Weekly audio listening in the United Kingdom remains strong, albeit varied between age and gender.
That’s the key takeaway from RAJAR’s Summer 2025 audio survey, known across Britain as “MIDAS.”
The Summer 2025 wave of MIDAS finds that the weekly reach for audio consumption that is solely listened to and not viewed remains “very high” with 55 million adults — or 96% of the UK population (adults 15+) doing so in a week.
Listeners spend on average 28.9 hours a week engaging in their favorite audio type. The total number of weekly hours listened to audio is around 1.6 billion; this has increased by 7% since MIDAS Spring 2023.
Audio listening is defined as on-demand music, podcasts, owned music, audiobooks and live radio. And, live radio dominates.
Meanwhile, “connected audio” has been placed under a microscope. It is defined as audio consumption that can only be listened to by a device with an internet connection. “This has been a particular area of growth over the last few years as the population continues to desire their listening preferences stored on their devices and accessible with a single touch,” RAJAR notes.
In the UK, Connected Audio reaches 71% of the population in an average week and on average adults listen for around 20 hours per week.
“Connected” may as well be the mantra for why broadcast radio remains so essential to audio consumption across Great Britain. The MIDAS survey recently began asking participants their need states around audio listening; the purpose it serves them while listening, how it makes them feel or why they listened.
“Some audio types serve similar purposes, like keeping us company, helping us relax or making us feel informed on what is going on in the world, but others serve more specific needs like providing a social soundtrack or assisting us to help engage in conversations,” RAJAR said.
When stating “Amply My Mood,” Radio dominated. The same could be said when one desired to feel informed.
“For all adults, the share of ‘live radio’ dominates audio listening (excluding visual) with 64% of their listening hours spent engaging in this audio type,” RAJAR says. This was followed by on demand music streaming (18%), podcasts (8%), owned music (5%), audiobooks (3%) and “catchup radio” (2%).
To download the report, please click here: MIDAS_20Summer_202025.pdf
