Top trends from our latest audio listening research

21 May 2026 12:13 PM

We yesterday published our latest research into the audio listening habits of people in the UK. The report unearths a range of insights about people’s listening preferences, and here we set out some of the main findings.

For more detail, you can take a look at the full report.

Most people are regular listeners

Some 93% of us listen to some kind of audio media each week – rising to 98% of 16- to 34-year-olds. Music radio and online music services are most-used types of audio, with over six in ten of us listening to these each week. The most-used online audio services are YouTube, Spotify, BBC Sounds, Amazon Music and Apple Music.

Meanwhile, two in five adults listen to stored digital music, for example on a smartphone, while a quarter listen to their own physical music collection on CDs, vinyl records or cassettes.

Age differences stand out

Audio remains hugely popular with younger listeners, reaching 98% of 16- to 34-year-olds every week. These younger audiences are more likely to enjoy digital forms of music as well as podcasts and audiobooks.

Use of digital services differs across audio type and demographic, with different services favoured by different age groups. For example, for online radio listening, BBC Sounds has a higher reach in both the younger and older age groups, with its lowest reach in the 35-54 age group. Global’s online service is used equally among those aged 16-34 and 35-54, while Spotify’s reach is highest among 16-34s.

For music, around half of 16-34s listen to online services several times a day, compared to one in five people aged 35-54 and 7% of those aged 55 and over. It’s a similar picture for other digital music sources - for example, stored digital music and online music video sites. For music radio however, one in five people aged 35-54 and 55+ listen several times a day, double the proportion of 16-34s.

Podcasts still on the rise – and in different formats

Podcasts continue to grow in popularity and this is showing no signs of slowing, with over a quarter (27%) of adults now listening weekly. But how we consume them is changing, with audiences increasingly offered the choice between listening and watching.

Video podcasts are converging with television – resulting in some being broadcast on TV. Over a quarter (27%) of podcast listeners say they prefer video podcasts, while a similar proportion (26%) let the video play in the background and a higher proportion (39%) prefer audio-only podcasts.

We also looked at the relationship between podcasts, TV viewing and TV content. Among people who listen to podcasts linked to TV programmes, 59% said video podcasts have improved their TV viewing experience, with 60% saying they would be interested in watching more video podcasts for other programmes. A similar figure – 58% – also said they had had listened to more podcasts as a result of watching TV programme video podcasts, such as The Traitors: Uncloaked, The Apprentice: Unfinished Business, Love Island: The Morning After).

Different reasons for listening

People mainly listen to music to help them relax, provide background listening and to boost their mood, while people listen to speech audio so they can learn information and catch up on news.

While online services use algorithms to shape users’ experience of music listening, the majority of users (55%) use playlists they have created themselves, while fewer than half (46%) use mood or genre-based playlists generated for them by the service.

Listening remains popular on the road

Our vehicles remain a valuable listening space, with just over a quarter of live radio listening taking place in cars, vans and lorries in 2026 (26%), up by 56% since 2006, while total listening fell by 5% across the same period.

This growth of in-car listening contrasts with a fall in listening at home, which has decreased by 17%. For increasing numbers of people, the car is the only place where they listen to the radio - up from 2.6m adults a week in 2006 to 11.7m in 2026 – an increase of 350%.