Programmatic plays a small but growing role in digital audio services ad spending. Major digital audio platforms are leaning in.

Digital audio consumption continues to grow in the US. Younger audiences are leading the way, adopting platforms like Spotify and audio content like podcasts.

Ad budgets are slowly migrating from terrestrial radio to digital platforms, but the shift is stymied by slow platform subscriber growth and by YouTube.

High audio listenership and time spent this year means limited growth. Subscription revenues will be healthy, as most listeners pay to limit ads. And Spotify will lead in nearly every metric, though several platforms are doing well.

People are consuming audio from a variety of digital services—including streaming music, podcasts, and internet radio—and on a variety of devices like smartphones, smart speakers, and in-car audio players. Social media time spent has shot up since 2019. It’s benefited from a pandemic boost, but its growth is more the result of an expanding array of platforms and the stickiness of short-video content.

Spotify has nearly twice as many US listeners as the next most popular digital audio platform, Amazon Music, at 103.6 million compared to 53.1 million, per our September 2024 forecast.