New Music On The Radio?

How do you discover new music? Try and think about the last band/artist that you fell in love with. How did you first hear about them? Was it something you heard on the radio? I would have to answer no to that question. With the exception of a few independently owned and operated stations, I stopped listening to FM radio a long time ago.

Why…? After listening to extremely limited and repetitive play lists, way too many commercials, overly chatty morning shows (I don’t care what you ate for breakfast, play a song) and lack of unique on-air personality, I simply turned FM radio off and subscribed to XM Satellite Radio where there is tons of variety, and nearly zero commercials. Terrestrial radio no longer provided a great listening experience for me and the main reason for listening to FM radio, to discover new music, has long disappeared.

I’m not the only one who feels this way. A new study put out by Paragon Media Strategies reveals that 14-24 year olds, who are the future of radio, would listen to the radio more if radio played more new music. This demographic is increasingly turning to other sources for their music. Younger generations are much more likely to use social networking sites, hear something on TV, or scan their friend’s ipod to discover something new than turn on the FM dial.

If you didn’t read The Music Man, the New York Times article about Rick Rubin that came out in September which had everyone talking about the future of the music business, there was a great little passage about whether younger music fans listen to the radio. According to Columbia Records’ focus groups, people have stopped relying on the radio for finding new music. Instead, music fans are relying on word of mouth to hear about new bands and artists.

So where does this leave radio? I think it will be increasingly difficult to capture the loyalty of an audience that has found easier, more personal, and more reliable sources for new music. How can you go wrong with your friend’s recommendation? People are not rushing out to buy radios, but they are spending truck loads of money on ipods. Last time I checked, ipods didn’t have an FM tuner.

Radio will probably always be around. But will true music fans (those that don’t put the radio on for background noise) ever really listen again? Will you turn on the radio to be entertained, or fire up your ipod? Are you more interested in what station your friends are listening to, or do you want to check out their playlists?