FACTS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED IN “INFINITE DIAL 2019”

Tom Webster, researcher and media guru

Infinite Dial 2019 [link] is the longest-running and most quoted survey of consumer behavior with digital media. 

Their work is baseline data regarding consumer adaptation of new media platforms and devices. 

Edison Research has been chronicling digital and analogue usage trends since 1988. 

This is fact-based news you can trust.

We want to thank Edison Research, and particularly Infinite Dial 2019 team leader Tom Webster, for making the topline results available at no cost to media decision makers. By doing so, they are providing information that increases media literacy and ability to serve the public.

There has been extensive media coverage of the study’s biggest finding:  Podcasts have reached a “tipping point” when more than half of the American adult population have listened to a podcast and nearly one out of three people listen to a podcast in a typical month.

Jaclyn Peiser reported in The New York Times last week [link] that the growth in awareness and consumption of podcast is dramatic:

Past reports from The Infinite Dial showed a creeping increase in podcasts from year to year. That has changed in 2019, when there was a dramatic jump. Compared with 2018 figures, the number of people who have listened to at least one podcast in their lives increased by 20 million, and an additional 14 million people described themselves as weekly listeners.

Another finding published in Infinite Dial 2019 that has received a lot of coverage is the quick rise of Smart Speakers. Radio people are excited about their growing use as de facto radio receivers. They seem to be bringing radio listening back into the home.

Today we are going to look at other findings in Infinite Dial 2019 that didn’t make headlines but are important to people who work in media industries. Here are a few other trends you might have missed:

1. Is this the beginning of the end for Facebook?

Maybe it is karma, or maybe it is just a blip in the night, that Facebook usage has declined, especially among younger users. Infinite Dial studies don’t often include big headlines like to one on the right from the study proclaiming that in just one year Facebook lost 15 million users in U.S.

According to Infinite Dial 2019, social media usage in general appears to have stalled. 

But many of Facebook’s competitors continue to add users. One example is Instagram, which, ironically is owned by Facebook.

The people who were most apt to dump Facebook are between the ages of 12 and 34. 

Perhaps it is Facebook’s sale of users personal data to corporations and foreign governments that turned people off. Or maybe it is the perception that Facebook is as hip as a leisure suit – a place where grandpa lives. 

It is probably the latter because people over the age of 55 are the only demographic group that is increasing users.

2. Terrestrial radio remains “the king of the car”

You’ve seen this headline before and now you are seeing it again because it is true. 

It is a fact that a lot of people still listen to old-fashioned AM/FM radio, particularly in moving vehicles.

Other more glamorous platforms continue to chip away some radio listening but it appears radio is here to stay. 

Radio’s ubiquitous free distribution, easy of access and (still) popular programming are good reasons this traditional media service continues to hang around.

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

3. YouTube is an increasingly popular place to hear music

Use of YouTube as a music source has grown every year since 2014. 

Once YouTube was known as a video channel but the easy-to-upload, easy-to-use platform is perfect for distributing music. 

The audio reproduction quality is better than some subscription-based music sites. 

We are now using YouTube ourselves for radio airchecks because the cost of securing music rights is far cheaper than it is for CDs or streaming audio.

4. Hardcore podcast listeners listen to an average of seven shows per week

According to Infinite Dial 2019, the heaviest podcast users – people who listen to podcasts every week, on say that they listen to an average of seven shows during a typical week.

Of course the definition of a “podcast” is fluid and is dependent on the mind of the beholder. 

We like to listen to reruns of Wait, Wait...Don’t Tell Me.  Are reruns of shows actually podcasts?

Last night we listened to a one-minute, six-second recipe with a new way to cook swordfish. Is this a podcast or not a podcast?

The truth is a podcast can be almost anything you want it to be.

Someone with a bit of time on their hands tried to come up with a better name that is more descriptive. 

But they couldn't think of anything better. So it is “podcast” forever.