What Do People Listen To On Their Smartphones?

Edison Research recently completed a study on smartphone usage and discovered that the listening habits of users isn't quite what we believed it to be. in fact, the results were pretty surprising.

• 54% listened to a radio channel
• 16% listened to music they own
• 15% listened to Pandora or other radio-like streaming services
• 7% listen to Sirius XM
• 5% to TV music channels
• 2% listen to podcasting

Heavy listeners (those defined by listening to 2 hours or more per day) have a slightly different consumption pattern.

• 43% listen to music they've downloaded and own
• 37% listen to streaming audio
• 9% listen to AM/FM radio
• 7% listen to podcasts

Finally, 87% of adults from 18 to 34 never let their smartphones leave their sides.

All that said, we're under the impression that the listening world belongs to exclusively to streaming, but that's far from the case, according to the study. While radio listening and downloads may be dropping, they're still a vital portion of our listening day.

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Is Streaming Finally Coming To iTunes?

The rumors have been running rampant over the web the last few days regarding the upcoming changes to iTunes, which seem to have been leaked out of Cupertino.

According to the leaks, Apple will overhaul its iTunes music store by the end of the year. The revamp will reported include more integration with the company's iCloud storage service, and its ill-conceived Ping music social network will get the axe. In Ping's place will come closer integration of Facebook via the upcoming iOS6.


Apparently Apple has also been in talks with all the major labels. While some say it's over the ability for iTunes users to increase song sharing via iCloud, others say that it might be over the long-awaited subscription service that could be built into iTunes.


Whatever Apple is planning, it appears to be a key in iTunes expansion into Asia, which just added 12 new countries (Brunai, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam).


Another quiet release was the new stand-alone iTunes Podcast app, which includes a host of new features dedicated to creating and listening to podcasts.


As I've said all along, an iTunes subscription service would set the music business on its ear and completely change the playing field for how labels, artists and publishers get paid. Let's see if it comes sooner than later.

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The Problem With Podcasts And Videos

For the past few months I've been wondering why I've always shied away from most of the podcasts or videos I've been confronted with. What I mean is, I'll follow a link on Facebook, Twitter or the web that I think might be interesting only to find that I have to listen to a podcast or a watch a video to get the information that I was teased about. Almost always, I will never take the time and be off to another point of the web that I can read, rather than listen or watch.

Yesterday I got to thinking about the reason for this and came up with some conclusions that may be interesting to only me, but I think might be reflective of other consumers of online information.

1) I like text better than most podcasts and videos for the same reason that consumers like digital music better than CDs - random access to information. If there's a podcast or video of someone giving me information, I have to consume almost the entire file before I can determine whether it's something that I want or not. If it's text, I can skim it in a few seconds and make a decision to read it in detail, or zero in on a portion that I find particularly interesting. It's a lot more efficient and less time consuming.

2) When is a video interesting? When it shows me how to do something instead of telling me, or the material is visual in nature to begin with. I can read something a lot faster than the time it takes to tell me how to do it. Plus, most of the time my time is wasted by the setup (about the topic, the speaker, background info, etc.) that I could just skim over if it were text.

3) When is a podcast interesting? If it's one-of-a-kind material, extremely timely, or an interview of someone seldom heard, and it enables me to perform another task while I'm listening. That's what makes radio so compelling. You hardly ever simply listen to it by itself, and that's why it's so good when driving.

I numbered these three points as an example of my premise. You can zero in on them quickly and decide whether to consume the information or not that way. If you decide you want to read, you can cherry pick just want you want in a flash. Try doing that with a video of a talking head or a podcast.

Remember this the next time you want to shoot a video. If you can't add any more information that if you just wrote it down instead, stick with text.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.