Radio and Digital Audio Listeners

Spotify has stated that its free ad-supported service has a larger segment  of unique listeners in comparison to UK commercial radio stations.  Radiocentre however disputes this claim and has said that the numbers fail to illustrate the overall picture. 

2040 UK adults answered a questionnaire via TNS about the reach of Spotify. The results showed that it was able to reach audiences who don’t listen to commercial radio at all.  For instance commercial radio station Capital reaches 12% of listeners who don’t listen to music on Spotify, the streaming provider reaches 19% of people who don’t listen to Capital. The overlap between the audiences is just 10%.

The study found that Spotify Free and commercial radio listeners in the UK have a similar gender breakdown, but said Spotify Free has a more millennial audience.

Mark Barber, planning director at Radiocentre, doesn’t agree with the survey findings, stating that RAJAR MIDAS was the “industry standard” for measuring listening to all forms of audio. The RAJAR figures claim that live radio accounts for 70% of all time UK audience listening time, which contradicts the survey

He does say : “The good news for advertisers is that streamed music services are helping to grow overall commercial audio listening by eating into time people previously spent with their personal music collection, therefore opening up audio opportunities previously inaccessible to advertising.”

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