How do young consumers listen to music?

While streaming music online is growing more popular among consumers, it’s easy to forget that traditional radio still has a strong footprint in the media market. According to eMarketer, the research company The NPD Group conducted a survey over 4^th quarter 2012 on the music listening of US consumers between the ages of 13 and 35.

Results showed that the terrestrial radio still lead as the primary method, by a small margin, to listen to music.

24% listened to radio primarily

23% listened to internet radio primarily

15% listened to digital files primarily

CDs and Satellite radio both had less than 10% of responders, 9% and 5% respectively, chose it as a primary method of listening to music.

Another find was that the car is still the main place where the majority of those surveyed listen to most music. A good reason is that listeners are able to use multiple devices in the car like the radio, smartphones, mp3 players, and in-car infotainment systems.

How does this affect advertisers? Consumers want music, and they want it their way. Whether it’s from their preferred radio station, favorite playlist, new CD, or online streaming, people are going to access the music. Therefore, advertisers will need to really understand their customer and be able to reach them on various music platforms at the same time. There is no need to pull money out of traditional radio; listeners are still listening. Instead, online streaming vendors may need to be evaluated as a radio station and included in the overall buy in order to reach the desired audience.