New Survey Predicts Radio's Future

A new study by Edison Research called "The American Youth Study 2010" examined the media and technology habits of 12 to 24 year olds in the US. The first part of the study looked at music discovery and consumption habits of this group and is titled "Radio's Future."

Here are a few of the significant findings:

1) 12-24 year-old Americans reported Internet usage of two hours and fifty-two minutes per day, roughly triple this age group's reported usage from 2000 (59 minutes).


2) Radio continues to be the medium most often used for music discovery, with 51% of 12-24 year-olds reporting that they "frequently" find out about new music by listening to the radio. Other significant sources include friends (46%), YouTube (31%) and social networking sites (16%).


3) 20% of 12-24s have listened to Pandora in the last month, with 13% indicating usage in the past week. By comparison, 6% of 12-24s indicated they have listened to online streams from terrestrial AM/FM stations in the past week.


4) More than four in five 12-24s own a mobile phone in 2010 (up from only 29% in 2000), and these young Americans are using these phones as media convergence devices. 50% of younger mobile phone users have played games on their phones, 45% have accessed social networking sites, and 40% have used their phones to listen to music stored on their phones.


6) Music tastes have shifted among 12-24s over the past decade: those radio listeners who indicated that Top 40/Pop stations were their favorite have more than doubled, while Alternative Rock stations were selected by half as many listeners in 2010 as in 2000.


7) Today's 22-34s have significantly changed their media consumption habits since the first study in this series 10 years ago. In 2000, 44% of 12-24s most often began their day by listening to the radio. Today, radio continues to lead, with 29% of that same cohort (today's 22-34 year-olds) reporting that radio is the medium they use most in the morning, while Television (25%) and the Internet (23%) have gained significantly.

Providing that none of this data is skewed (no guarantee there), radio is currently listened to more, and has a greater influence, than anyone thought. Not only that, the type of music being listening to by the group (Top 40) is a surprise. All that being said, I'd like to read the entire survey myself before drawing too many conclusions, but the points above sure are interesting.

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