Amazon's audio services reached 27% of Austria's online audio users in 2026, down from 31% a year earlier, even as the market around them grew to its widest reach since the Online Audio Monitor Austria began in 2023. The study, produced by Ipsos for RTR Medien, the media division of Austria's Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs-GmbH (RTR), was published on October 15, 2026. IAB Austria's digital audio working group set out its reading of the results for media planners on November 5, 2026, under a headline saying that digital audio has arrived in the mainstream.

According to the report, 93% of Austrians aged 15 and over with internet access now use online audio at least occasionally, after three waves stuck at 91%. Monthly use rose to 82% from 80%, and the share listening daily or almost daily climbed back to 50% from 46% in 2025. The figures come from an online survey of 4,000 people carried out between May 28 and June 29, 2026.

In Short

Austria's media regulator paid for a survey of 4,000 internet users, and it found that 93% of them listen to some kind of online audio, with half doing so almost every day. More people over 50 are listening, but podcasts stopped gaining listeners for the first time, Amazon lost ground while Spotify gained, and fewer people are comfortable with audio made by AI. For anyone selling or buying audio advertising in Austria, the audience is bigger and older than before, yet the podcast boom has paused.

Reach grows for the first time since 2023

The Online Audio Monitor Austria, known in German as OAMA, is an annual study. RTR describes it as a companion to its moving-image study and its research on DAB+ digital radio. "With this, RTR Medien follows its legal mandate to carry out analyses and studies as a centre of competence connected with the tasks and objectives of the media authority KommAustria," the RTR publication page states (translated from German).

The 2026 wave is the first to show movement in the headline numbers. Use at least occasionally held at 91% in 2023, 2024 and 2025 before rising to 93%. Monthly use went from 80% to 81%, back to 80%, and now 82%. Weekly listening reached 72%, against 70%, 71% and 69% in the three earlier waves. Daily use is more volatile: 49% in 2023, 50% in 2024, a dip to 46% in 2025 and 50% again in 2026. The summary slide of the report puts it plainly: "The total reach of online audio has risen slightly for the first time since 2023, as has frequency of use" (translated from German). Ipsos labels the increase in its chart commentary as significant.

Most listeners mix live and on-demand formats. According to the report, 75% of the online population uses both webradio and audio-on-demand, 13% only on-demand services, and a steady 5% only webradio. The share using no online audio at all fell to 7% from 9%.

A new question in 2026 asked respondents whether their own online audio use had changed over the past 12 months. Some 59% said it had stayed the same, 16% said it had increased and 11% said it had fallen. Among 15 to 29 year olds, 26% reported more listening.

Older listeners drive the gain

Where did the extra listeners come from? Mostly from people over 50. Occasional use in that group reached 87%, up from 85% in 2025, while under-30s sit at 99% and 30 to 49 year olds at 97%. The monthly figures show the shift more clearly: 72% of over-50s now listen at least monthly, compared with 68% a year earlier and 69% in 2023. Monthly webradio use among over-50s rose to 60% from 57%, and monthly music streaming to 48% from 46%.

IAB Austria built its main argument on this point. "Online audio is thus long no longer a medium purely for young target groups, but offers advertisers access to a broad section of the population," the working group wrote (translated from German). The group is led by IAB Austria board member Josip Cukic of RMS Austria.

The age gap has not closed, though. Younger listeners still use more of everything. Under-30s use an average of 4.4 device types for online audio, against 3.9 for 30 to 49 year olds and 2.8 for over-50s, according to the report. Audio-on-demand audiences are younger than the webradio audience: monthly webradio listeners have an average age of 46.7 years, music streamers 43.7, podcast listeners 40.9 and audiobook listeners 39.7.

Webradio keeps the daily habit

Audio-on-demand, which the report defines as music streaming, podcasts and audiobooks combined, reached 88% of the online population, up from 86% in 2023. Webradio reached 80%, from 78%. Both are the highest levels in the series. Music streaming accounts for most of the on-demand figure at 83%, against 81% in 2023. Audiobooks and radio plays reached 29%, two points higher than in 2023.

Frequency tells a different story from reach. Webradio has the largest daily audience of any format: 33% of the online population listens daily or almost daily, compared with 28% for music streaming, 9% for podcasts and 6% for audiobooks. Monthly use is close between the two big formats, at 67% for webradio and 65% for music streaming.

Within webradio, simulcast stations, meaning traditional broadcasters that also stream online, remain dominant at 61%, a figure that has barely moved since 2023. Web-only stations rose to 32% from 27%, though the report attributes much of that rise to a change in the questionnaire (see the method note below).

