Just because technology exists doesn’t guarantee that it will be used. Think of your treadmill, or maybe your last favorite coffee maker. That’s not the case with in-car infotainment systems, however, and we are seeing in Share of Ear® that owners of systems like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay have increased their in-car digital listening time.
According to Edison Research at SSRS’s Share of Ear, in 2019 18% of those ages 13+ owned an in-car infotainment system, and 40% own one today. The data in the graph below includes only those listeners who own an in-car infotainment system like Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.
In 2019, 86% of in-car listening time among those who have an Android Auto or Apple CarPlay went to non-digital sources such as AM/FM over-the-air, SiriusXM satellite radio, and owned music like CDs.
Today, the presence of an in-car infotainment system doesn’t automatically mean that all in-car listening is digital—but it does mean a massive increase in the amount of time spent with digital sources. In-car infotainment owners in 2026, spend 36% of their total in-car audio time with digital sources including streaming music, AM/FM streaming, podcasts, and audiobooks.
Share of Ear® is the only dataset that measures consumption across all audio sources in the U.S. and provides over a decade of historical tracking data. Contact us for more information about becoming a subscriber to Share of Ear.
Spoken’s AI Multi-Cast Narration Performs Well Among Fiction Audiobook Consumers
Findings from a new research study conducted by Edison Research at SSRS and Spoken, the AI Audiobook Company™ show that U.S. fiction audiobook listeners who heard Spoken’s multi-cast narration gave it higher ratings for engagement, favorability, and perceived quality than those who listened to single narrator human narration. The study randomized over 1,000 adult listeners into two blinded cohorts, each experiencing samples of a new sci-fi thriller as either a professional, single-narrator human production, or an unedited, one-click Spoken Multi-Cast™ narration. Find out more about the research and the results here.
