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Want Young Listeners? Play New Music
DENVER -- October 24, 2007: A new study from Paragon Media Strategies found that nearly three-quarters of 14-24-year-olds spend most of their music-listening time with music sources other than radio -- and when they do listen to radio, they're looking to hear new music.
"New songs/fresh/something different" was the leading reason for listening to over-the-air radio among the 474 14-24-year-old respondents, with 24 percent giving that answer. Fifteen percent cited station or music variety, while 12 percent listen for traffic, news, and weather info. Just seven percent said they listen for enjoyment, and 5 percent said "good music" is what brings them to radio -- the same percentage that said they just "like radio."
What would make 14-24s listen to radio more? The response "Play songs you/friends like not currently played" got a seven on a scale of 1-10, the best score for any of the suggested responses. "More new music" was next, at 6.6.
When they're not listening to radio, where are young people hearing music? Unsurprisingly, from iPods: 78 percent of respondents own iPods, and half the iPod users said they're listening to radio less. More than three-quarters of respondents listen to homemade mix CDs, and one-third of those young people are spending less time with radio.
"The results of the 'Youth Radio' national study are sobering for radio, but we all need to understand the challenges that local radio faces among teenagers and the youngest adults," said Paragon President/COO John Stevens. "The 14-24-year-olds in our research are the near future of 25-54-year-olds. Our research shows radio is still in the game for their entertainment time, but radio has considerable ground to make up if it hopes to capture even the majority of the youth in the future. Unless enough local radio operators recommit to target young listeners and reshape their content and distribution methods to appeal to their unique needs, then the disturbing trends we see in this research are likely to get worse."
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