Radio Remains Source For New Music

Teens and young adults report nearly three times more daily Internet usage in 2010 than in 2000

Edison Research Wednesday announced the preliminary results of the American Youth Study: 2010, a nationally representative survey of the media and technology habits of young Americans. This study is the sequel to a similar study released in 2000 by Edison, and presents both a look at today's 12-24 year-olds, and a cohort from the 2000 study, today's 22-34 year-olds. This study was sponsored by Radio-Info.com, and was debuted at the 2010 RAB/NAB Radio Show in Washington, D.C.

According to Edison President Larry Rosin, the original 2000 study "was a real wake-up call to traditional media companies, particularly the radio industry. Now, with this 2010 data, we have an opportunity to see just how teens and young adults have changed over the past decade, and which media are best poised to be competitive in the near term." Rosin went on to point out that radio was still the leading source for music discovery, but other outlets, including YouTube and social networks, have grown to be significant as well.
Principal findings from this study include the following:

• 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).
• 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%).
• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.