Online Radio Has Yet to Conquer the Car

According to a recent survey conducted by Edison Research, internet radio services, including on-demand services, live radio streaming and personalized streaming services, are used by 53 percent of American internet users. While that is still low compared to the 90 percent who listen to FM/AM radio, it indicates that music streaming has arrived in the mainstream.

The most popular form of internet radio is personalized streaming, where music is played based on an artist, song or music genre previously chosen by the listener. 39 percent of the respondents use such services, of which Pandora is the most prominent example. 27 percent listen to live streams of radio stations and 18 percent use on-demand services such as Spotify.

The study, which was comissioned by Pandora, Spotify and TuneIn, also identifies where the biggest opportunity for growth lies for streaming services: while online radio adoption is on par with traditional radio in a number of locations including at work, on the go or in public transportation, it is surprisingly low in the car. 83 percent of the respondents listen to AM/FM radio in the car, but only 17 percent use streaming services while driving. Given the broad adoption of smartphones and the increased connectivity of car audio systems, it can be expected that streaming services will gradually conquer the car as well. For now though, it remains one of the last strongholds of traditional broadcast radio.