Internet radio has demonstrated a growing appeal to the Hispanic market, which is estimated to reach 132.8 million Hispanics by 2050, thereby strengthening the group’s collective purchasing power. A total of 50.5 million or 16% of the total U.S. population is Hispanic, according to 2010 Census data.
A top 10 market study by The Media Audit, showed that 32.7% (or 4.2 million) of all Hispanics have logged on in the past month to Internet radio/music service websites, including Pandora Radio, iHeartRadio, Radio.com and Slacker.com. The figure includes Hispanic Internet radio listeners in The Media Audit’s top 10 markets: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Atlanta.
Additionally, 29.8% of Hispanics listened to Internet radio in the past week, and 91% of Hispanic monthly Internet radio visitors also listen on a weekly basis, suggesting increasing loyalty to the medium.
Among all adults in the same top 10 markets, 22.8% reported listening to Internet radio within the past week, which indicates that Hispanics are 35% more likely to listen to Internet radio compared to the general population.
Among Hispanics in the top 10 markets, 28.7% reported having logged on in the past month to Pandora Radio, 8.4% logged on to iHeartRadio.com, and 1.9% logged on to Radio.com.
Hispanic Internet radio listeners in those markets represent slightly more than half of the estimated 8.2 million total Hispanic Internet radio listeners across the 69 markets in which Internet radio data has been measured and reported.
The figures represent a change in listening behavior from 2011, when only 13.5% of Hispanics listened to Pandora. The year-over-year growth rate is 142% for Hispanics accessing Pandora. IHeartRadio experienced a 182% year-over-year increase in monthly visits, from 3.9%. Use of Radio.com increased 52% during the same period.
The study also found that Pandora and iHeartRadio are competitive compared to local stations that heavily focus on the Hispanic market. In Los Angeles, 25.9% of the metro area’s 3.9 million Hispanics reported having listened to Pandora within the past week, topping weekly listening of the area’s Hispanic-programmed stations or clusters. In the New York City metro, Pandora reaches 34% of the area’s 3.2 million Hispanics weekly, followed by 17.1% who chose iHeartRadio. Nearly one quarter of Miami’s 1.7 million Hispanics listened to Pandora within the past week, making the Internet music service number one in the area.
More than half of Hispanic consumers are now accessing Web content via smartphone or connected device, and according to Pandora, more than three-quarters of Pandora’s listening occurs on connected devices. This shift makes the demographic increasingly important to digital and mobile marketers.
