The author of this commentary is the publisher of Inside Music Media, where this commentary first appeared. Subscription info can be found here.
My latest New York University music and media user observation shows some shocking attitudes toward radio as well as rays of hope.
Current revelations
- For the first time since I have been teaching music industry courses, no students raised their hands when asked if they listened to radio.
- Satellite radio is out, too – they are not interested in any more paid subscriptions.
- I asked them: “Why don’t you listen to radio and what would make you?” No one said there is anything radio can do to get them to give up streaming services. Spotify is safely the new music radio.
- Their mothers are their influencers, in that they control the car radio when shuttling them around and they tend to listen to mom’s favorite stations at least while in the car. This suggests that stations may want to be aware about the role of moms controlling the radio.
- No surprise: Too many commercials is still a turnoff, but one gets the feeling that even if the commercial load was cut back, they would still prefer streaming music services.
- The ability to keep their own playlists and shuffle through them at will with no commercial interruptions is the biggest draw.
- The students hate the repetition that is rewarded in Nielsen ratings and want a broader playlist that might invite tune-out under quarter hour rules.
- Podcasts are still too long for short attention spans, but putting them on in the background is how some consume them, even when listening to podcasters they like such as Alex Cooper.
- Radio as background noise is something that surfaced – young people like to “chill out” with music in the background, and they might consider radio for this — assuming much fewer commercials.
What do they want?
- By far, music discovery – something radio does not do on a massive enough scale to please them.
- Shared playlists of people they admire including but not limited to performing artists.
- Artist interviews, the type they consume on social media would draw them to a radio station if they kept them short.
What it means
Linear radio does not meet the moment for young audiences that are acting as their own program director with streaming music services and social media short-form discovery and user-generated content.
But their sweet spot as the new school year begins is music discovery, shared playlists and short artist interviews.
The bottom line
Young people still want music discovery and curation – radio’s last chance to reinvent itself for the digital era.
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