After running our Wednesday story about the Music Biz survey and how Millennials are getting their music from streaming and not radio, we spoke to several radio executives to get their opinion on what they read. The number one concern was with how Music Biz conducted its research. One expert even pointed out that when you do a research study entirely from online responses, as Music Biz did, you get overstatements of online behaviors. In addition, Nielsen research is very different (see next story). We also spoke to Bob McCurdy, who now leads the Beasley Media Group Corporate sales effort, who really knows about data. Here’s what he had to say.
McCurdy says the first thing that comes to mind is the methodology. “We need to know more about that. But we recognize that Teen TSL is lower than that of GenX and the Boomers and that likely has something to do with access to a car. Clearly, on-demand access holds considerable appeal to Gen Z but what the AM/FM and streaming landscape for these younger listeners looks like in the future will not necessarily be a linear projection of what’s occurring today. Media consumption is impacted by three things: discretionary time, affluence, and ease of use. As the youth of today mature, settle in careers, have families and mortgages, their discretionary time will diminish, with their audio needs likely evolve to include more news, traffic, weather, etc. What ‘60s hippie would ever have thought they’d be a News/Talk junkie, have Sinatra on their iPod and the Wall Street Journal in their hands? With that said it is important for the industry not to take anything for granted and to continue to identify ways to maintain its relevance to these younger listeners.”
Here we go again; when data suggests that radio is losing relevance with youth we are exposed to the defenders of radio. In nearly all cases that means an older white guy who depends on radio for a living, and probably has little knowledge of any type of data-driven audio delivery or digital commercial ad services.
Let’s look at this go-around with Paul Rotella, Pres. & CEO of NJBA: He’s someone who has everything to lose and nothing to gain if the truth gets out about the generational shift in how audio is consumed.
As is the norm since the days of Gary Fries at RAB, and his comical statements of radio’s transitioning to digital, the common thread is always make sure to praise radio with words that hold no substantive facts.
Here We Go Again!
Every now and then, some net-biased entity warns of the demise of radio, submitting specious “evidence” of how this group or that group is not listeing to radio as much as the Real-Radio © wanna-bes on line. Once again, we heard this week about how Millennials are not getting new music from radio but on-line. Give me a break! When professional ratings companies submit their research, it is clear that radio is far and away the best and often only leader in this spectrum of the audio experience.