Over the past six years, as smart speakers moved from a niche product to a household staple, smart speaker listenership has grown more than 400%. And that increase in ownership has resulted in a greater number of minutes spent listening to streamed audio.
That’s the assessment of recent data pulled from Edison Research’s “Infinite Dial” and “Share of Ear” studies, in combination with a November webinar presented by Edison and Amazon Ads.
The research found that 91% of smart speaker owners reported listening to streamed audio in the past month. Not only that, but listeners reported they listened to audio for four hours and 26 minutes on average per day. Smart home speaker owners also said they listen more frequently, with 63% of them reporting they listen to audio content more since obtaining their smart speakers.
The studies and webinar also revealed that a growing number of listeners — in this case, 66% — are obtaining news updates from their smart speakers on a weekly basis. Forty-five percent of smart speaker owners surveyed reported that they listen to news more often now that they have a smart speaker in their home. The data also revealed that 36% of the smart speaker owners said they obtain news updates exclusively through their device.
The webinar touched on several additional audio trends, most notably that the evolution of audio is being partially fueled by new audio technology. Among the other trends was the news that streaming audio is thriving and is likely to continue to grow; streaming audio offers brands new ways to reach and engage with consumers; the evolution of audio is partially fueled by new audio technology; and new audio technologies have brought audio home and it seems here to stay.
