Our latest Retro activity looks at audio apps and how people are listening. Audio is unique as it is consumed passively and actively. Passive audio consumption is defined as listening to audio/music while the app is not on the screen. Think of it as listening to music in the background or as we would listen to radio. Here we will explore some subtle but important differences across the range of apps.

The gender split of audio apps

When looking across Male and Female data breakouts, we can see that Males spend more total time using these apps, though it's a tie when it comes to Spotify. In particular YouTube music sees the most dramatic differences.

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Spotify leads "passive" listening

Next, looking at passive versus active usage, we can see that typically 80%+ of the time these iOS apps are being used, that they are being used passively (or in the background as described). Again, YouTube Music in particular has much more on-screen time proportionally than the others which may not be a big surprise considering YouTube has primarily been a video service from its inception.

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These trends while seemingly intuitive, have for long been incredibly difficult to collect in an accurate or scalable manner. This is where Retro differentiates itself from other data sources. We will continue to share these insights as we delve further. In the meantime, head over to find out more about Retro and our Mobile Intelligence products.