Listening peaks between 17:00 and 20:00, unchanged from earlier waves. Morning and late-morning use, particularly between 9:00 and 12:00, rose year on year. Webradio has its own peak in that morning window; podcasts and music streaming peak in the early evening, and audiobooks are increasingly heard after 20:00.

Platforms: Spotify climbs, Amazon slips

The platform rankings carry the sharpest year-over-year movement in the study. Among everyone who uses online audio at least occasionally (3,704 respondents in 2026), Google's services, chiefly YouTube, reached 53%, the same as in 2025 and slightly below 55% in 2023 and 56% in 2024. Spotify reached 39%, up from 33% in 2023, 37% in 2024 and 38% in 2025. Amazon's services fell to 27% from 31% in 2025, after holding at 30% to 31% in each earlier wave. Apple stayed at 11%, a distant fourth.

PPC Land's reading of those numbers: Spotify has added six percentage points of reach among Austrian online audio users in three years, while Amazon lost four points in a single year. Google's lead narrowed from 22 points over Spotify in 2023 to 14 points in 2026.

Among audio-on-demand users specifically, the pattern holds. Google reached 56% (unchanged), Spotify 41% (40%), Amazon 29% (32%) and Apple 12% (11%). Amazon Music, as distinct from Audible, fell to 23% of on-demand users from 27%.

The report's own summary is direct about it. "While YouTube dominates the free market, Spotify leads the paid-version market; the number of Amazon users has fallen - above all paying customers," the report's summary states (translated from German).

Music streaming: free YouTube, paid Spotify

The music streaming chart uses a narrower base: people who stream music at least monthly, 2,596 respondents in 2026. YouTube in total, including YouTube Music, reached 68% of them, down from 71% in 2025 and 72% in 2024. The main YouTube service on its own has fallen steadily, from 68% in 2023 to 63%, 59% and now 58%. YouTube Music reached 29%. Spotify rose to 49% from 47%, and from 44% in 2023. Amazon Music fell to 28% from 32%, and from 35% in 2023. Apple Music held at 11%, with SoundCloud and RTL+ at 7% each and Deezer at 4%.

Listeners are also using fewer services. The average number of music streaming platforms fell to 2.0 from 2.2 in 2025, back to the 2024 level.

The split between free and paid versions shows how differently the platforms make money. YouTube is overwhelmingly used free: 49% of monthly music streamers use the free version and 10% pay. Spotify is the reverse, with 29% on a paid plan and 21% on its freemium tier. Amazon Music's paid base shrank to 15% from 18% in 2025, with 14% using it free. Spotify is the leading paid music service in Austria and has led that segment for years, according to the report.

Age divides the market sharply. Among under-30s who stream music monthly, Spotify reaches 70% and YouTube 53%; 54% of them use Spotify's paid version. Among over-50s, YouTube leads at 61%, with Spotify and Amazon Music level at 36%. Amazon Music's paid version is actually strongest among over-50s, at 17%, ahead of Spotify's paid tier in that group at 13%.

Audiobooks follow a similar shape. Among monthly audiobook listeners, YouTube reached 46%, Spotify 38% (down from 42%) and Audible 29% (down from 34% in 2025 and 38% in 2024).

Webradio access is more fragmented. ORF Sound and ORF ON, the public broadcaster's platforms, reached 27% of monthly webradio listeners, ahead of other stations' own websites and apps at 25%, Radio.at at 20%, Joyn at 17%, TuneIn at 11% and RTL+ at 10%. Over-50s lean towards ORF; younger listeners use station apps and aggregator platforms more.

Podcasts stop growing

For the first time since the study began, podcast reach did not grow. According to the report, 42% of the online population uses podcasts at least occasionally, against 39% in 2023, 40% in 2024 and 43% in 2025. Monthly use fell to 33% from 35%, having risen from 29% in 2023 and 32% in 2024. The summary records that this means "for the first time since the study was conducted, no increase" (translated from German).

The decline is concentrated among men. Male podcast reach fell to 39% from 43% in 2025, back near its 2023 level of 38%. Women's reach rose for a third consecutive year, to 45% from 44%. On a monthly basis, 32% of men and 35% of women listen to podcasts.

Young listeners also eased back slightly. Podcast reach among 15 to 29 year olds fell to 63% from 66%, and monthly use to 55% from 57%. Among 30 to 49 year olds, reach rose to 50%. Over-50s remain at 29% reach and 20% monthly use. Education matters too: half of respondents with the Matura, Austria's university entrance qualification, listen monthly, against a quarter of those without it.

