Thursday, March 05, 2015

How do you keep up with music?

There used to be one simple answer to that question: Radio. Not so much anymore. From Tom Taylor's NOW column...

AM/FM drops from 75% to 69% as “a source for keeping up with music.” Though “there’s no one [single] challenger,” according to the Edison/Triton Digital Infinite Dial update – it’s a constellation of sources. “Friends and family” as a “keeping up” source actually grew stronger, from 66% last year to 70% this year. Then it’s AM/FM, followed by YouTube at 61%, Pandora at 51%, Facebook at 40%, music channels on TV (jumping from 33% last year to 39%), and “information/displays at a local store,” mentioned by 32%. iTunes rates at 31%, then satellite radio, up from 20% to 23%. Then iHeart at 20%. That ties iHeart with Spotify, which gained from 14% to 20%. When Edison phrased the question as “the source most used for keeping up-to-date with music,” AM/FM wins at 29%, followed by friends and family at 20%. But here’s trouble – the “source most used” pie-chart for 12-24s drops AM/FM all the way down to 8%.