Exciting stuff - our yearly audio AI consumption report is here!
The superpower of sound and listening started at the dawn of humankind and oral stories.
Today, it continues in new ways - with radio, podcasts, and of course - audio AI.
Here at Trinity Audio, we are on a mission to help every piece of amazing original content reach as many people as possible. We do it through the use of audio AI technology, which allows us to offer smart audio experiences in 125 languages and accents, and with over 600 natural-sounding voices.
There was a lot of listening going around in 2021 so we've dug deep into our data to show you the ongoing audio AI listening habits across the globe.
Key takeaways
Based on data collected from over 100 publishers in 49 countries that feature our audio solutions, our main findings for 2021 are:
- Audio content is engaging: almost half of the total listeners listened through the entire content as the completion rate clocked at an impressive 48.87%.
- People embrace audio ads: audio ads had a whopping LTR of 96%, once again proving that audio advertising is extremely receptive with people listening to entire ads during their audio experience.
- Most listening is done in afternoon hours: mid to late work hours are the peak listening times, with the largest amount of playback happening around 15h.
- There is high engagement in English-speaking places - listeners in countries where English is a primary or secondary language like in the USA, Jamaica, and the Scandinavian countries, engage the most via eardrums.
Engagement with audio AI content is off the charts
Our audio units (Trinity Player and Trinity Pulse) were loaded slightly more than four billion times, automatically generating audio content.
The click-through rate (CTR) was 2.03% or 79,3 million audio playbacks. From there, 48.87% of our text-to-speech audio versions of news articles and blog posts were listened to from start to finish.
Furthermore, there was a listen-through rate (LTR) of 69.14%, which means that once a user clicked to listen, they had clear intent - more than two-thirds of the audio content was listened to on average.
Mobile wins the usage battle against desktop
In what is perhaps the most unsurprising find of the report, digital audio listening occurs primarily through mobile devices. Our data shows the same: 71.1% of listening was done via mobile, while the remaining 28.9% falls on desktop devices.
Times when ears are most occupied
In terms of when listeners are tuning in the most, 14:00 to 17:00 locally are peak hours. Afternoon work hours generally had a steady listening rate, followed by evening hours between 21:00 and 23:00.
Countries with the most audio-hungry listeners
Out of 37 countries with minimal 100,000 content plays, listeners in Jamaica were by far most keen to play the audio version, registering a 7.15% CTR. Denmark and the US are next with 3.75% and 3.04%, respectively.
Audio advertising works
In 2021, the average LTR was a whopping 96% or 105.8 million ads listened to. Almost everyone who listened to the content also listened to an advertisement in full.
Audio ads are becoming a more important part of the media strategy as they allow the evolution of marketing and advertising strategies in a natural way.
Methodology
Starting with January 1st and ending with December 31st 2021, data was compiled from 100 publications in 49 countries across the globe.
