The Nielsen Company is an organization that is well-known in the entertainment field.  Nielsen is a global marketing and advertising research company.

Nielsen Entertainment is probably the best known part of the Nielsen Group.  For more than 50 years, they have collected and reported on purchasing and media information focused on film, music, home entertainment, books, and interactive entertainment.  Each week, Nielsen provides information to Billboard for the top 100 lists in popular music.

On August 14, Nielsen published a new study titled Music 360.  This study polled people in all age groups to find out the trends in discovering and listening to music.

According to the “Music 360” report, 48% of consumers in the U.S. still see radio as the dominant way to discover new music. However, for almost two-thirds of U.S.teenagers, Google’s YouTube is now a more important source of music than radio (54%), iTunes (53%) and CDs (50%).

David Bakula is a Vice President at Nielsen.  He said:

While younger listeners opt for technologically advanced methods, traditional methods of discovery like radio and word-of-mouth continue to be strong drivers. With so many ways to purchase, consume and discover great new music, it’s no wonder that the consumer continues to access and enjoy music in greater numbers.

The survey also found that 54% of U.S.consumers now have music player apps on their smartphones.  Just under half of them have radio apps installed on their phones and 26% have music store apps.

An interesting fact, cassette tapes are still more popular among adults than most online music services. Almost a tenth of U.S. adults apparently still listen to cassettes and 7% listen to Spotify.

The following is some interesting things the company learned from the survey.

More teens listen to music through YouTube than through any other source

• · 64% of teens listen to music through YouTube
• · 56% of teens listen to music on the radio
• · 53% of teens listen to music through iTunes
• · 50% of teens listen to music on CD

Positive recommendations from a friend are most likely to influence purchase decisions

• 54% are more likely to make a purchase based off a positive recommendation from a friend
• 25% are more likely to make a purchase based off a music blog/chat rooms
• 12% are more likely to make a purchase based off an endorsement from a brand
• 8% of all respondents share music on social networking sites, while 6% upload music.

Digital music is seen as a slightly better value than a physical CD

• 63% of purchasers identified digital albums as a very or fairly good value
• 61% identified digital tracks as a very or fairly good value
• 55% identified physical CDs as a very or fairly good value

Younger consumers who do buy digital tracks, are more likely to purchase new music immediately after its release

• 33% of teens purchased a digital track within one week of release
• 21% of persons 18+ purchased a digital track within one week of release

The music area is an ever-changing field.  It certainly isn’t anything like it was when I was growing up, but it is exciting to see that radio is losing its influence on the discovery of new music.

Do you listen to the radio?

 Do you prefer YouTube? 

Do you think that the physical CD will disappear soon? 

(Do you listen to more Clay Aiken than any other artist?)

For more information on this topic, visit Tech Crunch or Billboard.

Just a quick note to let you know that there are 3 Holiday concerts listed at Clay Aiken’s Official Fan Club site.   Be sure and take a look.  These three concerts already have ticket on sale.  I would imagine that the rest of the tour will be listed soon.  I will try to get the information listed as soon as I can.  Please check back!

Friday, November 23, 2012 – Kravis Center – West Palm Beach, FL

Saturday, December 8, 2012 – Luhrs Performing Arts Center – Shippensburg, PA

Saturday, December 15, 2012 – Arcada Theatre – St. Charles, IL

I think we need a Clay Aiken picture from one of his Christmas concerts.