Listening intensity is flat. Daily or near-daily podcast use stands at 9% of the online population, against 10% in 2025. Among monthly podcast listeners, 30% estimate their weekly listening at three hours or more, and 68% at less than three hours.

On platforms, Spotify and YouTube are tied at 47% of monthly podcast listeners. In 2025 YouTube led with 49% against Spotify's 46%. Amazon's services fell to 30% from 34%, with Amazon Music at 20% and Audible at 16%. ORF Sound and ORF ON reached 18%, ahead of Apple Podcasts at 15% (12% in 2025). Joyn reached 12%, RTL+ 11%, dedicated podcast apps 8%, Podimo 5% and Acast 3%. YouTube is used for podcasts mainly free (37% free against 11% paid), while Spotify's podcast listeners lean towards the paid plan (28% paid, 21% free).

Who pays, and who tolerates ads

About half of monthly podcast listeners, 52%, use only free podcasts, the same share as in 2025. Some 39% get podcasts through a subscription they already pay for, and 10% pay for a dedicated podcast subscription. Willingness to pay is higher than actual paying: 63% say they already pay or would pay, led by an ad-free experience (28%), direct financial support for creators (23%) and exclusive content (22%). The report sees "potential of +15% additional payers" in that gap (translated from German). Age is the dividing line: 75% of under-30 podcast listeners would pay or already do, against 46% of over-50s, and 73% of over-50s listen only to free podcasts.

Advertising acceptance is moderate. Four in ten monthly podcast listeners consider ads in a podcast acceptable (9% very acceptable, 31% acceptable), 34% are undecided and 24% find them unacceptable. Acceptance is highest among 30 to 49 year olds at 46%, followed by under-30s at 44%. Among over-50s it falls to 30%.

Video, discovery and who makes podcasts

Video is now part of podcast listening for most regular listeners. According to the report, 56% of monthly podcast listeners use podcasts with images or video, up from 51% in 2025. Of all monthly listeners, 20% watch and listen attentively, 22% switch between the two, 10% barely look at the picture and 3% turn the video off. For 47%, video is a reason to choose at least some of the podcasts they consume, though that share falls to 42% among over-50s.

Social media is the main way people find new shows. In 2026, 41% of monthly podcast listeners discovered podcasts through social media, up from 35% in 2023. Personal recommendations reached 38%, up from 35% in 2025 and 33% in 2023 and 2024. Podcast platforms and apps were cited by 32% and other podcasts by 29%. Radio, once a strong discovery channel, fell to 19% from 26% in 2025. Recommendations from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude, asked about for the first time, were cited by 14%, rising to 16% among under-30s and falling to 9% among over-50s. Digital out-of-home screens, at 7%, rank near the bottom.

Who is behind the podcasts people hear has changed. Private individuals, independent journalists and influencers were named by 46% of monthly listeners as the source of podcasts they hear, up from 42% in 2025 and 36% in 2023. Public service radio and TV broadcasters fell to 35% from 42% in 2023. Exclusive platform originals reached 33%, newspapers and magazines 29% (34% in 2023) and private radio stations 22% (27% in 2025). The shift towards independent creators now extends to over-50s, where they lead as well.

Content preferences moved too. Information, knowledge and learning content is the largest category at 48%, followed by entertainment and comedy at 41%. News fell to 35% from 44% in 2025, a drop of nine points after a rise the previous year. Music programmes fell to 25% from 36%. Service and advice content and true crime each reached 30%. By topic, health (43%) and politics and society (41%) lead, followed by science and technology (35%).

Podcasts as a news source

Despite the fall in news listening, podcasts have gained weight as an information source. In 2026, 44% of monthly podcast listeners said podcasts play a very important or important role in how they follow current events, compared with 37% in 2023. Among under-30 podcast listeners, 57% call podcasts a main source of information. Across the whole online population, podcasts are a (very) important source for 15% and a complementary one for 13%; among under-30s the (very) important share has risen to 32% from 21% in 2023.

IAB Austria highlighted one statement in particular: that independently produced podcasts offer perspectives missing from traditional media. The working group put agreement at 86% of podcast listeners. In the report, that figure is the share of monthly podcast listeners who rated it a very important or important reason for listening to podcasts about current events. By PPC Land's calculation from the chart values, the same measure stood at 77% in 2025. The top reasons remain practical: choosing content by topic (92% very important or important) and flexible listening (88%).

