Streamed Music Rivals Radio in Daily Use

October 18, 2021
Attest Frequency of Music Platform Use Oct2021

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.

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