We’re living in a time of unlimited and unrestricted music access, and with a world of music at our fingertips people are listening more than ever.

The internet and music streaming services have revolutionised how we listen to music. We now have tens-of-millions of tracks available wherever we are, which means people are listening to way more music than they used to – especially in America.

A new study from Audio Monitor US 2018 looks at how Americans are listening to music these days with all the advancements and changes in the industry and technology. It found that on average Americans are listening to 151 minutes of music every single day and surprisingly, considering how prevalent on-demand music streaming has become, the average American listens to music mostly on the radio.

Music and entertainment lead with Audience Net, Robert Delmonte says of the report: “As new ways of listening start to fuel an economic recovery for the music industry, they are also reshaping the way listeners discover and consume music. Audiomonitor uncovers the data behind these trends.”

The survey asked 3,000 consumers in America aged 16 and above about their listening habits. It showed that in the ever-increasingly digital age broadcast radio is still king with a 31% share, though that is 3% lower than it was last year. In second place came music streaming with a 27% share of total music listening, which was only a gradual increase on the year before by 1%.

Downloaded music stood at 10% and was down 3% on last year. Meanwhile another win for radio as ‘Other Internet Radio’, services like Pandora which offer streaming in a radio style, had a 12% share which has risen by 2% over the past 2 years. In a blend of traditional radio and internet radio, the smallest percentage of listening came from tuning in to AM/FM radio stations online which made up 5%.

Whilst radio may remain surprisingly popular it seems that it’s the older generations keeping the format alive for the most part. For 55 year-olds and up Broadcast radio made up 45% of their listening whilst for 16-24 year olds only 12% listen to proper broadcast.

Meanwhile whilst music streaming continues to boom and grow with younger generations, a giant 60% of 16-19 year olds listen to their music through streaming service, the age divide could be seen. A measly 8% of those aged above the age of 65 spent their time listening to music using music streaming services.

When it comes to who’s performing the most YouTube comes out on top in all age groups. Spotify take the second place with a massive percentage for 16-24 year olds, which actually equals YouTube’s 38% usage in the same age range. Interestingly with older generations Amazon Prime Music holds a large percentage and is actually the second most used platform after YouTube for 65+. We’ve touched on this before and it could well be due to subscribers being packaged in with a general Amazon Prime subscription.

You can read the full, detailed report here: musicbiz.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/AM_US_2018_V5.pdf