We are regularly asked about the ‘median age’ of users of different audio platforms.
Fortunately, with Edison Research’s Share of Ear® study, we can answer this question – at least for those aged 13 and older.
The two ways are represented in the table below.
In the first data column, you see the median age for the ‘cume’ or ‘reach’ of the 13+ audience – the point where half the listeners are older and half are younger. You will note that Streaming Audio (essentially listening to pureplays like Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and the like – but not listening to podcasts on any of these platforms) and Podcasts have the exact same median age when looked at this way. The median listener to AM/FM Radio is 46 years old — 12 years older than the listener to streaming and podcasts.
But there is another way to look at things.
And that is to total the time spent listening to each platform and find the point where half of the listening is being done above that age and half below.
In this case, as you can see in the rightmost data column, the variances are a little starker. This weighted median of listening time pushes the Radio median age to 51, and the Streaming median down to 31 – a twenty-year difference.
Podcasting, when time is considered, gets two years older at 36, showing that the older listeners are giving a little more time to podcasts than the younger.
All three of these platforms have lots of listeners, and listening, in all age groups. But the midpoint of these listener and listening bases are significantly different.
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