STUDY: COUNTRY LISTENERS INCREASINGLY IN TUNE WITH TECHNOLOGY Paul Heine – Billboard The state of the country format in early 2006 is extremely healthy, tracking comfortably close to 2005 satisfaction levels. Country radio listeners have caught up with technology yet they remain hesitant to listen to the format at work – a challenge programmers continue to wrestle with.
Those are among the top line findings from an online survey of 29,325 country radio P1s, conducted by Edison Media Research and presented Friday (Feb. 17) at the Country Radio Seminar here.
The study found country P1 listeners in all age demos are satisfied with their favorite station and with their country radio choices.
In making the case that country listeners have caught up with technology, the study found 16% of P1s use an iPod to hear music that’s not on the radio, up from 8% one year ago. The percentage of country P1s who own an iPod nearly doubled, from 15% last year to 28% this year. However 65% of iPod owners say the device has not changed their radio listening habits.
Similarly, 33% now access the Web for music, compared to 28% in 2005.
Probing how country listeners use Internet radio, the poll found 65% have used it to listen to radio, 58% to listen to country music radio, 43% to U.S. stations not in their listening area and 40% for their favorite broadcast station.
Four out of ten participants say they have downloaded music from the Internet. The younger the demo, the higher the percentage: 78% of 18-24s, 56% of 25-34s and 38% of 35-44s have downloaded music – legally or otherwise—from the Web.
Nine in ten respondents say they find out about new music from radio.
The percentage of respondents who said they’re listening more to country radio was virtually the same in both surveys: 83% in 2006, 84% in 2005. Why are they listening more? The most cited answer was “today’s country music is better” (64%).
When Edison probed those who said they are listening to radio less, 27% said it was due to time spent with other sources, such as iPods, up from 20% last year.
Satisfaction with current country music remains extremely strong, though down somewhat from last year. In 2006, 43% said current music is better, 46% said the same and 11% worse. Last year, 53% said the music was better, 36% the same and 11% worse.
Satisfaction levels among country P1s were significantly lower for rock and pop music. However, the majority of country listeners have no problem with the recent influx of non-core artists Kid Rock, Bon Jovi and Sheryl Crow on country playlists.
The new Dixie Chicks CD poses a dilemma for country PDs. Last year, 39% of respondents said they were upset by singer Natalie Maine’s negative comments about President Bush. This year the percentage grew to 43%. And 45% disagree with the statement that it’s okay for radio to play the Dixie Chicks.
Awareness of HD digital radio trails that of satellite radio: 40% are aware of HD, 88% are aware of satellite, up from 78% in 2005.
Six in ten country P1s say they are not at all likely to purchase a satellite radio in the next 12 months. The study found the percentage of listeners who didn’t know or were unsure about whether to make the leap to satellite decreased over the past year, from 30% in 2005 to 11% in 2006.
However 40% of country listeners with satellite radios think satellite country channels are better than terrestrial country stations, compared to 18% who think terrestrial stations are better.
Other findings:
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