New Study Shows Australians Spend 3.4 Hours Listening to Audio Every Day

Every year, Edison Research conducts the Share of Ear study to capture information on how Americans consume audio. The study has yielded some eye-opening insights that helped inform how marketers should invest in newer media opportunities, like digital. Most notably, last year’s study revealed that--for the first time ever--over half the U.S. population streams audio, indicating that digital audio is an important place for marketers to be.

In an effort to replicate this study, but this time for Australia, Pandora teamed up with Vision Critical for a new study called “Share of Listening - Australia.” This study aimed to provide a universal view of how Australians consume and listen to audio.

The biggest takeaway from this new research? Australians spend 3.4 hours a day listening to audio.

The Share of Listening - Australia study provides a complete and constructive snapshot of audio listening behaviour, including total time spent listening, share of listening by channel and device, as well as listening behavior by time of day, location and activity.

Going forward, this study will be conducted twice a year to explore the current listening behaviours of Australians. This first study, conducted in September 2016, creates  a trusted benchmark for 2017 listening that can be measured against in the future.

“At Vision Critical, we’re proud to launch this robust study delivering an authentic snapshot of Australian listening behaviours. It’s been great to collaborate with Pandora Australia on this important project to understand the current audio landscape in Australia. The Share of Listening study is a timely benchmark in measuring the changing dynamic of Australians’ listening habits,” said Andrew Wolstenholme, Vice President of Research for Vision Critical in the Asia Pacific region.

The study found that while traditional radio still has a 52% share of listening in Australia, streaming services such as Pandora have captured 11% of the audio in under 5 years, jumping to the third highest listening choice ahead of online music videos and traditional music television.

We also found that music streaming remains fairly consistent throughout the day, particularly among 14 to 39-year-olds. Although traditional radio leads during the morning commute and skews to an older audience of 40 to 69-year-olds.

“Whilst traditional radio still commands a large reach, the advent and uptake of music streaming is delivering incremental audiences for advertisers. The research found that 1 in 3 millennials do not listen to traditional radio in a given week. It’s a compelling look at current listening habits,” said Pandora ANZ Director of Business Development Rick Gleave.

Another interesting finding is that average time spent listening across all demographics is stronger for streaming services than traditional radio. In fact, Pandora is the number one streaming brand for average time spent listening, according to the study. More than 1 in 10 Pandora listening sessions were over three hours long, compared to one in 20 for other streaming services.

While the majority of traditional radio listening happens in the car during commute hours, streamers listen throughout the day across multiple devices. For example, Pandora users are more likely to listen in the home, at work, in the gym, as well as in the car. As a result, Pandora has the greatest share of listening occasions throughout the day, with 60% occurring between 8.30am and 4.30pm.

The ability to stream audio on your mobile device is another huge factor in this shifting landscape. The vast majority (83%) of Pandora listening occurs on mobile,compared to 72% for the total streaming market.

Check out even more stats in our infographic below:

With the rapid adoption of streaming as the primary listening choice, we are already starting to see a major shift in where and how people spend their listening time.

 

To get even more information on this study or on Pandora and our advertising solutions across Australia and New Zealand, please get in touch here.

 

* Methodology: Share of Listening – Australia study was conducted by Vision Critical who conducted online interviews with 1,974 Australians aged 14 to 69. A total of 7,592 listening occasions were captured over 7 days and 409,000 minutes of listening. Each respondent was assigned a single day of the week to complete a diary based on all the occasions (with a maximum of 10) they listened to an audio source that day, including: source (AM/ FM radio, streaming, audiobooks, podcasts etc.); if streaming, which service (Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music etc); device used (smartphone, tablet, laptop, AM/ FM radio etc.); who they were with at the time (myself, friends, family etc.); location/ activity (traveling, at work, school/ uni, gym etc.); and time spent listening.