Besides no algorithms and 5x times more TSL than of all ad-supported streaming combined, what does Radio have that Audio streaming services do not? Stationality. Local Staff. Localism.

This research is from 2018. Imagine the story it would tell in 2023! The moral of this story? Make sure the radio stations your business is marketing with are interacting socially with their audiences.

Local Radio’s migration to the stream is well under way. As with TV, it’s not about the delivery device, it’s about content. Americans love their “local” radio. They’re finding it on the stream.

Inside Radio –

The total portion of radio listening time that comes from streams has more than doubled since 2015 according to Edison Research’s Share of Ear. The total portion of radio listening time that comes from streams has risen to 13% in 2023, up from 6% in 2015, among those 13+.

While the gains were across all demos, among younger listeners the shift to digital listening has been particularly noteworthy. The latest data shows that 19% of all radio listening time is via broadcast streams among listeners aged 13 to 34. That’s a 72% increase from 2015 when 11% of their radio listening time was done online.

Edison notes that it’s not just young people who are listening more to radio station streams. Even among 35- to 54-year-olds there has been a significant shift in habits. Today, 14% of their listening time is done to radio webcasts versus 8% in 2015. Yet the biggest jump is among adults 55 and older, who have more than doubled their listening time to radio streams in recent years. Nearly one of every ten minutes of this demo that grew up on traditional radio is now spent listening to station streams.