Young Americans spend nearly an hour a day with in-car audio. AM/FM takes 70% of their ad-supported minutes.
What We Know: New Edison Research data at SSRS tracked in-car listeners ages 13 to 34. Roughly 63% of their daily car audio time carries advertising. Within that ad-supported window, AM/FM radio leads with 70% of the minutes. Podcasts follow at 11%, while ad-supported streaming music takes another 10%.
What’s at Stake: YouTube captures 7% of ad-supported car time, while SiriusXM lands at just 2%. Meanwhile, Share of Ear counts every occupant in the vehicle, not only drivers. Advertisers chasing young listeners therefore still find most of them on broadcast frequencies. Radio, in other words, remains the default soundtrack of the American commute.
What Remains Unclear: SSRS published no sample size, no field dates, and no margin of error. Additionally, the 70% figure excludes ad-free listening from the calculation entirely. Paid Spotify and Apple Music subscribers drop out before anyone measures radio’s share. Consequently, the data describes ad inventory rather than total listening attention.
What It Means: Radio should sell this number carefully. The honest pitch: broadcast delivers seven of every ten ad-supported minutes in the car. However, overstating that as outright dominance invites an easy and public correction. Buyers already know the difference, so sellers should lead with the accurate version.
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