蘑菇AV

The cost of everything from Pandora jewelry to Adidas sneakers is rising: The trend is poised to accelerate as tariff-hit goods arrive at US ports鈥攁nd shoppers have taken note.

When SiriusXM acquired Pandora in 2019, Pandora had recently acquired digital audio ad tech company AdsWizz, which now acts as the ad server and sell-side platform (SSP) for the entire SiriusXM Media portfolio.

Thirty-five percent of Gen X users ages 45 to 54 listen to the free version of Pandora, making it the leading ad-supported digital audio platform for younger Gen Xers. This is likely because this cohort generally doesn鈥檛 change their digital habits without a reason, and Pandora works well for them. Both Sirius XM (31%) and AM/FM online radio (30%) rank above Spotify as well (26%).

YouTube鈥檚 share was more than four times as big as the shares claimed by any other ad-supported service鈥攁d-supported Pandora represented 3%, while ad-supported Spotify, SiriusXM, and Amazon Music each represented 2%.

Click here to view our full US listener forecasts for Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, or Apple Music. iHeartRadio will lead in listener growth this year (4.5%), but the boost will be modest.

Respondents in the US were asked if they used Pandora, which was not available in any other countries. The differences among demographic groups were more pronounced in digital audio streaming than for video streaming. A large divide was evident between the youngest age cohort (ages 16 to 24) and the oldest (ages 55 to 64), between high- and low-income households, and between urban and rural dwellers.

YouTube is the preferred podcast platform among US listeners of this medium, according to Morning Consult. Spotify takes second place, followed by Apple Podcasts and Pandora.

It was a happy holiday season for several retailers: Lululemon, Abercrombie & Fitch, Crocs, and Pandora are among the companies that beat expectations over the final months of 2023.

Note: Pandora listeners include Stitcher listeners. Methodology: Estimates are based on the analysis of survey and web traffic data from research firms and regulatory agencies, historical trends, and country-specific demographic and socioeconomic factors.

Amazon and Apple will not move the needle very much, and Pandora will lose listeners (3.3% decline) for the eighth year in a row. Read the full report, US Digital Audio Forecast Overview 2024.

Top-line time spent with media will grow very little in the US going forward, making it essential to identify which formats and platforms are winning the newly zero-sum competition for consumer attention.

Pandora leads but Spotify is rapidly catching up. Pandora will hold a 21.9% share of digital audio ads sales in 2024, while Spotify captures 16.6% and iHeartMedia 10.0%. Spotify will shrink the gap, trailing Pandora in 2026 by only 0.7%. Audio advertising continues to punch beneath its weight class. Audio spending trails audio time.

How is programmatic advertising shaping the growth of the digital audio ad market, and how should advertisers spending in terrestrial radio think about balancing their spend between terrestrial and digital audio channels?