Has the Internet Changed How we Listen to Music?
Published January 13, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Data suggests people who listen to music on portable devices or through online media own more music and listen longer.
A recent study on the FGI SmartPanel suggests that using online media and portable devices to listen to music correlates with listening to more music overall. With 43% of respondents saying that they use an iPod or similar mp3 player, that’s a lot of listening. Nevertheless, the same survey indicates that older media, like CDs and radio, retain their edge: 81% of respondents listen to music on the radio, and 61% say they listen to music on CDs. Then again, the data seems to show that those who use portable devices or online media to listen to their music buy more music and consume more hours of audio media per week.
Devices Used to Listen to Music
National Numbers
To establish some context for these discoveries, FGI researchers collected nationally-representative data to show how much time and money consumers spend on music, in general. A third (31%) spends between one and three hours per week listening to music. Slightly less than a quarter (23%) listens to music for four-to-six hours; 13%, for seven-to-nine hours; 15%, for 10-12 hours; and 17%, for over 13 hours per week.
Given that most respondents report listening to fewer hours of music, it makes sense that most (40%) also report spending less money –under $20 on music in the past year, to be precise. 23% report spending between $20 and $49. 18% say they spent between $50 and $100. A fifth of consumers spent over $100 on music this year. Even with the majority of consumers (evidently) saving money for other purchases, this statistic suggests that a good handful of music fans have the disposable income to bulk up their libraries, a surprising revelation in a climate of reserved spending.
In that vein, roughly 18% of consumers say they own a collection of between 2000 and 5000 songs, whether that is stored on a hard drive or in other formats. 27% say they own between 500-2000 songs. But most (43%) report owning fewer than 500, a figure which aligns with the revelation that consumers are spending less on music in general. A remaining handful (12%) reports owning more than 5000 songs.
Radio- and CD-Listeners Spend Less
Those who report listening to music on CDs or the radio, incidentally, report spending less time listening to music. They also spend less money on music and own smaller collections of songs. Over a quarter (28%) of radio listeners spends fewer than three hours a week listening to music, while 24% listen to music for four-to-six hours. Only a few (15%) spend the maximum 16-plus hours. Meanwhile, 44% of radio listeners say they own fewer than 500 songs. The majority (69%) own fewer than 2000. Not surprisingly, they tend to spend less money on music: 37% spent less than $20 this year, and 63% spent less than $50. Still, 20% managed to spend over $100.
Among CD-listeners, the percentages are more balanced. 23% say they listen to music for less than three hours a week; 22%, between four and six. Only 18% listen to more than 16 hours. Over half of listeners have fewer than 2000 songs in their libraries. 36% have fewer than 500, and only 12% have more than 5000. CD-listeners show an even distribution in terms of how much money they spend, too: 28% spent less than $20 on music this year, but 25% spent over $100. 25% spent between $20-50, while 22% spent between $50-100.
However balanced, these numbers indicate that most CD-listeners spent less than $100 on music in the last year, and radio-listeners were even more frugal. These respondents also own smaller collections of music (likely because they buy less) and consume fewer hours of media per week. It may be that those likelier to use older media formats are unlikely to adapt to new formats, such as the mp3, which permit the storage and purchase of a greater volume of music (and hence facilitate more listening). They may also be less interested in music on the whole, or they may be in an economic position that prevents them from taking advantage of the latest and greatest in audio technology –which is hardly inexpensive!
The Internet Changes Everything
As it has the industries of print media, entertainment, and education (among others), the web has transformed the ways that consumers learn about, buy, store and listen to music. FGI drilled down the numbers to find out how using online media, namely free media players, mp3 stores, and subscription services, changes the data for how much consumers spend on music, how long they listen, and how many songs they own.
Those who use online subscription services to listen to music tend to spend the least time listening: 28% report listening less than three hours per week, compared to 20% among those who use iTunes and mp3 stores, and 20% among those who use a free music player. On the other hand, mp3 store customers show considerable variation when it comes to how long they listen. As many respondents report listening to over 16 hours as report listening to fewer than three. As for those who use a free music player, the highest number (25%) actually report listening to more than 16 hours of music per week. It may be that the allure of free media encourages them to indulge more in listening to music than they would, were they required to pay. Even if they listen longer, they don’t spend as much.
