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Music

Radio, Not YouTube, Is Still King of Music Discovery 126

Posted by Soulskill from the radio-is-that-thing-that-sits-on-your-grampa's-workbench-in-the-garage dept.
journovampire writes: We might live in an age of YouTube and Spotify being the go-to music players of teenagers, but radio was still the top method of music discovery in the U.S. last year. According to the research, "59% of music listeners use a combination of over-the-air AM/FM radio and online radio streams to hear music," and "243 million U.S. consumers (aged 12 and over) tune in each week to radio – 91.3% of the national population tuning in across more than 250 local markets."
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Radio, Not YouTube, Is Still King of Music Discovery More

Radio, Not YouTube, Is Still King of Music Discovery

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  • Sure! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Saturday January 10, 2015 @07:01PM (#48783245)

    Next thing you know, there will be a story about how a lot of people still buy books and go to libraries!

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I'd wager dollars to donuts that the ad council for radio advertising funded this so called research study

      • You think so? I do too. My new music discovery has been purely net based for several years now. And it isn't me streaming my local ad laden FM station on the web.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by amiga3D ( 567632 )

          I think people that are really into music use the net. Casual listeners like myself just turn on the radio and let it flow. Most of the types I know that live with earbuds stuffed in their ears 24/7 get all their tunes online but not everyone is that heavily involved. For most people FM radio is adequate to their needs.

    • I never stopped listening to the radio (primarily while driving, because it's free and convenient and I can get a wide variety of content) just like I never stopped buying printed paper books, which by the way are better for you if you read in bed at night than if you're using an e-book reader with a backlight, which by the way can be dropped and break, or that you can forget to recharge, or that some author or publisher can (by mistake or by design) decide to yank back content you paid for, or decide to 'e

  • URL Broken (Score:3)

    by retroworks ( 652802 ) on Saturday January 10, 2015 @07:08PM (#48783289) Homepage Journal
    Can't read the article

    • Re:URL Broken (Score:4)

      by Rei ( 128717 ) on Saturday January 10, 2015 @07:39PM (#48783421) Homepage

      Yeah, I wanted to write some remark about me finding most of my new music and bands by going to concerts for other bands that I like and being unexpectedly impressed by the opening act, which is something that if a person does iteratively is a way to pretty much ensure they ends up a hipster who's crazy into bands that nobody else has ever heard of. ;) Then thought, well, what if "at concerts" is an actual category in the study? I didn't want to get a bunch of snide "RTFA" remarks, so I went to check out the article... and saw a nice demonstration of Slashdot's lack of proofreading, to the point of not even checking whether their URL is malformed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zocalo ( 252965 )
      From the original submission, this is the link [musicbusin...ldwide.com] that you are looking for. Yep, it's a industry rag reporting on Nielsen data. No way that's not going to be a victim of lies, damn lies and statistics...

    • This is plain old common sense. What you will see on Youtube is what other people already listen to.. alot. On a new computer I'm inundated with suggestions for Taylor Swift and Niki Minaj(sp? don't worry, I don't really care). You don't run across anything "new" when what's "popular" is always suggested. Skimming radio stations gives you new things, and has since the advent of Radio.

      I quoted "popular" very intentionally by the way. Popularity is not just what people listen to, but what people want pe

      • I have a well configured Pandora One account. I like the model - tell it artists you do like, and it suggests based on that.
        • Gee, that's nice. But what makes you think they're not performing a 'man in the middle' attack on your personal preferences and tastes by injecting something they're being paid to try to get you to like? There is no invasion of privacy or crime being committed if they do that, and it can easily be dismissed as their algorithm hiccupping and feeding you something you didn't really want -- or you can go "Gee, I kinda like that too, thanks Pandora!" and their mission is accomplished. Kind of like broadcast rad

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Quirkz ( 1206400 )

          I've had good luck with that, too. I'd say over the past couple of years the ratio is about 20:1 for Pandora:Radio in terms of useful recommendations. One of my main problems with the radio is even when I hear something new that I like I either 1) miss who the artist was in the first place, or 2) hear but fail to remember the name later, when I'm out of the car and capable of doing something about it. With Pandora at least I'm already on the computer, and can just copy/paste, or at worst thumbs-up the song,

  • cars (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    the only reason anyone in our family would count as one of these 243 million people is the radio in the car. it just happens to be there, and on, but usually at a volume low enough it isn't really listened to unless no one is talking in the car. rarely does anyone listen to the radio outside of the car except perhaps during very severe weather and the power is out. given that our local radio choices are small town twangy country on fm or small town am without a nighttime license, not much 'music discovery'

    • AM at night? Art Bell

    • Talk to? By phone or how? Judging from what I've seen on US roads it seems to be illegal to transport more than one person per car.

