Until recently, digital audio was treated as a nice-to-have line item, layered in after TV, social and search were funded, often left in the background. That mindset no longer reflects how people spend their time or how media platforms have evolved.
According to eMarketer, nearly 240 million people in the U.S. will listen to digital audio in 2026, most on ad-supported platforms where marketers can target and measure campaigns with precision. At the same time, digital audio ad revenue is projected to reach about $7-$8 billion, still a modest share of total digital ad spend given audio’s share of attention.
That gap between audience behavior and budget allocation is an opportunity to create outsized value with audio media buying. Digital audio may not be growing at the pace of streaming video, but it is expanding steadily, with consistent year-over-year gains in time spent and ad revenue. In late 2025, podcast listening for spoken-word content surpassed AM/FM talk radio for the first time. That shift signals more than a trend. It reflects a structural change in how people consume long-form content.
For media buyers, audio is no longer an experimental channel. It is a practical lever to reach incremental audiences, improve efficiency and unlock new full-funnel measurement opportunities.
What is streaming audio?
When marketers hear the word “audio,” many still think of terrestrial radio or early satellite subscriptions. But streaming audio in 2026 is a broader, more sophisticated ecosystem.
It includes music streaming platforms like Spotify and Amazon Music, podcast networks like Wondery, iHeart and SiriusXM, and ad-supported tiers on platforms where audio and video increasingly overlap, such as YouTube. It also includes in-store and in-app audio networks that reach shoppers at or near the point of purchase through retail media and commerce environments. Walmart, for example, operates its own in-store radio network with full-time DJs.
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On the buy side, access has become much simpler. Many demand-side platforms now offer native streaming audio inventory, including programmatic access to podcasts and music, alongside display, video and CTV. Amazon’s DSP can extend a brand’s retail media strategy into Amazon Music and select podcast inventory. Platform-specific solutions from Spotify and SiriusXM Media offer first-party audience segments and creative formats tailored to each platform’s listening environment.
In other words, audio has moved from a siloed specialty buy to a channel marketers can plan, activate and measure using the same infrastructure as the rest of the media mix.
Listen up: Why the audio opportunity is now
We’re at a moment when several structural shifts are converging to aid marketers.
Listening habits have reset at a higher baseline: Digital audio has become a true daily habit, not a niche behavior. Edison Research and NPR’s Infinite Dial show that monthly digital audio listening is climbing steadily, with roughly four in five U.S. adults engaging with digital audio at least once a month across music, podcasts and other formats.
Within that, podcasts are the growth engine: recent eMarketer forecasts estimate the average U.S. adult will spend around 25 minutes per day listening to podcasts in 2024-2025, with podcasts driving essentially all incremental gains in digital audio time.
Commutes are back and so is ears-open time: Average one-way commute times in the U.S. are hovering around 26 minutes, approaching pre-pandemic levels. Return-to-office policies across sectors like tech, finance and professional services have pushed more people back into cars, trains and buses.
Those environments remain prime territory for streaming audio: headphones are on, screens are often out of reach and podcasts or music are the companion of choice.
Inventory and audiences are both bigger: Audio now shows up in places that used to be reserved for TV and display: Golden Globes-level recognition for podcasting, live sports broadcasts with synchronized audio ads and retail media networks experimenting with in-store audio placements.
Platforms such as Amazon are leaning into live sports and interactive audio ads as part of broader efforts to compete with traditional TV upfronts.
From a Kelce brothers podcast on the drive home to shoppable in-store messages at Sam’s Club, the number of high-quality, brand-safe audio touchpoints has expanded dramatically, giving marketers far more surface area in the ear, not just on the screen.
Taken together, these shifts mean streaming audio is no longer a peripheral channel. It’s become a daily ritual for hundreds of millions of people, increasingly monetized through ad-supported experiences that can be bought programmatically and measured.
Audio’s advantages: reach, efficiency and flexibility
For media buyers under pressure to do more with less, audio’s advantage lies in its reach, efficiency and flexibility.
1: Attention that’s hard to replicate elsewhere
Listeners engage during eyes-busy, hands-busy moments (commuting, working out, cooking), when visual ad clutter is low. That environment makes it easier for a well-written spot to land than yet another skippable video or crowded social ad.
Studies show people overestimate how often they skip podcast ads. Actual skip rates are lower, especially for host-read and contextually relevant placements.
2: Cost-effective incremental reach
Audio’s share of consumer time is higher than its share of ad spend, keeping CPMs relatively attractive compared with premium video and some social inventory.
For brands already facing diminishing returns or sticker shock in TV, streaming video and social, audio unlocks incremental impressions among light TV viewers, cord-nevers and mobile-first audiences.
3: Fit within full-funnel measurement
Clean rooms, retail media integrations and tools like Amazon Marketing Cloud make it possible to tie audio exposure to downstream behaviors (site visits, branded search, add-to-cart, sales).
Media mix modeling (MMM) and incrementality tests can now treat audio as a distinct lever, so you can calibrate budgets based on proven revenue impact rather than assumptions.
The net result: audio moves from brand-only nice-to-have to a flexible, measurable lever that can scale up or down with confidence.
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How to get started with audio buying
Unlike the early days of podcast sponsorships and bespoke radio buys, getting started with streaming audio today looks and feels a lot like the rest of your digital media planning.
Scan through your existing DSP and network relationships
Many enterprise DSPs already offer streaming audio inventory from major publishers and networks, allowing you to buy audio alongside display, video and CTV with consistent audience targeting and frequency controls.
Check which audio exchanges and publishers are enabled, where you have access to podcasts and whether you can tap into commerce or retail media extensions like Amazon’s audio inventory.
Dial in on the role in the funnel and KPIs
For upper-funnel or mid-funnel objectives, you may optimize toward reach, frequency and quality of exposure among high-value audiences (for example, category intenders or in-market segments). For lower-funnel impact, focus on metrics like branded search lift, site visits or add-to-cart rates in exposed versus control groups, using MMM or platform-level experimentation where possible.
Don’t skip investing in creative for audio
A TV script repurposed as an audio spot rarely performs as well as a message tailored to the intimacy of headphones and the pacing of a podcast or playlist. Consider testing a mix of host-read and produced spots, experimenting with length (15 versus 30 seconds) and leaning into contextual alignment.
For example, aligning messages with content genres that reflect your audience’s mindset, from finance podcasts for B2B decision-makers to fitness playlists for athleisure brands.
Put audio as a favorite into your testing roadmap
Rather than treating audio as an all-or-nothing investment, start with a structured test in one or two priority markets or audiences, with clear hypotheses about its role and measurable outcomes. Use that data to inform whether you scale horizontally (more audiences, more markets) or vertically (deeper investment in the most responsive segments).
Over time, aim to have audio represented in your MMM, your annual budget planning and your always-on optimization routines as a standard part of the mix.
Save streaming audio to your playlist
In hindsight, certain shifts in media allocation feel obvious: search’s rise as the performance backbone, social’s transformation from experimental to essential and CTV’s evolution from test line item to centerpiece of many video strategies. Audio is on a similar trajectory, but its growth curve is slower and steadier. That’s precisely why it can be a source of competitive advantage to act now.
Consumers are tuned in. They’re listening to more digital audio than ever, across more contexts, on platforms that are increasingly ad-supported and measurable. The question isn’t whether audio belongs in your 2026 media plan, but how quickly you and your teams can integrate it into your full-funnel strategy and start measuring the business outcomes it quietly delivers.
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