Analysis: AI Content Explosion Could Work In Radio’s Favor.

Artificial intelligence may be poised to flood the media landscape with an unprecedented amount of new content, but the music business offers an intriguing lesson for radio and podcasting: more choice does not necessarily mean audiences spread around their attention. Instead, they may concentrate their attention even more heavily on the content and brands they already value.

That’s one takeaway from a new MoffettNathanson analysis examining how AI could reshape the media business. The firm argues that as AI dramatically lowers the barriers to producing content, the companies and creators best positioned to withstand the disruption will be those with premium programming, recognizable brands and the ability to help consumers navigate an increasingly crowded media landscape.

“In a world of infinite content and choice, a critical way for ‘traditional media’ to stay relevant is by focusing on producing the absolute best content and building a brand around quality to filter out the noise,” the analysts say.

For audio, there is already evidence of how that dynamic can work. Americans spent nearly 20 hours per week with audio in 2025, according to Boston Consulting Group data cited by MoffettNathanson. Overall media consumption remained remarkably stable at about 91 hours per week, suggesting the coming explosion of AI-created media will largely be competing for consumer time that is not expanding much.

Streaming music may offer the clearest preview of what radio can expect. There were 253 million songs available in 2025, according to Luminate data cited in the report. Yet just 2.8 million of them — 1.1% of the total catalog — generated 94% of all on-demand premium music streams.

“Unlimited catalog does not flatten demand, but rather makes it more concentrated at the top because discovery converges to what is popular,” MoffettNathanson says.

The pattern also cuts against the idea that an enormous digital library inevitably pushes consumers toward older material. Nearly half — 47.9% — of U.S. on-demand audio streams during 2025 came from songs released during the 2020s. Expand the window back to 2010 and more than three-quarters of listening went to music released during that period. Songs released before 1990 represented just 6% of streams.

“Recent premium music dominates the music industry, just as recent premium video content should continue to dominate in media as the tail grows longer,” the report says.

For radio and podcasting, the implication is potentially significant. If AI makes it possible to produce enormous quantities of inexpensive music, talk and other audio, simply adding more content may become less valuable. Strong personalities, established shows, recognizable brands, exclusive programming and effective curation could become more important ways of breaking through the clutter.

The report also points to Spotify as evidence that discovery becomes more valuable as the amount of content grows. When consumers face nearly unlimited choices, the platforms and brands that help them find what they want have an advantage.

AI will add even more competition. MoffettNathanson estimates it could cut or redirect about $10 billion in media production costs by 2028, potentially producing more content for consumers to choose from. But the analysts don’t expect premium media to become dominated by AI-generated programming. Instead, they see AI largely helping human creators work faster and more efficiently.

For audio companies, the report’s takeaway is AI can make content easier and cheaper to produce, but it can’t create more hours in the day. As the supply grows, trusted brands, personalities and programming that audiences actively seek out could become even more valuable. Their expectation is that premium media — like radio — will continue to rely heavily on human-created content while using AI to make production faster and less expensive. And if the music business is any guide, an explosion in supply may make the relatively small slice of programming that audiences actively seek out more valuable, not less.