Research
What's really good about radio: Music
By Diego Vasquez
Jul 24, 2008 - 1:05:51 AM

Radio has taken a beating over recent years. U.S. ad revenue has dipped every month since April 2007, and June had the steepest decline yet this year, down 9 percent from 2007. Meanwhile, the very future of satellite radio remains uncertain as the Federal Communications Commission weighs a merger between XM and Sirius. So a new study from JupiterResearch offered a welcome bit of good news for the medium. When it comes to learning about new music, radio is still far and away the top choice, despite the growing number of other options, even among those who do most of their music listening and shopping digitally. Jupiter found that 63 percent of online users cited radio when asked how they discover new music. That was well ahead of the No. 2 answer, recommendations from friends, at 26 percent, and about equal to the next four responses combined – retail stores, TV music videos, TV shows and online radio. The study also found that about 8 percent of respondents are music influencers who expose their friends to new tunes and frequently give recommendations. This group spends roughly $200 per year on music, and half listen to music on MP3s. Sonal Gandhi, music and media analyst at JupiterResearch, talks to Media Life about radio’s influence on influencers, whether the medium is tailing off, and why it’s important to media buyers.

Despite the fact that there are now so many more options to find out about new music, a large percentage still said that they favor radio. Why is that, and has it changed over the years?
 
Radio remains the top category, and by far the top category.
 
But I went back and looked and if you look at the overall online population, in 2005 79 percent said they discovered music through radio. Today that number is 64 percent. So it’s come down a bit, but it still remains the most popular. It’s come down from 2005, but last year was the same as this year, so it has stabilized. I don’t think radio’s going away anytime soon.

Are there any media whose influence has risen or declined significantly in that area over the past few years?
 
We mostly concentrate on online media, so things like social media, online radio and music-streaming sites. All those are relatively new, so they are still growing.
 

What did you find most interesting or most surprising about this study?
 
There was nothing that surprising because we do look at other segments, such as online influencers in segments like technology and fashion. Music is similar to fashion and technology in that there are influencers that sample music and tell others about it. But we wanted to see how many existed online and how to reach them, and that was the primary purpose of the study.
 
What was interesting was that among the music influencers, they influence each others’ tastes quite a lot. We asked folks, “How do you discover music,” and radio remains the top among all music segments. But recommendations from friends is also really high among influencers, as well as among folks doing a lot of digital activities.
 
We identified influencers as those who say friends come to me to find out about new and cool music, and that was 8 percent of the adult online population. It’s likely these influencers are having an impact not only on each other’s consumption but also among other digital music fans as well.
 

What's the most important thing media buyers and planners can take away from it?
 
Well, one of the things we found is the influencers are extremely active online, so targeting them online is an important way in getting to them. They have a high propensity for watching music videos online, listening to streams, downloading free music, visiting music portals like AOL and Yahoo, and visiting sites that are band- or artist-dedicated, so they’re really active seekers of music and information. So online is a good way of reaching them.
 
Apart from music activities, they also visit TV and movie sites, so they’re also just big consumers of entertainment online.

What are the characteristics of a music influencer? How important is the internet to them?
 
For this we surveyed adults 18 and over, and we have 59 percent under the age 35, so a majority is between 18 and 35. Their median spending is about $200 on music annually. They’re likely to do all sorts of music-related activities, like rip or burn CDs and download music.
 
Also, 33 percent said they paid to download singles in the past 12 months, and 22 percent have paid to download albums. Almost half listen to music on portable MP3 players, and they have eclectic tastes in music. So they like a lot of different genres. If you ask an individual what genre they like, most choose a lot of them.

You note that music influencers are more likely than overall online users to read the daily news online, visit social network sites and engage in instant messaging. Why is that?

 
They’re generally digital in nature, and they’re in that 18-35 age group, so that plays a role. And they do tend to be more comfortable with doing online activities than the rest of the online population.

What's the best way to engage music influencers online?
 
We’re seeing a couple things. When they’re discovering music, they look at four or five sources, they’re very avid consumers. They’ll listen to music on on-demand free sites, on online radio and also offline radio, so they consume music from a lot of different sources. So they’ll find the new stuff, they’re seekers.
 
Also, if you know who they are, giving away a free song or MP3 works really well with that group, they really like those kinds of things.