The car and the living room

The car remains the single most common place for online audio outside the home, cited by 51% of listeners, according to the report. Overall, 83% of online audio users listen at home and 72% away from home. Under-30s are far more mobile: 91% of them listen out of the home, against 57% of over-50s. At home, housework is the most common setting (47%). Listening to online audio without doing anything else has declined, from 28% of users in 2023 to 20%.

A new block of questions in 2026 examined how people reach radio in the car. Among 1,211 respondents who listen to audio in the car (including FM and DAB+), 51% most often use the car's built-in radio or infotainment system. Android Auto accounts for 18%, direct use of a smartphone or tablet for 17%, and Apple CarPlay for 12%. IAB Austria added the last three together to say that 47% use the smartphone to listen to radio in the car. That total rests on the car audio base rather than all respondents, and the 17% category includes tablets.

The findability results matter for broadcasters. On the built-in car radio, 79% said radio is the easiest content to find. On Apple CarPlay, music streaming came first (43%) with radio at 24%; on Android Auto, radio led at 50%. Some 71% of CarPlay users and 68% of Android Auto users agreed that other audio services start faster there than radio, against 35% for the built-in system. Two thirds of CarPlay users (66%) said radio was hard to find at first. Once in the radio section, specific stations were easy to find for 92% on the car's own system, 85% on CarPlay and 90% on Android Auto. The CarPlay base is small, at 141 users.

For online radio specifically in the car, the most common route is a station's own app (20%), followed by an integrated online radio function (18%) and aggregators such as Radioplayer or TuneIn (15%).

In the living room, smart TV access reached 79% of the online population, up from 74% in 2023. According to the report, 46% of online audio users listen to online audio on a smart TV, the screens behind CTV advertising. Music via streaming services is the main content there (16%), followed by podcasts (8%). Radio on the TV is reached through the channel list (11%), a station's app (9%), the web browser (9%) or a streaming app (9%). Good sound (17%) and convenience (16%) are the main reasons given.

Smart speaker access has risen every year, from 31% in 2023 to 35% in 2026, and reaches 47% among under-30s. Smartphones remain the main device, used by 81% of online audio users; half (50%) pair a smartphone with the car radio. The average user relies on 3.5 types of device.

AI-generated audio loses support

The study's starkest year-over-year shift concerns artificial intelligence. "Acceptance of AI-generated audio content is falling significantly compared with 2025," the report's summary states (translated from German).

The share of online audio users who consider AI-generated music programmes or playlists acceptable fell to 34% from 39% in 2025 and 41% in 2024. AI-generated weather and traffic reports dropped to 31% from 38%. Audiobooks read by AI, the practice known as AI narration, fell to 27% from 34%. AI-generated advertising was acceptable to 25%, down from 29%. AI-generated news and information reached 23%, against 25% in 2025. Fully AI-generated radio programmes (18%), AI voices of well-known people or presenters (16%) and fully AI-generated podcasts (16%) sit at the bottom of the list. Younger listeners are less opposed across all categories.

General attitudes have barely moved, according to the report. Some 55% say AI content is acceptable as long as it is labelled, 52% say AI is already part of everyday life, 51% say AI frightens them because they no longer know who or what is behind content, 43% see it as a danger to democracy and 41% as a threat to their privacy. Only 21% expect AI to change society for the better. Practical uses rate higher: AI-generated live translations or subtitles for webradio and podcasts were seen as very or fairly useful by 43%, personalised AI playlists or radio programmes by 39%, and automatic summaries of podcasts and radio shows by 32%.

IAB Austria quoted the playlist and news figures and drew a conclusion for the industry. "For the audio industry, it will therefore be crucial to combine technological innovation with authenticity, transparency and trust," the working group wrote (translated from German).

How the survey works

Ipsos interviewed 4,000 Austrians aged 15 and over through a computer-assisted web survey, with participants drawn at random from an online panel and interviews lasting about 15 minutes. The sample is representative by gender, age, region and education, though the report states that representativeness is guaranteed only up to age 69, which matters for the over-50 figures. Earlier waves ran from May 17 to June 12, 2023, May 24 to June 17, 2024, and May 22 to June 13, 2025. The report bases the online population on 95% internet access according to Statistik Austria 2025; the RTR page cites Statistik Austria 2024.

Some platform figures are not strictly comparable across years. In 2026 Ipsos added ORF Sound/ORF ON, RTL+ and Joyn as answer options, which moved users out of the "websites or apps of radio programmes" category (49% of monthly webradio listeners in 2025, 25% in 2026). The "online offshoots" of classic radio stations were dropped as an answer, which lifted the web-only station figure. In 2025, Google Play Music was folded into YouTube Music and Google Podcasts was discontinued. The study measures self-reported use of platforms, not listening time or advertising spend. RTR's publication page gives the cost of the study as 33,300 euros net, though that sentence refers to the 2025 edition.

