NTIA research · United States
Online music, radio and podcasts in the United States
How common is listening to online audio?
November 2023 · Internet users aged 15+ · Prior six months
of U.S. internet users aged 15+ were reported as streaming or downloading music, radio programs or podcasts at least occasionally during the prior six months in NTIA’s November 2023 survey.
People in the civilian noninstitutionalized population · Within the internet-user population, not all U.S. residents · Source SE: 0.3221 percentage points
Source: NTIA Analyze Table, Nov 2023 / audioUser / adultInternetUser, row 764. Latest actual aggregate wave in the source checked 2026-10-08; no 2025 or 2027 estimate is inferred from a collection notice.
Online music, radio and podcasts by age
The youngest reviewed age band has the highest reported online-audio participation, and the oldest band the lowest. Each bar uses internet users in that age group as its denominator. The 15–24 band includes teenagers and adults and must not be relabelled a teen audience.
Internet users aged 15+ · November 2023 · Prior six months
Source: NTIA, audioUser, age-group Prop columns. Original Social Usage chart. Read source sampling errors below; apparent differences do not establish causation or statistical significance.
Read exact age estimates and source standard errors
| Age group | Share (%) | Source SE (pp) | Source column |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15–24 | 79.9774 | 0.8786 | age1524Prop |
| 25–44 | 73.8545 | 0.5442 | age2544Prop |
| 45–64 | 56.7075 | 0.5276 | age4564Prop |
| 65+ | 35.0757 | 0.5472 | age65pProp |
An SE is a standard error, not a 95% confidence interval or margin of error. The aggregate table does not supply the selected cell sample sizes or separate confidence intervals. We do not calculate a difference test.
Explore other published single-dimension breakdowns, including income, education and metropolitan status, in the digital-behavior comparison explorer. Each comparison retains its own group denominator; age-by-income or local estimates are not available here.
Music, radio and podcasts share one survey question
The measure combines music, radio programs and podcasts. It cannot reveal the audience for any one of those formats, and it does not identify the overlap among them. Adding separate industry format estimates to this survey total would mix definitions and may count people repeatedly.
Streaming and downloading are both included. This is therefore broader than paid streaming subscriptions and is not a measure of live radio alone. The question also supplies no platform, payment, listening-time or advertising-exposure breakdown.
For research about podcast adoption or a named audio service, an explicit format or service question is needed. These data answer a different question: whether an internet user aged 15+ was reported to have done any of the listed audio activities at least occasionally during the prior six months.
The original question
What about streaming or downloading music, radio programs, or podcasts? (If needed) [Do you/Does NAME] listen to music, radio programs, or podcasts using the Internet?
The preceding USEINT instruction asks about activities done online at least occasionally during the past six months, at home or elsewhere. The answer options are Yes and No. A household proxy may answer on behalf of the randomly selected internet user.
Source: NTIA November 2023 questionnaire, PDF page 149, AUDIO. The question’s examples and combined activities cannot be separated using the published marginal cells.
Historical snapshots with question changes visible
The main music/radio/podcast prompt remains broad. Its optional clarification changes from “stream or download” in 2019 to “listen … using the Internet” in 2021 and 2023, and the question sequence changes. We retain those distinctions instead of fitting a growth rate through the bars.
U.S. internet users aged 15+ · Not a harmonized growth series
2021 · Examples, prompts and question context changed
Calls added Zoom by 2021; 2023 drops Skype from the examples. The gaming question appears before calls by 2021. The audio optional prompt changes from stream/download in 2019 to listen using the Internet in 2021/2023. Original methodology
2022 · CPS population controls changed in 2022
CPS introduced a blended 2020 population base in January 2022. No NTIA-specific adjustment is supplied. Separate survey snapshots are shown; cross-wave growth, interpolation and significance claims are disabled. This is our comparability caution, not an NTIA break flag. Original methodology
Source: NTIA aggregate CSV, national audioUser cells. Separate bars do not interpolate between survey waves. No growth rate, cross-wave difference or causal effect is calculated.
Read historical values, questions and source standard errors
| Wave | Share (%) | Source SE (pp) | CSV row |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2019 | 55.9030 | 0.2874 | 590 |
| Nov 2021 | 60.0058 | 0.3330 | 679 |
| Nov 2023 | 62.0944 | 0.3221 | 764 |
- 2019 questionnaire
- What about streaming or downloading music, radio programs, or podcasts? (Do you/Does NAME) stream or download music, radio programs, or podcasts? (1) Yes (2) No Blind (D) Don’t Know Blind (R) Refused Original PDF page 155
- 2021 questionnaire
- Random respondents What about streaming or downloading music, radio programs, or podcasts? (If needed) [Do you/Does NAME] listen to music, radio programs, or podcasts using the Internet? (1) Yes (2) No Original PDF page 149
- 2023 questionnaire
- What about streaming or downloading music, radio programs, or podcasts? (If needed) [Do you/Does NAME] listen to music, radio programs, or podcasts using the Internet? Original PDF page 149
The CSV contains earlier rows too. Those are not imported into this history because earlier questionnaire and sampling changes have not been harmonized. A source variable with the same name is not sufficient proof of comparability.
Methods, dates and reuse
Population, weights and uncertainty
NTIA estimates from one randomly selected internet user aged 15+ per household, using PWPRMWGT; proxy responses allowed. Source standard errors use successive difference replication with 160 respondent replicate weights.
The November 2023 fieldwork ran from 12–18 November. The selected population is internet users aged 15+ in the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the 50 states and District of Columbia. It is neither every resident aged 15+ nor all adults aged 18+.
Social Usage reads published aggregate proportions and source proportion standard errors, then multiplies each by 100. This produces percentages and standard errors in percentage points. We process no individual responses, multiply no survey shares by unrelated population totals, and create no small-area estimates.
Source standard errors describe sampling uncertainty. Reporting, nonresponse, imputation and coverage errors can also affect these survey estimates. The five online activities in this research collection overlap and cannot be summed into a unique audience.
Dates, source selection and permitted downloads
- Latest data period
- November 2023
- Aggregate update published
- 2024-06-06 · This is not the original publication date of every older wave.
- Source access checked
- 2026-10-08
- Assisted release review
- 2026-10-08 · Independent human review is not claimed.
Source: NTIA Internet Use Survey, U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey. Selection and presentation by Social Usage; no agency endorsement implied.
Selected NTIA federal aggregates and our original attributed charts and tables use the recorded federal-work basis. Agency logos, third-party graphics, respondent records and a blanket licence over other sources are excluded. Download the reviewed aggregate data with source credit and scope.
Data Commons aids source discovery and auditing. These percentages and standard errors come directly from the original NTIA Analyze Table because its survey universe and uncertainty are explicit. They are not computed from Data Commons counts divided by an unrelated population.