Consumer Surveys · September 29, 2010

Edison Research Releases The American Youth Study 2010 – Part One: Radio’s Future

By Tom Webster

One In Five 12-24s Listened To Pandora Last Month
Teens and young adults report nearly three times more daily Internet usage in 2010 than in 2000
Somerville, NJ – September 29, 2010
Edison Research today announced the preliminary results of the American Youth Study: 2010, a nationally representative survey of the media and technology habits of young Americans. This study is the sequel to a similar study released in 2000 by Edison, and presents both a look at today’s 12-24 year-olds, and a cohort from the 2000 study, today’s 22-34 year-olds. This study was sponsored by Radio-Info.com, and was debuted at the 2010 RAB/NAB Radio Show in Washington, D.C. on September 29th.
According to Edison President Larry Rosin, the original 2000 study “was a real wake-up call to traditional media companies, particularly the radio industry. Now, with this 2010 data, we have an opportunity to see just how teens and young adults have changed over the past decade, and which media are best poised to be competitive in the near term.” Rosin went on to point out that radio was still the leading source for music discovery, but other outlets, including YouTube and social networks, have grown to be significant as well.
Principal findings from this study include the following:

12-24 year-old Americans reported Internet usage of two hours and fifty-two minutes per day, roughly triple this age group’s reported usage from 2000 (59 minutes).

Radio continues to be the medium most often used for music discovery, with 51% of 12-24 year-olds reporting that they “frequently” find out about new music by listening to the radio. Other significant sources include friends (46%), YouTube (31%) and social networking sites (16%).
20% of 12-24s have listened to Pandora in the last month, with 13% indicating usage in the past week. By comparison, 6% of 12-24s indicated they have listened to online streams from terrestrial AM/FM stations in the past week.
More than four in five 12-24s own a mobile phone in 2010 (up from only 29% in 2000), and these young Americans are using these phones as media convergence devices. 50% of younger mobile phone users have played games on their phones, 45% have accessed social networking sites, and 40% have used their phones to listen to music stored on their phones.
Music tastes have shifted among 12-24s over the past decade: those radio listeners who indicated that Top 40/Pop stations were their favorite have more than doubled, while Alternative Rock stations were selected by half as many listeners in 2010 as in 2000.
Today’s 22-34s have significantly changed their media consumption habits since the first study in this series 10 years ago. In 2000, 44% of 12-24s most often began their day by listening to the radio. Today, radio continues to lead, with 29% of that same cohort (today’s 22-34 year-olds) reporting that radio is the medium they use most in the morning, while Television (25%) and the Internet (23%) have gained significantly.
A complete set of slides from the RAB/NAB presentation of these results is available on the Edison Research website on this page: The American Youth Study 2010 – Part One: Radio’s Future.
METHODOLOGY STATEMENT
A total of 1,533 respondents were interviewed to investigate interest in, and consumption of, traditional and new media among American youth. From September 8 to September 13, 2010, interviews were conducted online with respondents age 12 to 34 chosen at random from a national sample of Knowledge Networks’ “KnowledgePanel,” an online panel that is representative of the entire U.S. population through its use of dual-frame sample recruitment and a known published sampling frame. Data from this year’s study is tracked with the 2000 Edison Research study, “Radio’s Future: Today’s 12 to 24 Year-Olds,” which was conducted via telephone.
ABOUT EDISON RESEARCH
Edison Research conducts survey research and provides strategic information to out-of-home media companies, radio and television stations, newspapers, cable networks, record labels, Internet companies and other media organizations. Edison Research is also the sole provider of election exit poll data for the six major news organizations: ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC and the Associated Press. Edison’s global network of 11,000 interviewers executes hundreds of consumer exit poll and out-of-home media measurement projects every year, providing valuable decision support for marketers, advertisers and brands. Edison also conducts strategic and opinion research for a broad array of companies including Time Warner, Google, Yahoo!, Sony Music, Princeton University, AMC Theaters, Disney, Universal Music Group, Time Life Music and the Voice of America. Edison Research has a sixteen-year history of thought-leadership in media research, and has provided services to successful media properties in South America, Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe.
ABOUT RADIO-INFO.COM
Owned by Chicago-based in3media, inc., Radio-Info.com was founded in 1999 as a radio discussion forum, and has since evolved into a full-service radio information site known as “Radio’s Online Community.” While continuing its lively and popular message board forums, which net thousands of posts from readers each day, the site has added news, expert commentary and the most credible music charts in the industry via a partnership with Nielsen BDS. The company publishes several widely read newsletters, including Taylor On Radio-Info. Those newsletters collectively reach more than 14,000 subscribers a week.

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