    • Yeah, I don't get it. Most of the commercial stations are Clear Channeled, even some "non commercial" stations are following the general model. Basically the same rotation of the same small pool of songs every day, If we're lucky, a song gets changed out in the pool once a month, and songs you'd think were played out from the incessant repetition are still playing a couple years later. I don't understand how people can stand that.

      • Yeah that's pretty much what killed radio. The incessant repetition is awful to the point I'd rather drive in silence a lot of the times.

        • One likes to believe in the freedom of music. But glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity.

    • Imagine my surprise when I got the new cell phone it was in July that I got emergency text notifications of weather events. It was bizarre - heard this loud BONG BONG BONG on the car bluetooth and then saw the message on the phone.

  • Broadcast Radio? Eeew.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Saturday January 10, 2015 @07:09PM (#48783295) Homepage

    Sirius/XM? yes. Why anyone would tolerate 10 minutes of music 10 minutes of DJ chatter, and 40 minutes of commercials I will never understand.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AndroSyn ( 89960 )

      SiriusXM still has DJ chatter, depending on the station, but yeah, generally no commericals. For me, I have SiriusXM since I cross through a few radio markets on my commute and broadcast radio is just a pain in the rear to deal with in that case.

    • You don't have kids that listen to the morning zoo. It;s kind of like the daily dose of Facebook of teen gossip.

    • Re:Broadcast Radio? Eeew.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Saturday January 10, 2015 @08:40PM (#48783707) Journal

      Why anyone would pay for something they can get for free I will never understand.

      • Why anyone would pay for something they can get for free I will never understand.

        You can't get commercial-free radio for free. On the rare occasion that you can, it is usually shit — that is, it's usually college radio, and the selection is eclectic enough to where unless you have truly broad interests in music, you will hate most of it.

        Sirius and XM are the only kinds of radio I can actually get at any tolerable level of quality where I live, so there's another potential reason.

        I just listen to canned music, and then I don't have to deal with subscriptions or static. But if I dro

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Lumpy ( 12016 )

        Please tell me where you can get commercial radio for free that does not fade out as I drive 600 miles.

        No Spotify is NOT free, you pay for your bandwidth for your phone, so try again.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by RyoShin ( 610051 )

        This is like saying "Why would you pay for [$NICE DINING ESTABLISHMENT] when you can get a hobo to feed you poop for free?" (Or, for those who require car analogies, "Why would you purchase a vehicle when you can jump on the back of a bus for free?")

        I suppose if you're the type who likes having a selection of ~40 songs 90% of the time, separated by annoying commercials and whatever the "DJ" spews forth, then radio is fine. Personally, when I want to listen to music, I want to listen to just music. Preferabl

    • Sirius/XM? yes. Why anyone would tolerate 10 minutes of music 10 minutes of DJ chatter, and 40 minutes of commercials I will never understand.

      I agree sirius is better. As for the why? It's very expensive at list prices. That is, if you aren't onto their game where you have to call and bitch every renewal. If you do, it runs about 4 bucks a month. One of their operators told me about the pricing scam when I was going to cancel a few years ago.

      • "very expensive"?

        I don't think most people would consider $10/month "very expensive". It is a small amount of money by almost any measure.

        Is it worth $10/month? That's a personal question... but there's no way that's "very expensive" to anyone with a steady job...

        • "very expensive"?

          I don't think most people would consider $10/month "very expensive". It is a small amount of money by almost any measure.

          Is it worth $10/month? That's a personal question... but there's no way that's "very expensive" to anyone with a steady job...

          $19/month or $199/yr according to their website.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      who is going to pay $200 a year for radio. I pay almost that much for contributions to non profit stations, but if I listen to commercial radio it is streaming from my phone, mostly non-US stations to discover movie.