Indeed, 72% of those who use a free online media player report having spent less than $100 on music last year. 28% report paying between $20-49. 29% report paying less than $20. With less than a third (28%) of consumers saying they actually use a free media player, there is no telling what the broad implications of a trend like this may be, but there certainly seems to be a correlation between access to or use of free media and using media more heavily.
It may also be that the online format alone, whether free or not, makes it easier to use more media. Shoppers on iTunes and similar mp3 stores report spending less on music (70% spent less than $100; 52%, less than $50), but they also own larger song libraries (33% owned between 2000-4999 songs; over half owned more than 2000). Even if users are not using the media for quite as many hours as those who listen to free media players, they still consume plenty, which leads researchers to speculate that buying music using a virtual form of money (credit) in the intangible format of an mp3 may be “easier” to do in the consumer’s mind than exchanging material assets for a physical object –especially since an album on iTunes costs up to six dollars less than a CD from a store. Since consumers cannot “see” the transaction, it may carry less of a guilt factor, even in a down economy.
Where do you Obtain Your Music?
Music on the Move: How Mobile Devices Change Consumer Habits
Notwithstanding the dominance of Apple’s iPod, it is not the only portable device that consumers use to listen to music. Neither is iTunes the only mp3 store that consumers patronize. Sony, Archos and Creative Labs are some of Apple’s upcoming competitors in the market for portable players, while Amazon is giving iTunes a run for its money in the music download business. Apple may also face competition from an unexpected alternative: as technology advances, smartphones are becoming an increasingly attractive way of listening to music. Although traditional mp3 players have a higher penetration in terms of the music-playing function (43% compared to 10% for smartphones), those who do use smartphones to listen to music tend to be some of the heaviest users of media.
42% of those who use their smartphones to listen to music say that they have between 2000-5000 songs in their library, at least 10 percentage points higher than iPod-users, and even higher than users of other devices. They also listen to more music, with 27% listening to between four and six hours and 23% listening to more than 16. While roughly 25-30% of users of other devices had spent less than $20 on music in the past year, among smartphone users, the number was 15%. Nearly half (46%) report having spent between $20-$49. Although not a gigantic leap, this definitely speaks to a greater tendency among those who use their smartphones to listen to music to spend more money on music overall.
It does bear mentioning that those who can afford to purchase smartphones –and pay for a data plan that makes listening to music feasible –are likely to be in an economic position that enables them to spend more on music and similar little luxuries. They may also be heavier consumers of all forms of media, given the simple access to news, social networking, video, and other content that smartphones facilitate. It makes sense that music would fit into that group.
Actionable Insights
What can we conclude from this study more generally? Notwithstanding the complexity of this body of data, there are a few major points to consider. First, users of online and mobile technology tend to be heavier consumers of media. Second, smartphone users tend to be even heavier media-consumers. Yet in spite of this fact, many consumers still use CDs and radio. In a shifting media climate, different stakeholders will interpret this information differently.
Record labels may take comfort in the comparatively higher percentages of consumers who still use CDs and radio, but they might balk at the data for media-consumption among iPod and smartphone users. Producers of mobile and portable devices will be happy to hear that consumers have found so many ways to use their products and try to gain even more of an edge in the mp3 market. All stakeholders would likely benefit from deeper research into topics that pertain to their interests.
- Free music players could use advanced analytics and user research to create more targeted advertising, making business more lucrative for them and for their sponsors.
- Mobile application developers could research how exactly consumers use their phones to listen to music in order to develop more innovative and user-friendly platforms. They could then use concept testing to refine their ideas.
- Record labels could perform a competitive analysis to understand what gives other players in the market an edge, and they could use the insights from such a study to develop a strategy for evolution and success.
Next Steps You Can Take
- Contact FGI Research: click here or call us at (919) 929-7759
- Explore FGI Research’s market research solutions, including custom panels, full service research, and our online sample (SmartPanel).
- Join FGI Research’s online panel to participate in future studies.
Survey Methods
Respondents: 240
Date of Survey: December 21-28, 2010
Sample Source: FGI SmartPanel
This nationally-representative sample consists of adults aged 18 and up and is balanced to the US population using recent census data. One can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.
