Web Radio Listening Increases - Social Networking Sites Leading the Shift
By Mark Levy CEO of MaxxoMedia
Arbitron and Edison Research recently released some very interesting research with details on the web radio listening audience. The study found a deep connection between online social networks and online radio listening.Diane Williams, Sr. Analyst/Custom Research for Arbitron said, “We found that online radio listeners are more than one-and-a-half times more likely to have a profile on a social networking site as compared to average Americans, and that they tend to be power-users, with one-third of online radio listeners logging on to their social networking site nearly every day or even multiple times per day.”
In another study last May by Radio Network, it was concluded that 77% of online radio listeners find new music through online radio more than through traditional radio. This shift is monumental for the music industry. Promoting new music through traditional radio was a pretty efficient process.
As the radio networks became more consolidated, the efficiency increased even further. At the same time, more and more stations were managed by a single network and/or syndicated across the country to save costs, leading to fewer spots for new music.
The shift is also monumental for the radio networks. As more and more people get their radio from the web, advertising will have to follow the audience. It is estimated by eMarketer that online ad spending will exceed traditional radio spending by over $7 billion this year and continue to grow. By 2011, they predict that online ad spending will exceed $44 billion, more than double the estimate for radio advertising.
Of course, the radio audience is still huge. According to Bridge Ratings, terrestrial radio commands a weekly cumulative audience of nearly 283 million Americans — almost 10 times the number of Internet listeners.
Nevertheless, data from a number of researchers indicates that traditional radio is losing its significance in people’s lives. U.S. adults are spending more time each day on the Internet and watching TV than listening to the radio.
eMarketer Sr. Analyst Ben Macklin said, “The radio industry must quickly and comprehensively come to terms with how to adapt to this changing environment.”
He even offers some advice: “There are in fact many synergies between radio and the Internet, and for the most part they complement rather than compete with each other … Marketers should not abandon radio in favor of the Web; they should combine both mediums to take advantage of the unique attributes of both.”
The Arbitron/Edison study also found that:
* 13% of Americans age 12 or older (an estimated 33 million people) listened to online radio in the past week, an increase of two percentage points from January 2007
* While nearly one-quarter (24%) of all Americans age 12 or older have a profile on a social networking website such as MySpace, Facebook or Linked-In, nearly two-thirds (63%) of online radio listeners have a profile on sites such as these.
* One-third of online radio listeners with a social network profile visit their social networking site nearly every day or several times per day
* The top social networking websites among online radio listeners are MySpace and the business professional networking service Linked-In. Twenty-eight percent of online radio listeners have a MySpace page, while nearly one-quarter (24%) have a profile on Linked-In.
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