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Music Radio TSL: Smartphones Not A Factor
August 19, 2013
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. With smartphones, our audience is increasingly listening to our stations on the same digital platform we share with thousands of purely-digital competitors. The data from NuVoodoo's annual national study of listeners 18-54 tell us a lot about smartphone use so far. The data do not predict that in the future smartphones will pose no threat to Radio listening. But the data do tell us pretty clearly that smartphones have not yet materially affected how listeners feel about, and how much they use Radio. The headline is not "no cause for alarm; everyone back to your stations." The headline is that you still have total power to change the future. Last week in this space, we looked at overall TSL. The question asked them to estimate daily time spent with "AM or FM radio stations." We showed you that there is no difference between smartphoners and non-smartphoners on how much time they are listening. Or at least perceive that they are. Is there a difference between listening to music and listening to talk? Does the fact that we have more meaningful digital competition on music than we do on talk affect this balance? This week, we will look at music TSL, and next week at talk TSL. Obviously, the folks who own a smartphone are different psychographic and socioeconomic types than folks who don't. Do those differences mean that one uses radio for music more than the other?
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With smartphones, our audience is increasingly listening to our stations on the same digital platform we share with thousands of purely-digital competitors.  The data from NuVoodoo’s annual national study of listeners 18-54 tell us a lot about smartphone use so far.  The data do not predict that in the future smartphones will pose no threat to Radio listening.   But the data do tell us pretty clearly that smartphones have not yet materially affected how listeners feel about, and how much they use Radio.   The headline is not “no cause for alarm; everyone back to your stations.” The headline is that you still have total power to change the future.
Last week in this space, we looked at overall TSL.  The question asked them to estimate daily time spent with “AM or FM radio stations.” We showed you that there is no difference between smartphoners and non-smartphoners on how much time they are listening.  Or at least perceive that they are.
Is there a difference between listening to music and listening to talk? Does the fact that we have more meaningful digital competition on music than we do on talk affect this balance? This week, we will look at music TSL, and next week at talk TSL.Obviously, the folks who own a smartphone are different psychographic and socioeconomic types than folks who don’t.  Do those differences mean that one uses radio for music more than the other?
Nope.  Music radio listening, among listeners with smartphones, looks strong.  As estimated by our respondents, just as strong, maybe even a hair stronger, than music radio listening among listeners who do not (yet) own one.
What this means to you
The good news is that the incredibly rapid penetration of smartphones has had no measurable impact on us so far.  We are still at ground zero.  These findings establish a 2013 baseline, and nothing more.  The future is up to you.
Most radio stations are still pouring most of their ad budgets into Old Media.   What percentage are you spending on advertising and promotion that predates the digital revolution? Really? Why? We know that our listeners’ eyeballs are increasingly glued to their New Media devices.  We know that they will be using these devices more and more as their “radios.” We know that our new digital competition will be prominently advertising themselves on those devices, with easy “click here to listen” access.  Why are we competing with that threat by using old media? Why are we not, instead, building a strong defense by lining up on the smartphone beaches before our competition storms them?
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