24% of Americans value keeping up-to-date with music with 12-34 year olds preferring to use YouTube but radio is still the favourite of 55+ listeners according to a recent survey by Edison Research. New-music Seekers is an Infinite Dial report based on a representative sample of 3,159 12+ Americans who were interviewed between January and February, 2020 before the COVID-19 disruptions.
Key findings from the New Music Seekers: An Infinite Dial Report
This new research explores how this 24% of America – the ‘new-music seekers’ for whom learning about and staying up-to-date with music is very important – listens to, discovers, and shares music.
- As listeners age, fewer say it is ’very important’ to learn about and stay up–to–date with music:
- 35% of those age 12-34 say it is ’very important’
- 25% of those age 35-54 say it is ’very important’
- 10% of those age 55+ say it is ’very important.’
Nearly half of new-music seekers, 46%, are between the ages of 12-34, and 54% are 35+, so although interest in new music is more concentrated in the very young, there are still large numbers of new-music seekers over the age of 35.
- New-music seekers are willing to pay for music services. 49% of new-music seekers have listened to Spotify in the last month, and of those, 45% have a paid subscription. More than one-third of new-music seekers say they have a subscription to SiriusXM, which is nearly double the percentage of the general population. Many of these new-music subscribers are maintaining paid subscriptions to both SiriusXM and a streaming music platform.
- Sources for new music discovery vary greatly depending on the age of the listener.
Overall, YouTube (68%) tops the list of sources that new-music seekers say they use for music discovery, followed by friends and family (47%), and AM/FM radio (46%). The top three sources for music discovery are as follows for three different age groups:- Listeners age 12-34: YouTube (72%), Spotify (51%) and friends and family (49%)
- Listeners age 35-54: YouTube (64%), AM/FM radio (53%), and Facebook (45%)
- Listeners age 55+: AM/FM radio (70%), YouTube (57%), friends and family (53%)
Edison Research VP Nicole Beniamini, said “It’s surprising to see how high YouTube ranks for music discovery among all ages. This new research gives us a better grasp of just how important online platforms are for music discovery, especially among those who value new music. And while AM/FM radio is not so much a place to ‘learn about new music,’ our data shows that it’s still a place to ‘learn what the hits are’.
Among the one-third of Americans age 12+ (33%), for whom learning about and staying up-to-date with music is ‘not at all important,’ AM/FM radio tops the list as the source used most often for music discovery at 35%, followed by YouTube at 17%, and friends and family at 17%.
- 23% of new-music seekers age 12-34 say they use video games as a way to learn about music. Video games as a source of music discovery be surprising to some, but around half (51%) of new-music seekers watch live-streamed video games, so they are exposed to music through that outlet as well.
- Music listening is a private experience for many new-music seekers. 67% of new-music seekers say they do most or all of their audio listening through headphones/earbuds, with 30% saying all of their audio listening is private. This is not limited to the youngest listeners, as even the majority of new-music seekers age 35-54 listen to most of their music through headphones/earbuds. Social media becomes important, then, as a way to share music, because 53% of new-music seekers say they currently use social media to share updates on music they are listening to with friends and family.
The full report (46pp) is available free to download here.
