Understanding today’s complex media consumer habits means that advertisers need more granular data to stay informed and reach the right audiences.
The Record is a quarterly report card on how U.S. consumers spend their listening day, fueled by Nielsen and Edison Research. While advertisers are constantly tracking changes in consumer behavior to improve the impact of their cross-channel marketing, The Record helps cut through with a unique representation of the time spent with ad supported audio.
So how have audio listening habits shifted in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the first? Let’s dig into the data.
The Q2 audio overview
Daily audio consumption amounted to 3 hours and 50 minutes of daily listening across both ad supported and ad free platforms like radio, podcasts, streaming music services and satellite radio.
In the second quarter of 2025, ad supported audio accounted for 64% of all listening, while in the TV landscape, 74% of viewing was done on ad supported platforms.
Zeroing in on the ad supported audio universe, consumers spent 64% of their daily time in the second quarter with radio, 19% with podcasts, 14% with streaming audio services and 3% with satellite radio.
Radio accounts for anywhere from 45% of daily ad supported audio time among people 18-34 to 71% among 35+. Meanwhile, podcasts skew the other way, representing 15% of daily audio time for people 35 and older compared with 32% among those 18-34.
A quarterly snapshot: Edison Research Share of Ear®
This chart shows how Americans spent their time with ad supported audio in Q2 2025.
Explore even more audio insights with the additional data tables here.
Tracking radio listening by format
The following tables detail how the share of radio audience varies by format, age, demographic and platform for the top 15 largest-reaching AM/FM radio formats. These differentiate between the share of all radio listening and the share of streaming listening specifically, which are those listening to the digital streams of AM/FM radio stations.
Explore even more audio insights with the additional data tables here.
Explore even more audio insights with the additional data tables here.
Strength of audio channels in Q2
With broad reach and ample ad space, it’s not surprising that audio remains a critical part of the media mix for companies with varying budget sizes.
As we continue to see quarter over quarter, audio formats can have powerful reach with audiences of different demographics.
In fact, data suggests that advertisers are likely missing out on highly effective audio channels due to inaccurate perceptions and biases. Results from Nielsen’s 2025 Global Annual Marketing Survey and Nielsen Global Compass Benchmarks shows radio having the second highest ROI globally (just behind social media), despite being often overlooked and undervalued.
The Record provides a quarterly analysis of audio listening behaviors across the total radio universe. The charts represent average daily usage and share of listening for U.S. audiences.
For even more audio data and insights, explore our audio measurement solutions and connect with our team of experts.
