The Infinite Dial 2015 is the 23rd in a series of studies on consumer adoption of digital media dating back to 1998. It uses a random probability telephone sample representative of all Americans ages 12 and older to explore a wide range of digital behaviors from smartphone adoption to social media usage and content consumption trends.

This new national survey from Edison Research and Triton Digital found that online audio “is now a fully mainstream activity for people under 55.” The research also concludes that podcasting “is increasingly mainstream and carving out a segment of highly attractive advertising targets.”

Among the many other findings:

• The Internet is the second most used medium turned to first in the event of a major news story; (40%). Television still ranks first at 50%, though that number has declined significantly since 2010 when it was 62%.
• The Internet is the most essential medium to those polled (54%), followed by television at 30%, Radio at 9% and Newspapers at 4%.
• People now turn to the Internet to learn about new music (44%) over radio (32%).
• Podcasting is on the rise, as monthly audio podcast consumption grew from approximately 39 million monthly users in 2014 to approximately 46 million in 2015.
• Podcast listeners average six podcasts per week.
• Nearly two-thirds (63%) of all users and nine-in-ten 12 to 24 year-olds have used YouTube to watch music videos or listen to music.
• Mobile devices are the devices of choice used to listen to Online Radio (73%) and Podcasts (55%).

Download The Infinite Dial 2015 here.