Blacks, Latinos, Youth Spur Spoken Word Audio Growth: NPR & Edison Research Report

Lazovick knows spoken word audio well Her company has recently released a comprehensive study on behalf of NPR detailing major trends and opportunities in the mediumMajor TakeawaysquotThe major takeaway from the study is that the share of time spent with Spoken Word Audio has increased 30 over the past six years and in just the last year it has grown by 8quot says Lazovick quotWhen we looked closely at who is listening more that the highest levels of growth are coming from women African Americans Latinos and the younger age group ages 13 to 34quot Notably as spoken word has been increasing music share of listening has been decreasing quotalmost 8 over six yearsquot She added that 75 of all Americans listen to Spoken Word Audio each month with 43 tuning in dailyI was curious to know if there were any surprises in the results for this somewhat unusual year Lazovick paused and then noted that this year in addition to historical advantages of convenience and multitasking capabilities the standout reasons for increased consumption included personal growth the availability of better content and a need to improve mental healthIn particular she added quotHonestly while it shouldn39t be too surprising given that NPR has been focusing on reaching diverse audiences I was impressed by the large gains among African American and Latino listenersquot These audiences gravitated to topics that include Identity and Religion and the reasons they gave for increasing their consumption was she explained quotit39s easier to find content it39s made for people like you it makes you feel more connectedquot Possibly as a sign of the stressful time we are in quotMental health was among the top three reasons for increased listening among Hispanics and African Americansquot added LazovickThere were also significant differences between men and women quotTraditionally men have been spending more time with spoken word audio and that is still true today But the gap is closing as we have seen significant gains in listening by women We see the same among young peoplequot she statedLooking Forward from an Unusual YearIs this an outlier year The pandemic has certainly impacted aspects of the study including the methodology quotWe typically conduct qualitative interviews in person and we had to pivot a little bit We planned to do this study and then the pandemic happened so we decided to conduct Zoom interviewsquot she explained quotand that turned out to be a really great experience actuallyquotBeing able to place respondents within their home settings added context to their answers quotAnd of course we saw changes in the data tooquot she added quotWe were able to see the shift in listening patterns through the COVID19 disruption Forty percent of spoken word audio listeners age 13 years and older say they are listening to more since quarantine restrictionsquotDespite the unusual nature of today39s media environment Lazovick believes that this year39s study is predictive of the future quotOne of my favorite things about spoken word audio is that people are finding content that appeals directly to them and the amount of material out there is so vast that if you are willing to look you are going to find something that39s meaningful to you I think more and more people are figuring that outquot Lazovick concludedMethodologyThe Spoken Word Audio full report quotdraws from three different studiesquot explained Lazovick The first is a quarterly diary Share of Ear study that has been fielded since 2014 of 4000 people age 14 and older that tracks amount of time people spend with audio through devices and location Through this study quotwe knew right away about the growth of spoken word audioquot The next step was doing a qualitative study quotWe identified those people who are spending more time with spoken word audio with qualitative interviews And then we followed up with an additional 1000 qualitative online interviews with listeners who are 18 years of age and olderquot The result was a massive amount of data that had to be collected and analyzedThe combination of both quantitative and qualitative datasets offered greater insights quotWe knew the Share of Ear study gave us the 39what39 amp8211 what people are doing Then we wanted to understand the 39why39 what are all the reasons why people would possibly do it And then we took all of those 39whys39 and put it back into a survey and that helped us quantify the 39whys39quot she explainedClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Blacks, Latinos, Youth Spur Spoken Word Audio Growth: NPR & Edison Research Report

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Charlene Weisler

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Blacks, Latinos, Youth Spur Spoken Word Audio Growth: NPR & Edison Research Report

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