Addressability: What It Means, Why It Matters, and Where We Stand

The Will They or Won’t They of Ads

Hear your brand message, that is. With 192 million1 weekly listeners, digital audio is becoming a staple of Americans’ media and entertainment routines. It’s no wonder advertisers are eager to market their products and services to these engaged consumers. But if the audience isn’t addressable, they won’t hear your ads—it’s that simple. 

Total vs Addressable: What’s the Big Diff? 

It’s actually a huge difference—for advertisers. Here’s a rundown:

Total Audience – The total number of listeners who have access to a publisher’s platform—both free and paid subscription. In digital audio, a total audience figure gives you a sense of a publisher’s popularity, but advertisers can’t necessarily reach all of those listeners.

Addressable Audience – The total number of listeners who listen to ad-supported audio, or in plain speak, will actually hear advertisements. 

In the end, from an advertising perspective, it doesn’t necessarily matter how many listeners a platform boasts for the total audience. In reality, you can’t reach all of those people, because some are paid subscribers who listen ad-free. 

Addressable audience is the single most important number to be looking at. 

The Bigger the Addressable Audience, The Better

When selecting a media partner, you need to balance publisher popularity against audience addressability. And, our numbers tell a powerful story for advertisers. We reach a total audience of 150 million2 listeners across our platforms, including Pandora, SiriusXM, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and our partnership with NBCU. Among SXM Media’s users, 87% are addressable listeners3—yep, that means you can reach the vast majority of our audience with your advertising messages. 

We are the leading audio entertainment company with the largest addressable audience, so you can reach your most valuable listeners—wherever they are.

Just Look How Pandora Stacks Up

Among the total digital audio audience, Pandora’s free listening tier has the largest addressable share of ear, accounting for 17% of all daily streaming audio, according to Edison Research’s Share of Ear Q4 2022 study. Pandora reigns king among all ad-supported streaming audio brands with adults 18+, commanding 1.3x more daily share of listening than Spotify and 3x more than iHeart ad-supported.4

And when it comes to streaming on the go, Pandora’s addressable audience can’t be beat.

Addressability & Market Reach—A Winning Combination 

To maximize your ROI, you want as large a pool of addressable consumers as possible. And we can deliver nationwide, including in the top 10 designated market areas (DMAs).5 Pandora and SoundCloud beat Spotify in every top 10 DMA. 

Even More to Consider

You get it now—addressable audience is the magic number for advertisers. But there’s even more to consider—and we stack up considerably well.

Audience Data & Third-Party Measurement

When buying digital audio (or any advertising, for that matter), you rely on audience data and third-party measurement. We believe the more data we can provide to our ad partners to help them shape their campaigns, the better. That’s why we marry our industry-leading first-party user data with credible third-party data sources like Comscore, MRI-Simmons, and Edison Research. 

The (Exploding) Power of Podcasts

Podcasts are massively popular with listeners of all ages—and we’re constantly changing the podcast advertising game. We reach 63 million monthly podcast listeners6 across Stitcher, NBC podcasts, Audiochuck, and our podcast audience exchange—with the best content, including 5,000+ total podcasts and 300+ exclusive shows.7 For added reach, advertisers can connect with another 30 million to 50 million off-platform listeners8 via our expanded audience exchanges, which sells advertising for other publishers on streaming audio and podcasts. 

Let’s Hear It

Your ad, that is. From streaming music to podcasts, SXM Media offers both the most popular content alongside the largest addressable audiences. To capitalize on digital audio’s opportunities, you need to reach those ad-supported customers, and we can help connect you. 

Sources

1. Edison Research, Infinite Dial, 2022

2. Comscore Media Metrix, December 2022; Nielsen SiriusXM Custom Study, Spring 2022/Fall 2022; Triton Podcast Metrics, November 2022; Edison Research December 2021 (National Telephone Survey, Podcast Consumer Tracker, Infinite Dial 2021)

3. Pandora Internal Metrics, Q4-22

4. Edison Research Share of Ear Q4 2022 Study

5. MRI-Simmons, Local Studies, Spring 2022 (Published 01/07/2023)

6. Q4 2022 Internal Metrics from Podcast User Logs

7. SXM Media Internal Metrics, Q4 2022

8. Q4 2022 Internal Metrics from Audio Network General