It was 2001 when Apple promised music fans “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Fourteen years later, they now have access to literally millions of songs on YouTube alone.
Audio is a major source of online entertainment, with a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM) revealing 64% of Anglophone Canadians 18+ currently listen to some form of streaming audio, up from 57% in 2011.
The study reveals the amount of time spent listening has remained relatively stable since 2012, at six hours per week. Members of Gen Y are the most avid online listeners, consuming 9.4 hours of streaming audio each week.
YouTube remains the overall leader in online listening, with 53% of Anglophones using the service to stream music – compared with 23% for AM/FM online radio, 22% for podcasts and 19% for personalized online services. However, YouTube’s market penetration has remained unchanged since last year.
Streaming audio services like Spotify and Rdio are most popular among students, people 18-34, and people with children under 12.
While nearly a quarter of Anglophones (23%) stream terrestrial AM or FM radio stations, the study indicates online listening supplements traditional radio listening, with streamers listening to almost six hours more audio content – both online and offline – each week.
Anglophones still spend more time listening to radio via a traditional receiver than online (nine hours per week versus 5.2 hours). There is no guarantee online AM/FM listeners are tuning in to their local station, with the MTM study finding 37% of online listeners are accessing stations from other markets, while 20% listen to stations from other countries.
Perhaps buoyed by the massive success of Serial – which has been downloaded more than 76.3 million times –podcasts have gained in popularity in the past year, with 22% of Anglophones listening in the past month, up from 16% in 2012. Only 16% of podcasts are downloaded via Apple iTunes.
The findings are based on an online survey of 4,000 people conducted between October and December.
