With its wide reach continuing, America’s love affair with radio has yet to wither – indeed some two-fifths of the time US adults spend listening to audio takes place on AM/FM radio . Nevertheless, streaming music poses some competition for audio time, with a report [download page] from Attest revealing that more US adults spend time daily streaming music than do so listening to the radio.
Some 36.2% of the 2,000 US adults surveyed say they listened to streamed music via services such as Spotify or Apple Music daily. By comparison, about one-third (33.5%) say they listen to the radio daily. However, the situation changes for those who listen a few times a week, with a larger share of adults saying they listen to the radio a few times a week (25.6%) than those who listen to streamed music (20.2%) with that frequency.
It’s also worth noting that, while only around 1 in 10 (10.9% of) respondents say they never listen to the radio, close to 1 in 5 (18.9%) say they never listen to streamed music.
eMarketer data shows that Spotify could boast an estimated 78.5 million monthly listeners in 2020 and more than one-third of Americans subscribe to its subscription service, Spotify Premium. This more recent report indicates that 37% of respondents use Spotify regularly. They also say they regularly use other music streaming services such as YouTube Music (32%), Amazon Music (22%) and Apple Music (18%).
Streaming Video vs. Live TV
Close to two-thirds (64%) of adults surveyed say they spend at least one hour watching on-demand TV on a streaming service such as Netflix or Amazon Video on an average day. Although fewer (59%) say they spend at least one hour of an average day watching live TV, a larger share report spending more than 6 hours with live TV (9%) than those who spend that many hours on an average day watching streaming services (6%).
Unsurprisingly, the “Big 5” streaming services are the subscription services respondents are most likely to say they subscribe to. Some 7 in 10 (69%) currently subscribe to Netflix, followed by Amazon Prime (52%), Disney+ (37%), Hulu Live (26%) and YouTube TV (17%).
And, whether it be on live TV or streaming, very little has changed in the past couple of years when it comes to favorite genres. Respondents express a preference for Comedy (51%), Drama (50%) and Crime (42%) programs.
Adults Opt For Digital News
A relatively small share of adults read a physical newspaper (8.2%) or physical magazine (6.4%) daily. Instead, many are getting their news digitally, with almost one-quarter (24%) saying they visit a news website or news app on a daily basis. However, the preference for digital does not extend to magazines, with fewer than 1 in 10 (7%) visiting a magazine website or app daily.
Meanwhile, about two-thirds (67%) of respondents say they do not have any paid-for content subscriptions. For those that do have a paid-for content subscription, the breakdown slightly favors digital content (20% of all respondents) over a printed publication (18%).
The full report can be found here.
About the Data: Findings are based on an August survey of 2,000 US adults ages 18-65.
