In 2025 the podcast listeners will exceed 584 million, almost double compared to 2019. Among Gen Z (13-24 years old), listening to spoken audio content has grown by 214% compared to their peers in 2014. This evolution reveals a profound change in the habits of using informative and educational content: audio allows you to integrate listening with other activities, without the exclusivity required by reading, while at the same time turning into a rewarding experience thanks to the charm of professional storytelling.
Fewer books, more audio
The 2024 data confirm the parallel decline of traditional reading andpaper publishing: although some segments such as narrative and online sales maintain a certain stability, overall there is a decrease of reading among adults and the diffusion of printed publications.
In Italy, for example, the time weekly average dedicated to reading It has dropped by about an hour in just two years: from 3 hours and 32 minutes in 2022 to 2 hours and 47 minutes in 2024. In 2022 itself, less than 40% of Italians (39,3%) read at least one book for pleasure, the lowest percentage in the last twenty-two years. This isn't a collapse in demand for content or news, but rather a shift in time distribution between reading and listening.
The audio content offering It's virtually limitless and includes an ever-increasing amount of quality content, available both free and through subscription. What strategies can consumers adopt to keep up with such a vast offering that continually stimulates their interests?
The Audible commercial
Glen Powell, the Hollywood sex symbol we saw in “Top Gun: Maverick,” prefers to listen at normal speed: “I want to hear people speaking at a naturally human pace.”
On the contrary, the comedian Bowen yang, in the main cast of “Saturday Night Live”, prefers an accelerated narration: «You can easily reach 2x», he explains, while recognizing that 1,8x is the “perfect” pace.
Both took part in one Audible commercial, the audiobook platform of Amazon, released earlier this year, in which several celebrities opened up about their listening habits. The campaign sparked a lively debate. Some accused it of insinuating that high-speed listening was a sign of weirdness or even a disturbance. "I listened to your moralistic ad at 2x speed," one TikTok user quipped. Others, outraged, said they were "mortified" and even threatened to cancel their subscriptions.
I'm in a hurry
The online controversy highlights how the public's relationship, especially among young people, with digital media is changing. A survey by "The Economist,” and YouGov shows that 31% of Americans aged 18 to 29 listen to audio content at speeds faster than 1x, versus just 8% of those over 45.
This trend is supported by the platforms themselves: Apple e Spotify allow speed up podcasts, many newspapers, including this one, offer audio versions of their articles at various speeds, Netflix introduced a control to adjust video playback and YouTube Not only does it allow you to choose the pace, but it has even launched the 4x option for premium subscribers, responding to a explicit request from users.
A century gained
I advantages In terms of time, they're remarkable: according to YouTube, fast playback saves users a total of over 900 years per day. A ten-hour commute, for example, is barely enough to listen to Jane Austen's final novel, Persuasion, at normal speed (8 hours and 13 minutes).
But at 1,5x, the novel runs in just five and a half hours, leaving room for Animal Farm and The Little Prince, which together would take just over three hours.
A faster pace doesn't compromise listeners' concentration. If the average person speaks at about 150 words per minute, the brain can process much more, explains Marcus Pearce, a cognitive scientist at Queen Mary University of London.
A meta-analysis conducted at the University of Waterloo (Canada) evaluated the tests of students who followed lessons at different speeds: up to 1,5x there are no significant drops, while the scores only drop significantly above 2x.
for audio-video platforms Speeding up pays off: more content consumed, higher revenue. For listeners, however, the experience changes: at 2x, you lose pace, tone, and suspense, essential elements of storytelling. Storytelling relies on pauses and modulations, which are difficult to maintain at full speed.
Adapted from “The Economist,” What's your preferred playback speed: 1x, 1.5x or 2x?, August 13, 2025
