Overall radio listening isn't decreasing, according to new research, it's just migrating to the Internet and especially to mobile devices. A study by Alan Burns and Associates of more than 2,000 female radio listeners, aged 15-54, found that daily listening to AM/FM radio -- no matter the device -- is up around 2% year-over-year.
Looking deeper into the numbers though, daily listening to AM/FM on a radio is down 24% year-over-year, while listening to AM/FM online is up 282% and listening on a mobile device grew a whopping 750%.
In other words, increases in digital radio listening are apparently more than making up for traditional radio listening's lost ground. Those gains might be larger if one were to include web-only music streams, which nearly half of those surveyed said they listen to at least weekly.
However, AM/FM listening on radios remains a juggernaut: 86.6% of the women surveyed said they listen to AM/FM on a radio on a weekly basis. And listening to AM/FM on a radio is still more than twice that of listening to AM/FM via the web and on mobile devices combined.
But online, "custom music streams" are slightly more popular than AM/FM simulcasts among the women surveyed: around 49% of those surveyed said they listened to cusom music streams on a weekly basis (up from 39% in 2011), compared to around 43% who said they listened to AM/FM web simulcasts on a weekly basis (up from 34% in 2011).
The fastest growing area, unsurprisingly, appears to be mobile. Nearly 50% of the women surveyed said they had downloaded a radio app and 26.2% listen to mobile radio at least weekly (up from 15.4% in 2011). And time spent listening to AM/FM on a mobile device reportedly grew around 400% year-over-year.
Just under half of those surveyed agreed with the statement, "I can foresee a day when I won’t need or want to listen to music on radio because I can get it online and/or on my phone," (compared to around 37% who agreed with the statement in 2011).
You can find the results from Alan Burns and Associates' study ("Here She Comes 2012 - Insights Into Women, Radio, and New Media") right here (PDF).
Tuning service and stream aggregator TuneIn has added NPR programming to the fold. All NPR live and on-demand programming, plus that of NPR member stations who want to join, will now be available via TuneIn's website and mobile apps (as well as on devices and car dashboard systems that use TuneIn's technology).
The Echo Nest -- the music data service that powers companies like iHeartRadio, Spotify, eMusic, VEVO, MOG and others -- has raised $17 million in a new round of financing. "The round brings Echo Nest’s total funding to just over $27 million, making it one of the most-funded music data companies out there," reports TechCrunch.
Triton Digital has reportedly agreed to a 3-year deal with Christian broadcast group Salem Communications to provide streaming for 94 of the group's stations, as well as audience metrics and ad-delivery.
Also as part of the deal, Triton will handle archiving Salem shows to automatically create RSS feeds for podcast purposes.
Songza is the online music service that features "expert-curated" playlists based on interests, moods, activities, or what Facebook friends are listening to. Songza this week updated its Android app to include its popular Music Concierge feature (available on the iOS platform for some time).
