Fred Jacobs' latest TechSurvey studies Americans' main reasons for tuning in to analogue radio.
The US market may not be quite up to speed with Europe when it comes to digital, but it still offers an interesting insight into the feelings of a typical listener. Let's pick apart some of the key findings:
- 71% say radio is the easiest thing to listen to in the car. It's certainly a lot easier just to press a button or two on the stereo than connect another device each time you're about to drive. The future challenge for radio will be connected cars that put other media on an equal footing. Radioplayer continues to be the industry's voice in the fight to secure radio's position on tomorrow's dashboards.
- 62% say it's because radio is free. In the UK, internet listening is still a relatively small slice of the pie with a key factor being the strength of DAB. Going forward, online will unleash new opportunities and stations are likely to experiment with alternative funding models. We may have become accustomed to it being free but if someone's happy to pay for their favourite TV or podcast, I don't see why they wouldn't pay for their favourite radio if it's incentivising enough.
- 59% say jocks/shows and 57% say their favourite songs/artists. There's not a lot in it, but personality and content is becoming more important as it's something music streaming doesn't currently offer in the same way. I'm a passionate believer in the power of a nice surprise, but "music surprises" are way down on 23%. I would suggest it's a result of radio not doing enough of them, but also the fact people just want to hear their favourite songs (hence tight rotations).
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