising talk radio
Spoken Word’s share of audio listening has increased by 45% over the last eight years. The biggest increase is for age group 13 to 34 that spends 26% of its listening hours on spoken word audio instead of music and up from 12% in 2014. Average time listening to Spoken Word Audio is up from 1 hour and 4 min per day in 2014 to 2 hours and 19 min this year, according to a survey by US public service radio company NPR.
46% of the U.S. population older than 13 years listen to Spoken Word Audio daily, up from 43% in 2020. Today, 26 million more people are listening to Spoken Word Audio each day than eight years ago. Spoken Word Audio includes not only all form of radio but also podcasts and audiobooks.
Spoken Word Audio listening has increased throughout the day with a peak in the morning between seven and nine.
The share of time people spend listening to Spoken Word Audio is increasing. In 2014 it was 20% spoken and 80% music and in 2022 it is 29% spoken versus 71% music.
Spoken Word Audio listening is also going digital. In 2014, am/fm receivers were dominating and represented 73%. In 2022, digital devices dominate with 61% while am/fm receivers are down to 39%. Mobile devices are up from 9% to 34%.
Podcast listening hits an all-time high in 2022 when 62% of the U.S. population say they have listened to a podcast, up from 30% in 2014. Audiobooks starts showing in statistics for Spoken Word Audio in 2017 with 7% and is now up to 11% using it.
Share of people listening to news is down from 81% in 2014 to 62% in 2022.
18-24 year olds podcast habits:
62% have listened to Comedy, Society & Culture 24%, True Crime 20%, News 13%, Sports 9%, Education 9%/
25 and older podcast habits:
39% have listened to Comedy, News 31%, Society & Culture 27%, True Crime 19%, Sports 11%, Business 11% %.
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