Why this matters for marketers

IAB Austria drew a planning conclusion from the data. "For advertisers and agencies, this means one thing above all: audio should increasingly be viewed holistically and planned according to target groups and usage situations," the working group wrote (translated from German).

The Austrian numbers are a mixed picture for audio sellers. Total reach and daily use are up, and the growth is coming from older audiences that buyers have often treated as out of reach in digital audio. At the same time, podcasts, the format at the centre of much of the industry's recent ad growth, have paused, and Amazon's audio services are losing reach.

The platform data arrives alongside the companies' own autumn results. Spotify's ad-supported revenue grew 9% at constant currency to €482 million in the third quarter of 2026, with automated channels adding €91 million year over year while direct sales fell €53 million. That followed a second quarter in which automated channels approached 40% of Spotify's ad-supported revenue. In Austria, the free tier that carries Spotify's advertising reaches 21% of monthly music streamers, while 29% pay.

Podcast sellers face a slower European market. Acast's North American sales grew 54% and overtook Europe in the third quarter, while its European sales rose 5% to SEK 361.9 million. Acast reaches 3% of Austria's monthly podcast listeners as a listening platform in the RTR study. The Austrian survey does not measure ad revenue, so it cannot explain European advertising trends, but flat listener numbers leave less room for audience-driven growth.

Free, ad-supported listening remains the default in several markets. In the United States, Comscore and TuneIn found top audio property minutes fell 36 billion year over year in July 2026, and 58% of surveyed adults said they prefer free ad-supported audio to paying. In Austria, 52% of monthly podcast listeners use only free podcasts, and 40% find podcast ads acceptable. Pure-play audio services are under pressure on audiences too: SiriusXM reported that Pandora lost 2.75 million monthly users in the third quarter even as podcast advertising revenue rose 20%. Deezer's advertising and ancillary revenue fell 19.5% in the same quarter; the service reaches 4% of Austria's monthly music streamers.

YouTube's position as a podcast platform is not new. As early as 2022, a Podtrac study found that YouTube contributed an average of 41% of views and downloads for top podcasts that posted there. In Austria in 2026, YouTube is tied with Spotify as the leading podcast platform, and video is part of podcast use for 56% of monthly listeners.

The car data adds a distribution question. Smartphone projection through Android Auto and Apple CarPlay now accounts for 30% of the most common routes to radio in the car, and on CarPlay streaming services are easier to find than radio. Streaming platforms are also moving into the dashboard directly: Spotify launched a native in-car app in five Audi models on October 21, 2026, available to both free and paying users.

The AI findings carry the clearest signal for creative teams. Acceptance of AI-generated advertising fell to 25% of Austrian online audio users, and 55% want AI content labelled. Earlier research points the same way: a 2025 Raptive study found that suspected AI-generated content cut reader trust by nearly half and made participants 14% less likely to consider products in adjacent ads. The RTR data covers attitudes, not behaviour, and does not show whether lower acceptance changes how listeners respond to campaigns.

Timeline

Summary

Who: RTR Medien, the media division of Austria's regulator RTR, which commissioned the study; Ipsos, which carried it out; and IAB Austria's digital audio working group, led by board member Josip Cukic of RMS Austria, which analysed it for advertisers. The platforms most affected are Google and YouTube, Spotify, Amazon (Amazon Music and Audible) and Apple.

What: The Online Audio Monitor Austria 2026 found that 93% of Austrians aged 15 and over with internet access use online audio, 82% monthly and 50% daily, with growth driven by over-50s. Spotify rose to 39% of online audio users from 33% in 2023, Amazon fell to 27% from 31% in 2025, podcast reach stalled at 42% for the first time, and acceptance of AI-generated audio content fell across every category measured.

When: Fieldwork ran from May 28 to June 29, 2026. RTR published the study on October 15, 2026, and IAB Austria published its analysis on November 5, 2026. Comparisons run back to the first wave in 2023.

Where: Austria, covering the online population aged 15 and over, which the report puts at 95% of Austrians.

Why: RTR carries out the study under its legal mandate to analyse developments in the Austrian media market. For advertisers, the results show a larger and older online audio audience, a pause in podcast growth, a shift in platform reach from Amazon to Spotify, and growing resistance to AI-made audio, including AI-generated ads.