The 2023 Irish Audio Report reveals that there is almost universal listening to audio content with 98% of adults listening every week. Live radio is the dominant player reaching 92% of adults weekly while listening to on-demand audio (streaming services, podcasts) reaches 57%of the population each week.

 Irish audiences are highly connected with a rapid growth in smart speaker ownership with 45% of adults now owning a smart speaker, up from 13% of all adults back in 2019. 92% of adults own a smartphone.

On an average day, in terms of time spent listening to audio, live radio has a 74% share of the audio market while on-demand audio has a 26% share. Within on-demand audio, music streaming has a 12% share of listening while YouTube Music and Podcasts have a 7% and 3% share respectively. For the young 15- to 24-year-old age cohort, live radio accounts for 45% of total listening, followed by music streaming services with a 29% share, YouTube Music with 13% share and podcasts with a 3% share.

Within music streaming services, 67% of all adults pay a subscription to block out advertising. This means when you look at share of “commercial”  audio (platforms that carry advertising), live radio commands an 88% share of all adult listening compared to a 3% share for music streaming services.

Most listening to audio content happens in the home with seven-in-ten (69%) having listened to audio at home yesterday. However, as the country has moved back outside of the home, there has been some increase in listening outside the home with 41% listened in the car yesterday and 11% listen to audio while out walking/cycling/running.

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Please see below to download The Irish Audio Report or watch the webinar that goes through the findings in detail.

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