The latest Nielsen survey on music listening reads as so: “Music Discovery Still Dominated by Radio, Says Nielsen Music 360 Report.” Here are the marquee statistics from the Nielsen press release:
Radio is still the dominant way people discover music
- 48% discover music most often through the radio
- 10% discover music most often through friends/relatives
- 7% discover music most often through YouTube
And that’s the way that Rolling Stone ran with the story:
“For all the hullabaloo over the past decade about iPods, iPhones, satellite radio, Pandora, Rhapsody, Spotify, illegal music piracy and YouTube,” its blog post declared, “old-school radio continues to dominate the way fans consume new songs.”
Ditto for Reuters (“Video hasn’t yet killed the radio star after all . . . “) and the usual conventional broadcast sites, eg: FMQB and RadioInk (“Radio is where consumers discover music.”).
But the more broadband technology oriented blogs were quick to emphasize other sections of the report. Here was the headline for TechCrunch. “Nielsen: More Teens Now Listen To Music Through YouTube Than Any Other Source.”
TechCrunch acknowledged that 48 percent stat. “For almost two-thirds of U.S. teenagers, however, Google’s YouTube is now a more important source of music than radio (54%), iTunes (53%) and CDs (50%),” the site added. Same approach from PC World: “Teens Most Likely to Consume Music on YouTube.”
Here are the relevant percentages from that section of the survey:
More teens listen to music through YouTube than through any other source
- 64% of teens listen to music through YouTube
- 56% of teens listen to music on the radio
- 53% of teens listen to music through iTunes
- 50% of teens listen to music on CD
Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of the Nielsen report was its observation that suggestions or feedback from friends make a huge difference for many music consumers:
- 54% are more likely to make a purchase based off a positive recommendation from a friend
- 25% are more likely to make a purchase based off a music blog/chat rooms
- 12% are more likely to make a purchase based off an endorsement from a brand
- 8% of all respondents share music on social networking sites, while 6% upload music.
All this goes to show that we are reading this sort of data very differently, depending on our industry or social sector vantage point. I have to admit that I like WFMU’s tweet on the survey the best: “It’s True! Radio Remains the Top Method for Discovering Crappy New Music.”
I’d have to contest this as well. I remember a study back from the early 2000s that showed an increased amount of cross-playing between Pop, Country, and Rock – essentially, all three tended to play the same music more frequently, for longer periods of time.The Majority of Radio in general – even since I moved to Nashville – is really stagnant.
I have a list of 100+ artists – my “Gotta listen more/buy something from them” list. Of all of them, maybe 3-5 are bands I heard on the radio. The rest were videos I saw linked in forums, friends suggestions, and maybe a few remainders from songs I heard back when I worked at my college station.
We were surprised the numbers were so high because every online service wants consumers to believe that radio is dead and new music is ONLY discovered online.
Keep up the good work.
Eddie