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Are Older Listeners the Key to Unlocking Streaming’s Growth Potential?


by Glenn Peoples, Billboard Pro, March 3, 2023


The often overlooked 55-and-over age group's monthly online listening rate stands at just 53%, leaving lots of room to expand that audience.


The areas of the audio marketplace with the highest growth rates don’t involve music or young people. As online listening growth slows and smartphone ownership is nearly ubiquitous, podcasts and audiobooks stand out in Edison Research’s The Infinite Dial 2023 report.


(...) Streaming companies tend to obsess about young consumers, but the growth opportunity appears to lie in older age groups. (...) The often overlooked 55-and-over age group has significant room to grow. Its monthly online listening rate stands at just 53%, up from 52% in 2022 and 46% in 2021. The age group is also slow to adopt podcasts. Just 21% of people 55 and over listened to podcasts in the last month. Worse yet, the 55-and-over crowd is losing enthusiasm: Its monthly podcast listening rate was 22% last year and 26% in 2021.


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