Data from the latest Jacobs Media Techsurvey 2025 shows that radio listeners have moved away from AM/FM radio in large numbers over the past decade.
In the 2016 version of the study, 77% of respondents said that in a typical week, they listen to their favorite radio brands on terrestrial broadcast radio, whether it be in their car or another broadcast radio application. In 2025, that figure had fallen to 59%, after being as high as 85% in the initial survey in 2013.
Coinciding with that drop was the rise of listening in digital apps. In 2016, 20% of respondents said they listened to their favorite AM/FM radio brands on mobile, computers, smart speakers, podcasts, or on smart TVs. By 2025, that figure had risen to 39%, a 19% uptick in the decade. During the initial survey in 2013, only 14% of listeners said digital was their preferred method of consumption.
Despite the increase in digital listening, the latest Jacobs Media study shows that smart speaker ownership has stalled in recent years.
39% of respondents in the Techsurvey 2025 said they owned a smart speaker. That’s the identical number from 2024 and only a 1% increase from 2023. Since 2020, smart speaker ownership has only risen by 4% overall.
Gen X is the most likely generation to own a smart speaker at 44%, closely followed by millennials at 43%. Gen Z is only slightly more likely to own a smart speaker compared to boomers, with 36% of the younger generation and 34% of the older sector claiming ownership.
Music station listeners were more likely than spoken word station consumers were more likely to own smart speakers. 40% of music listeners owned smart speakers compared to 32% of spoken word listeners.
So, if smart speaker ownership has largely stalled, but digital listening continues to rise, where are listeners consuming radio brands?
While an individual brand’s station website remains the top dog on the block, its influence has shrunk in the past half-decade. Since 2020, listening from a station website has dropped by 8%, down from 68% in 2020 to 60% in 2025.
Station mobile apps have risen from 42% in 2020 to 48% in 2025. However, that has dropped from 2024, when 51% of respondents said they used an individual station app to listen to their favorite brands.
Smart speaker usage has remained relatively steady. Sitting at 22% in 2020, it has slowly risen to 28% in 2025, which is identical to the figure it earned in 2024. It has only risen 2% since the 2021 survey when it jumped from 22% to 26% overall, the Jacobs Media Techsurvey 2025 data revealed.
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