Ad Supported Audio Accounts for 64% of US Listening

Research firm Nielsen has released its Q3 report on American consumers’ listening habits.

The topline figures:

• On average, Americans listen to three hours and 53 minutes of audio daily across both ad supported and ad free platforms.

• This includes radio, podcasts, streaming music services and satellite radio.

• In Q3 2025, ad supported audio accounted for 64% of all listening.

Ad supported:

• Of those ad supported listeners, 62% of their daily time was spent listening to the radio, 20% on podcasts, 15% on streaming music and 3% with satellite radio.

• As Music Ally points out, however, research firm eMarketer analyzed those stats further to reveal that radio’s share dropped by five percentage points YoY, while streaming’s share grew by 36.4% YoY.

• This was particularly true for 18-34 year olds, for whom ad-supported music streaming accounts for 24% of their daily listening.