Friday July 21,, 2006
Terrestrial Radio Still Primary New Music Discovery Destination
Bridge Ratings’ new study of music consumers reflects continued satisfaction among a sample of 12-54 year olds for the role terrestrial radio plays in new music discovery.
45% of the 2500 persons sampled mentioned terrestrial radio as their preferred destination for discovering new music over Internet radio and peer-to-peer sharing networks.
“As far as new music discovery, teens have a stronger affinity for On-line virtual community networks like MySpace.com and P2P trading than other demographics do,” explained Bridge Ratings President Dave Van Dyke, “but a significant number of teens still discover new music through their current-based terrestrial radio stations!” 
The study was conducted during June 2006.
Traditional retailers did not fare well among all choices for new music discovery except among those 35-54 years of age who reported that terrestrial radio was the principle source of discovery.
“Internet radio did not show as well as we might have expected;” continued Van Dyke. “Overall only 13% of the sample used Internet radio in this way. Among all age groups, 18-34 year olds used Internet radio more often for new music discovery – but less than 1 in 5 do so.”
A year ago when this study was last conducted, Internet radio scored much better among all consumers in the study (27%), but the expanding satisfaction and use among youth with sites such as MySpace and Napster has cut significantly into the importance this age group places upon Internet radio as a source for new music discovery and filtering. These on-line virtual communities are fast-becoming excellent sources of discovery for music consumers 12-34 years of age.
“This study represents further proof that terrestrial radio’s current-based radio stations should continue to be proactive with exposing and identifying new music,” concluded Van Dyke.
Satellite radio is not perceived or used as a new music discovery destination, according to this study which interviewed 2500 music consumers from across the U.S. While a small percentage of those interviewed ( 1%) use satellite radio to discover new music, the large majority use these services much like terrestrial radio is often used - for familiarity of music content.
*Sample = 2500 music consumers 12-54
Bridge Ratings used a phone-based, random digit dialing methodology for this study.
Phone calls were placed nationally between the local hours of 10 am and 8 pm. Participants were music consumers ages 12-54 who are active new music consumers who in the last month sought new music releases through the variety of sources outlined in the chart above.
Sample error = +/- 2.0%
Reader Feedback
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Interesting follow up to this question. Recently I took a Zogby on line survey. It wasn't really about music, but one of the questions was where do you go to find out about new music. The choices didn't included terrestrial (or AM/FM) radio, although they specifically offered satellite radio and Internet radio as choices. I was going to write an opinion piece for the trades. I thought that spoke volumes when Zogby didn't think "radio" was worth including as a choice. - Andy Bloom
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Bridge Ratings is a ratings and research company based in Glendale, California. We are dedicated to providing on-going, immediate, reliable, useable and affordable audience measurement services for the radio industry. Our methodolgy is based on sound consumer research principles. We are in the business of tracking listeners - not listening. Because we are a true research company we offer flexibility
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