Moneyball: Where Radio Ranks for Music Discovery

Nuvoodoo Research: Leigh Jacobs & Carolyn Gilbert

NuVoodoo National Media & Marketing Study 25 is out of the field. The sample is massive, and the demo is wider. We start at age 14, but this study has no top end. We have the entire Baby Boom and as much of the Silent Generation as we can get in a study conducted online, but three quarters of the sample is comprised of members of generations younger than Baby Boomers.

With the deep history between radio and music, many of us recall a time when radio was at the top of the heap when it came to music discovery. To understand where things stand today, we first need to determine who’s interested in new music. Across our sample, 57% give a very high rating to the importance of “hearing new songs and new artists” when they listen to music. As shown in the chart below, it’s not surprising that new music is important to more people among younger generations than it is among the oldest respondents in our sample.

There’s not a strong variance among the three younger generations in the sample. Millennials (ages 29-44) are the highest number at 67%, while the youngest, Gen Z (ages 14-28) are only a couple of points higher than Gen X (ages 45-60). It’s among Boomers and beyond (ages 61+) where new music sags, remaining highly important to just over a third.

Among those who listen to music radio at least two hours a day, labeled “Music Radio Heavy” in the chart above, new music importance surges to 71%; 14 points higher than the overall sample. They spend at least two hours a day listening to a music source – it makes sense that new music would be highly important to most.

When we ask the 57% of the sample who tell us that new songs and new artists are very important to them which sources regularly help them “discover new artists or songs,” Radio lands several points ahead of streaming music apps, labeled “Spotify, etc.” in the table below. The generations tell a more nuanced story, with Radio far ahead of “Spotify, etc.” among Boomers and even Gen X. “Spotify, etc.” pulls ahead of Radio among Millennials and Gen Z. But the headline about new music discovery is Social media, which has the lead among Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X.

Perhaps especially among those who listen to music radio at least two hours a day, Social media has the lead – cited by nearly half of the Music Radio Heavies, several points ahead of radio itself, though groups of a third or more also rely upon a number of other sources.

If you’re in charge of determining the new songs that get on the air at a radio station where new music is important, the number of places where listeners MIGHT be exposed to a new song they love is dizzying. Yet the advent of personal media means that many of your listeners might be loving a new song on TikTok, but those listeners could easily be loving different songs. In fact, each listener might be reveling in an entirely different song.

Music radio is about consensus – keeping many listeners satisfied with one music schedule. While you need to monitor Social media and other channels to stay abreast of new songs that are gaining attention with people in your station’s demographic, you also need to balance that against which new songs are familiar to a wide enough portion of your audience to deserve exposure on your station. National streaming numbers can be misleading; pockets of the country can account for outsized portions of the streaming traffic and songs may not have the projected awareness or passion among listeners in your market. Charts can be helpful, but some are biased in favor of new releases and under-represent the remaining passion for older titles. Where possible, local music research can accurately show the existing awareness and passion for new titles and inform about fatigue on older songs.

Next week we’ll show how Social media platforms stack up, which ones are worthy of your team’s attention for organic reach … and which ones could help you score big with well-placed paid posts and ads. NuVoodoo marketing guru Mike O’Connor is publishing important marketing insights drawn from these new data at nuvoodoo.com/articles. We’d love to help your stations stay ahead of the competition with our effectively priced offerings for both marketing and research. An email to tellmemore@nuvoodoo.com will get you quick attention from the right member of our team.