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Radio's Slice of the Music Pie, By Demos
November 17, 2013
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. We use this column, every week, to share our findings from NuVoodoo’s most recent national study of Radio listeners, 18-54.
Last week, we showed you data resoundingly debunking the notion that other ways of listening to music are surpassing Radio. In fact, a majority of respondents say all other ways of listening to music, added together, make up less than 50% of their listening time. While Radio is so far ahead of everything else that, alone, we account for more than 50% of the listening time.
So, even if the sky is falling, it sure is not falling fast.
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We use this column, every week, to share our findings from NuVoodoo's most recent national study of Radio listeners, 18-54.
Last week, we showed you data resoundingly debunking the notion that other ways of listening to music are surpassing Radio. In fact, a majority of respondents say all other ways of listening to music, added together, make up less than 50% of their listening time. While Radio is so far ahead of everything else that, alone, we account for more than 50% of the listening time.
So, even if the sky is falling, it sure is not falling fast. We don't pretend that our new competition poses a huge challenge. We are monitoring their penetration very closely. But, in 2013, when taken with other data we have shown about audience usage and feelings about Radio, here's the encouraging take-away: Radio still has the overwhelmingly dominant market share. Meanwhile, the audience continues to shift rapidly to digital-device-driven lifestyles. The challenge for Radio, to defend our position against encroachers, is to make the most successful marketing noise in the smartphone arena.
Last week, we focused on the total sample, 18-54. We also showed you that smartphone users are not using Radio less than other listeners. And that PPM prospects, happily, are using Radio even more than other listeners. This week, we'll drill down to the demos. Is it a tale of extremes, where the total sample looks good simply because older listeners are all-Radio, while younger listeners are very-little-Radio? Let's have a look:
Not sky-falling numbers at all. Sure, there is an age skew, but not a steep one. Look, for example, at the blue bars. Among Women 35-64 who are now Radio listeners, 65% say Radio gets more listening time than everything else rolled together. That number drops only slightly if we go younger. It is still 55% among Women 18-34. Among Men, the drop is again only 10 points, from 53% of 35-64's to 43% of 18-34's. Even among those younger men, two out of three say Radio gets at least one-third of their listening time.
What this means to you
Remember, we are focusing only on the people who are now listening to Radio (at least 15 minutes a day). Defense is the higher priority now than offense. The good news is that most of this population is still spending most of their music time with Radio. (Only among the young-end males does the blue bar slip below 50%. )
The challenge for us now, of course, is to successfully surf the wave of digital-device-driven change. To maintain absolute dominance. To prevent future incursions on our market share. The more we can promote and position Radio as a sexy and desirable set of digital options, the more effectively we can pre-empt insurgents.
And the only way to do that effectively is by heavily advertising and promoting ourselves as "that great digital service" DIRECTLY ON THAT GREAT DIGITAL DEVICE. Remember, digital users are being hit, with great reach and frequency, with lots of messages about digital services, compellingly targeted right at them. If radio stations continue to promote and advertise predominantly on OLD MEDIA, we are playing on the wrong playing field. The battle, where the offense is already mounting, is on a completely different field. We can't play defense there if we don't show up.
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