The rise in people in the US listening to podcasts and music streaming services has led to a significant increase in the effectiveness of audio advertising. It was estimated that in 2016 Spotify had over 100 million monthly active users in the US alone, up from 15 million in 2012, of which 60% use free subscriptions and so hear adverts on the service. Because of these added benefits of audio marketing, it is estimated that by June 2017, nearly 12% of advertising budgets in the country will be focused on audio advertising. As users cannot listen to two things at once, this is also expected to lead to higher levels of engagement over visual ads, which may have to compete with other ads on the same page.
