Research presented in Westwood One's latest “Everyone's Listening” blog shows that listeners of podcasts are not only younger than that of AM/FM radio or of broadcast network television viewers, but they're also more likely to be college-educated and beyond, and employed in a white-collar occupation with an income of $75,000 or higher.
“Audio is a huge part of life for Americans,” Cumulus Media Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard says. “While AM/FM radio dominates the audio landscape with mass reach and significant time spent, new content and distribution platforms represent audio innovations that are experiencing significant consumer adoption growth.”
Among the key findings from the Westwood One 2021 Audioscape, which sources data from Edison Research’s “Share of Ear” study, Cumulus Media/Westwood One’s annual Podcast Download release, and Nielsen’s Scarborough USA+ studies, is that the podcast listener's median age is 34. That's 14 years younger than AM/FM radio and 20 years younger than broadcast television network audiences.
Focusing on persons 18 or older having listened to an audio podcast in the past 30 days, more than half are employed in a white-collar occupation, four in ten in management positions. More than half have a household income of $75,000 or higher, and four in ten have an income upwards of $100,000. In each of these cases, along with college and post-graduate education, podcast listeners index significantly higher than the U.S. population.
“The podcast audience profile is exceptionally attractive,” Bouvard says. “[Being] young, employed, educated, and upscale [makes] this group an audience advertisers want to reach.”
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