Larry Rosin of Edison Research has this to say on his blog about the new music discovery market and radio:
“Our tracking data shows that over the course of the last 13 years ‘Radio’ has been supplanted by ‘Internet’ as the source Americans turn to first to learn about new music.”
It certainly has, as this Edison chart indicates:
“Whereas in 2002 Radio enjoyed a 7-to-1 advantage over Internet, by this year’s most recent study the Internet had blown past Radio by a sizable margin,” Rosin writes. “The numbers among 13-34 year olds are, no surprise, much more dramatic.” Indeed, they have been for a while.
Still, Rosin thinks that “artists and labels want nothing more than to get their songs onto the radio.” I’m afraid that wasn’t my impression when I attended SXSW earlier this year. Edison does offer data, however, suggesting that consumers still see radio as a critical music choice, which, of course, it is.