Another Interesting Music Survey

One of the great things about the Internet is that there are so many media companies that do surveys so there's always something new to discover the thirst and demographics of music consumers. Here are some highlights from a survey that Myxer.com did. They're a site that supplies various media for the phone, which is important to remember as you read this. My comments in italics.

• The company found that 47 percent of the people polled still used traditional radio to discover new music. Wow, who would've thought. I guess they didn't get the message that radio is over. Or maybe they know something we don't.

• What's more, 45 percent reported that they discovered local music by radio, and only 31 percent discovered music by word-of-mouth. Is local music even played on the radio any more? I know that many stations have an hour a week that they allocate for local music, but that usually comes during the slowest possible airtime late on Sunday night.

• Believe it or not, 74 percent of its respondents by at least one CD a year. I guess the real question here is, "What are they buying and why?"

• 32 percent listened to music on their phones from 1 to 5 hours a week, and 26 percent listened more than 20 hours per week. Remember that this is a mobile-centric audience. 1 to 5 hours per week makes sense, but 20 hours? I guess that also ellicits the question, "Exactly what are they listening to?"

• 49 percent consume most of their entertainment on the Internet. This falls in line with other polls and studies I've seen.

• 39 percent attended 1 or 2 live events a year. This one is surprising. I would have thought the number would be a lot higher. If this figure is real, the concert business is in greater trouble than anyone thought.

This study is skewed because the audience is so targeted to mobile, but that still doesn't mean that some of the stats aren't surprising. It will be interesting to see how these numbers correlate with some of the new studies that are upcoming. I'll keep you posted.

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