      In any case Sirius does not solve the basic problem, which is the payments to the artists for airplay. Streaming services are going to tend to much better than radio to target new music to listeners, and are not running ads to pay for excessive fees to allow artists to publicize their music,

    • I listen to radio on my 45 minute commute. Here in Dallas we have a Listener Supported station KXT. It supports (plays) local and national artists and does not have an overly restrictive/repetitive play list. I do find that I use it for discovery, sometimes I stream it at Work. It is about 50% of my discovery and the rest is spread around (friends, internet 4KW stereo in other guys car). I do understand Eeew, it has pledge drives that are well, Eeew. For some reason I never upgraded the radio in my commute

      • Yeah - come to think of it there is one radio station I stream - it's KBCS out of the Seattle area. No commercials at all.

  • nc (Score:1)

    by Falos ( 2905315 )
    People still use the top-40 echo chamber to tell them what to listen to, details at eleven.

    They need netflix for the same reason.

    • People still use the top-40 echo chamber to tell them what to listen to, details at eleven. They need netflix for the same reason.

      Because having a seance is a far better way to figure out what's new and good?

  • Radio? What's that? We can't get radio here.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You could run an antenna up from the basement.

  • Radio - iTunes purchase process (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Well yeah...

    Know how I end up buying stuff on iTunes?

    I hear something on the radio - usually my alarm, I google bits of the lyrics, end up on a lyrics site and get a title, go to youtube with that to check it's the right one, and buy it on iTunes.

    Now any idiot would figure "we need to make this simpler, so that people spend more money". Problem is, "rightholders", "labels", "songwriters" and so on, are BEYOND idiocy. So instead they tried (and still try) to shut down the lyrics sites and get their stuff off

  • Nice try failing radio media companies (Score:4, Interesting)

    by EmperorOfCanada ( 1332175 ) on Saturday January 10, 2015 @07:14PM (#48783329)
    I simply don't hear radio much anymore. My kids don't listen to it, I don't hear it in cars driving by, I don't hear it much in stores, and I certainly don't listen to it.

    But the simple numbers that tell an absolute and unmanipulable truth is the advertising revenue. Every other statistic is a complete and total fabrication created in an effort to prevent the total freefall of existing sales and stock prices. A great example of these desperadoes is that they often show revenues from 2009 to the present. This makes it look like a growth industry but in reality it is a recovery from the disaster that was 2008.

    Quite simply people don't want to be told by a bunch of baby boomers what music to listen to. They have a device in their pockets that gives them total control. Remember these are the same sort of people who loved putting one good song on each CD so that people were effectively paying $20 per song.

    • I simply don't hear radio much anymore. My kids don't listen to it, I don't hear it in cars driving by, I don't hear it much in stores, and I certainly don't listen to it. But the simple numbers that tell an absolute and unmanipulable truth is the advertising revenue. Every other statistic is a complete and total fabrication created in an effort to prevent the total freefall of existing sales and stock prices. A great example of these desperadoes is that they often show revenues from 2009 to the present. This makes it look like a growth industry but in reality it is a recovery from the disaster that was 2008. Quite simply people don't want to be told by a bunch of baby boomers what music to listen to. They have a device in their pockets that gives them total control. Remember these are the same sort of people who loved putting one good song on each CD so that people were effectively paying $20 per song.

      How do you propose they figure out what new music to put on the device in their pocket?

    • I was waiting for that comment. I honestly haven't heard radio anywhere lately. Not in stores, not in other peoples cars (built in MP3 players). Not in gyms. Not in business. Not in anywhere I can name.

      I actually can't remember the last time I actually heard the radio.

      I am usually very interested in knowing things like "How did they reach their conclusions?". Also, I suppose I don't live in outback weird places like Oklahoma or Texas... so I can't speak for those "Heart of America" kind of people. Maybe if

    • You don't live in near a big city with congested rush hour? Lots of radio listeners in that situation. I still listen to it at times during the weekend when driving family around.

  • if they are state that only 1 in 25 don't listen to radio every week, theyre lying. my car had as radio, but thastsd because I've been to busy to replaced with a digital media player. I only listened to that radio maybe 5 weeks per year, and only npr, and never music. I know lots of others who also don't have as radio in the house. radio is as retro format like vinyl.

    • Hey thanks for the anecdata.

      radio is as retro format like vinyl.

      ...which is still really popular. Vinyl manufacturers can't keep up with the demand of record sales.

