18% of Americans own a Smart Speaker, around 43 million people, and usage is growing.
According to the Smart Audio report, conducted by NPR and Edison Research, smart speaker reach into households has past the early adopter stage and is growing fast.
According to the survey, the majority of audio listeners consume audio via smartphone or tablet, followed by Smart Speakers, followed by smartphone speaker then radio.
For First Adopters, smart speakers are now the number 1 way they listen to audio.
News and current affairs are the most listened to program genres, followed by comedy, arts and food.
See the full report here.
I have glanced at the "full report". There was one question of how much do you use the smart speaker to listen to music and another question on listening to traditional am/fm stations via the speaker. Four points I wish to raise.
(1) Listening to music could mean listening to a subscription type IP service such as Spotify or other streaming service. Listening to music could also mean listening to a streaming radio station. There is not enough information to say whether listening to music on the smart speaker was exclusively about listening to non-radio stations or whether listening to music included listening to music am/fm stations.
(2) The question of listening to traditional am/fm stations does not state how much is spent listening to music or news talk or sports talk.
(3) The survey did not address the amount of time listening to traditional am/fm radio via the smart speaker is the same time spent on actual am or fm radio prior to IP streaming or listening to the speaker. In other words, despite changing from traditional radio receivers to smart speakers, are the radio listening habits the same or different?
(4) You could also ask whether listening to traditional am or fm stations via the smart speaker included listening to radio stations outside the listener's market area. For example, is a person in Sydney who is listening to a smart speaker, listening to 2GB or News Talk KABC 790 Los Angeles, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FZT8ZNK ? In other words, the survey does not address the question that listening to radio is increasing time spent to other stations outside the the listener's traditional am/fm market area.
Just a couple of thoughts,
Regards
Anthony from exciting Belfield