Earbuds

There is a phenomenal scene at the beginning of Citizen Kane when Orson Welles’ character John Foster Kane whispers “Rosebud” on his deathbed. The entire plot of the movie revolves around unravelling the meaning of this one word. Many consider Citizen Kane the greatest movie of all time. Welles was only 25 at the time. #Amazing

If I was going to re-make that classic 1941 masterpiece in 2025, I would open the movie in a dystopian futuristic world with a dying man whispering “earbuds” and then dropping his iPhone 37 onto the floor…and the glass breaks. The ending is just the beginning of a long, terrible saga.

The first wireless headphones were invented in the 1960s and used AM/FM frequencies to get the music to your ears. Very few people could afford them. In the 1990s, smaller wireless headphones that used RF frequencies started becoming affordable and popular. Now 30 years later, wireless headphones are now a $27.5 billion industry, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.35% that is projected to grow into a $115 billion dollar industry by 2033. Earbuds are not everywhere….yet.

To be clear, I’m talking about earbuds and not Air Bud, the delightful 1997 sports comedy classic from Walt Disney Pictures.

Remarkably, 45% percent of Americans use earbuds (a number that grows to ⅔ of 20-somethings). They listen to music, podcasts, phone calls and more. (They’re known as Airpods, Galaxy Buds, and 16 other types). Older people like me need hearing aids, not earbuds, but as Generation Z and Millennials get older, auditory health experts predict a much higher rate of hearing loss due to — you guessed it — wireless headphones. 30 years ago 1 in 10 Americans experienced hearing loss. Today it’s 1 in 8. By 2040, it’s projected to be 1 in 4.

And it’s not only hearing loss we’re going to have to worry about with “The Earbud Generation.” People wearing wireless headphones are causing more traffic accidents because it distracts them. And the number of folks killed by cars, trains, buses and other moving objects has spiked. In 2004,16 pedestrians died while wearing headphones in the US. In 2005, the number jumped to 47. In 2024, that number is estimated to be over 1,000 and researchers at the University for Maryland and CDC are reviewing data to see if that number is higher.

Ironically, I found all this research by wearing earbuds on a flight from Europe. When I landed, the shuttle driver (talking on his hands-free phone) almost ran over a young traveller crossing the road at Reagan National Airport. The next day I was relaying the story to my son, but he didn’t hear me. He was jamming St. Paul and the Broken Bones on his new AirPods.

#BoldBrandsWin