      • ...which is still really popular. Vinyl manufacturers can't keep up with the demand of record sales.

        The hipsters got jobs, apparently.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AK Marc ( 707885 )
      Why replace it. Nearly all will accept inputs. I can play any MP3 player through my car radio, without modification. Aux-in and USB ports are common, even in factory radios these days.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by blang ( 450736 )

        Because my car radio is as old as the car, and only has radio and cassette. which was the standard package back in the day. I'm using one of those cassette adapters to provide an aux, and they sound OK, except for the grinding sound of the fake cassette spinning.

        By the way, the biggest scam nowadays in new cars are the equipment packages. Schmucks are not going to pay you off on those when the car is sold used anyways.
        If you pay $1,000 for a CD player or even just a radio, you're being had.
        After market dig

    • I don't even want a radio in my next new car. I literally want a radio, including satellite, as much as I want an 8 track, a cassette player, or even a CD player. I want the sound system and controls to interface with my phone and that is pretty much it. Maybe just maybe I could use a little in car storage for the rare time that I don't have my phone.

  • Listening, maybe. Discovery, no! (Score:3)

    by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Saturday January 10, 2015 @07:32PM (#48783387) Journal

    I use Pandora continuously at work, and I have discovered new music through it.

    Radio, on the other hand, even if you hear a piece of music that you like, the chance of actually being told the name of the artist is close to zero. So, there is no chance to really "discover" music.

    • Shazam. (But radio sucks anyway.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      Yeah, I hate that. Now, you could probably have used Shazam - but it's not always a solution - for example, for obscure or foreign music. A while back I actually went so far at one point as to record a song on the radio that I really liked with my cell phone so that I could play it back to write down the lyrics to google them... but since it was an Icelandic song and thus really obscure even that didn't help. I ultimately ended up - with quite a bit of searching - guessing the title on Youtube [youtube.com]. Fallback sol

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The link is broken so I can't RTFA, but the summary says:

      over-the-air AM/FM radio and online radio streams

      To me that makes it sound like they're including Pandora and other streaming services as "radio" - which makes the statement "people still mostly discover music on the ol' fashioned radio" a lot less convincing.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I use Pandora continuously at work, and I have discovered new music through it.

      Radio, on the other hand, even if you hear a piece of music that you like, the chance of actually being told the name of the artist is close to zero. So, there is no chance to really "discover" music.

      They're comparing music discovery via traditional radio and online radio vs. YouTube.

      You say you don't listen to radio, but you just got included in the radio group because you used Pandora, which they consider an online radio stream

    • "the chance of actually being told the name of the artist is close to zero.
      It's interesting that in other comments people complain about the amount of DJ chatter, but to reduce it the first thing DJ eliminate is the part that is useful to the listener.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ncc74656 ( 45571 ) *

      Radio, on the other hand, even if you hear a piece of music that you like, the chance of actually being told the name of the artist is close to zero.

      Many car radios at least will display artist/title information on FM, if the station provides it. If they don't (or if yours doesn't do that), you can fire up SoundHound or something similar and see what it says.

  • I can't stand listening to the radio, and never do. I discover new music two ways: word-of-mouth and late night talk shows. When I have music on, 100% of the time it is being played back from my library of music. Radio sucks, even streaming ones.

    • I just can't imagine that people are actually still listening to the radio. Is it really true? Or do people just say they do? Why would anyone do that?

  • my only friend on teenage nights..."
    Queen-Radio https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • Discovery occurs with selective filtering of the music. I listen to KCRW here in Los Angeles, as well as catch recordings of Passport Approved for my music discovery.
    Sure, Pandora can play tracks I have never heard before. But that's akin to throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.
    I'd rather have talented humans help me to find new music worth listening to.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mandrel ( 765308 )

      Discovery occurs with selective filtering of the music.

      Yeah, there's so much new music that one could never find what you like without some sort of human or machine filter/sorter. But even mild filtering makes the job of music discovery manageable.

      I create weekly YouTube playlists [youtube.com] of the new music played on our local music video TV show. By removing repeats, the playlist is cut down from 11 hours to 2-3 hours, which is easy to listen to over the week. The playlist is filled with all genres, which I like because good stuff can come from anywhere. That's why I

  • I haven't tuned a radio to a station in ages, but my preamp has internet radio capability that I use frequently (and donate/subscribe). I can also get streams on my Ouya, through XBMC and plugins.

