• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, October 29, 2010

In a sequel to Edison Research's survey from 2000, "Radio's Future: Today's 12 to 24 year-olds," the company conducted 1533 interviews nationwide with 875 interviews age 12-24 and 888 interviews age 22-34. In addition, an online survey is included of respondents ages 12 to 34 using the "KnowledgePanel" from Knowledge Networks. The interviews were conducted in September, 2010, matched to national age and sex demographics.

In addition to a sample of today's 12-24 year-old Americans, this study also re-examines a cohort from the 2000 study - today's 22-34 year olds - to analyze how their tastes and habits have changed over the past decade.

Media consumption habits have changed with internet, phone and radio increasing most, and TV, video games and movies decreasing most.

The study indicates that during an average day, Americans age 12-24 spend two hours and 52 minutes on the internet, making the web the media format American young adults spend the most time consuming. Television closely follows with a daily average of two hours and 47 minutes.

Listening to the radio came in a distant third with a one hour and 24 minute daily average. With a daily average of one hour and 10 minutes, video games closely trailed radio, followed by talking on the telephone (one hour and four minutes). Time spent reading magazines and newspapers is negligible.

And, more specifically, Edison Research singled out "Radio's Future," and is focused on the music discovery and consumption habits of young Americans. The study was sponsored by Radio-Info.com.

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%

·      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

·      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.

For more information, please visit EdisonResearch here.