    The FCC really screwed up one of my favorite radio stations. They gave an LPFM (low-power KOCI) the same frequency as a powerhouse down the coast. I can only get the LPFM in a few block radius. Fortunately, the LPFM also has a shoutcast stream, so it's available on my computers, main sound system, the bedroom,

  • I discover new (age) musicon the music channel "Soundscapes"

  • I'd sure like to read the article. Unfortunately the only link in this post is a reference back to this post on slashdot. Where are the editors?

  • From TFA: "...radio’s ‘local nature makes it an integral part of the daily lives of hundreds of millions of consumers in markets large and small’."

    People like local content, it's as simple as that. It's a real shame that most local radio stations don't play music created by local artists, but it makes sense since most of them are owned by corporations that don't live in the area..

  • I subscribe to Beats for my unlimited, play anything service.

    I use iTunes for buying Albums I want to keep forever (that I usually listen to on Beats first).

    BUT... I still subscribe to Sirius/XM in the car (and online)... and that's where I normally learn about new bands (on the Indie/Alt stations). I use Shazam to snag a song that comes on the radio... and it directly has a button that lets me listen to it (and the album) on Beats later after I get home... from there I typically spin off to other things B

  • I occasionally listen to 95.7 (now "the jet" formerly "KJR") here in Seattle, but not as often since they (ClearChannel) twice attempted to rebrand it and somewhat altered its format (for one thing they put in a damned morning show, when they used to brag about playing only music in the morning because "who talks along with the radio?")

    Now it is pretty much my USB stick in the car and Pandora at home.

  • Seriously, I don't listen to music radio any more except pre selected songs from periods I already like.
    So hit me with the "70s" and the "80s" music.

    I discovered Blue October because a friend gave me a pirated disk and said they were good. So I've gone to several concerts- bought some T-Shirts.

    But it's really too hard to find good music by listening to the market dominating "clearchannel" mega media conglomerate.

    I'm in the filter bubble on pandora so it doesnt' suggest anything new.

    Netflix does a better jo

  • What worries me about radios is the lack of variety in the represented genres. I don't know about where you live, but here all stations seem copies of the same one, and they all broadcast the same kind of pop-ish music. The less popular genres have zero chances of making it out to the public. The cycle will never be broken if it goes like (people like and choose music based on radio broadcasts) -> (artists on radios get famous and popular) -> (radios choose music based on their perception of people's

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by alfredo ( 18243 )
      Look for streaming public radio stations. You might find something you like. Right now I am listening to some Steve Earle on a public station out of Whitesburg Ky (WMMT). Some of the best Rap I heard was on WRFL (Radio Free Lexington). http://wrfl.fm/playlist/# [wrfl.fm] Stations like these are a threat to corporate radio, so that's why there are attempts at defunding them or selling off their bandwidth to mega media.
  • The french radio fip [fipradio.fr].

  • I have some small radio/CD thing with separate speakers that sits unused (Philips). It has modern features : MP3, aux in, older ipod dock (interfacing with it is illegal because of patents) and even a remote.
    So, it ought to be somewhat ideal for listening to radio but.. the speakers while better than what many people deal with (most consumer electronics crap) aren't that good, those on my PC are better.
    I once figured out the feature to auto-scan all the FM stations and store then in memory, but there are on

  • Public radio has been a great resource for me. WUKY in Lexington has introduced me to some great musicians that would never get air time on corporate radio. You won't hear Christian McBride or Lucinda Williams on your local AM station. Chances are, you won't hear a live, local Dj on your radio unless you tune into your NPR station. I'm listening to WMMT streaming from Whitesburg Ky.

  • People still turn to commercial radio for new music? I thought commercial radio's been irrelevant since the mid-seventies?

  • The last thing that I had been using radio for was my alarm but I stopped that when I got sick of the fart jokes and Bieber updates. They didn't play his "music" but for some reason thought I gave a damn about what he was up to.

    I find many artists through CBC Music 3. The Band of the Day app is pretty good too.

  • I have not listened to radio in years. I play music and podcast I enjoy when I what them. It is almost amusing to listen to them now in a store or a party and hear ads and idiot radio jocks.

    Some of the radio shows I did like I only listen to the podcasts when I want. Hamish and Andy is one of them I will play for a laugh.

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