HOT NEW RESEARCH: JACOBS “TECHSURVEY 19” & COLEMAN’S “CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SUPER-STUDY”

Jacobs Media Strategies has just released the results of Techsurvey 19 (TS19), the exhaustive look at the media preferences of US commercial radio listeners. 

The report [link] is based on a sample of 50,652 in-tab participants from 519 stations with 14 commercial formats is the “gold standard” of radio listener behavior and consumption.

TS19 is the cousin of the Public Radio Tech Survey (PRTS) that is also conducted by Jacobs Media. PRPD will announce details about PRTS later this week.

There is one caveat about the Jacobs Tech Surveys: They only reflect the opinions and media choices of the sample. This is not the Gallup Poll. The Tech Surveys are based on a “self selected” sample, not a random sample.

However, the Tech Surveys are significant because they reflect actual behavior. The number of participants is impressive and the analysis is superb.

We will take a deeper look at TS19 next week. Also, Jacobs Media is offering a free Webinar to discuss the results on Monday, April 15th at 2pm ET. Information is available here.

TAKEAWAYS FROM TS19 REGARDING RADIO LISTENING

• Lot’s of people listen to traditional AM/FM radio because it is easy to use, free and offers people things they like to hear.

• People like radio’s local feel. This is one of AM/FM’s advantages in the media marketplace, and it is growing every year.

 • Traditional AM/FM radio still has momentum. There will be changes from year to year, but radio is not going away anytime soon.

COLEMAN RESEARCH PRESENTS The Contemporary Music SuperStudy

Coleman Media Research [link] is one of the nation’s blue-chip media research companies.  They do many things well, but they are considered a leading provider of contemporary music research.

The Contemporary Music SuperStudy looks at consumption and preferences of six major contemporary music genres: Hip Hop/R&B, Country, Pop, Dance/Electronic, Alternative/Rock and Latin in 2018. Coleman is releasing the top-line results in four summaries. Today’s data came from the first summary.

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The random sample study had 1,000 in-tab participants between the ages of 12 to 54. Coleman measured perceptions of the 25 most consumed songs from each genre that was released in the past five years. This data was combined with radio airplay, streaming and sales data.  Here are some of the major findings:

• Hip Hop/R&B was the most consumed genre of 2018.

Coleman’s Analysis: “We know that Hip Hop/R&B has permeated the music cycle over the past couple of years, and this genre was the most consumed of 2018, representing 33% of the songs in the study. This was followed by Country (21%,) Pop (19%,) Dance/Electronic (10%,) Alternative/Rock (9%) and Latin (9%).”

• Pop music has very high passion, as does Hip Hop/R&B

Coleman’s Analysis: “While Pop only represents 19% of the test list, it represents 33% of the Top 100 Like a Lot scores (those who rated a song 5 on a 1-5 scale.) Hip Hop/R&B and Alternative/Rock also over-perform compared to the overall test list with passion scores, while Country, Dance/Electronic and Latin underperform.”

• While Hip Hop/R&B has high passion, it also has high negatives

Coleman’s Analysis: “Hip Hop/R&B can be a polarizing genre. When you add in the negatives, the average comes down significantly. This explains why deciding which Hip Hop/R&B songs to play on Pop formats can be a tricky proposition. A programmer has to determine whether strong passion as well as factors like streaming data outweigh the negatives, which can be a high percentage of Dislike A Lot scores.”

If you want to learn more about The Contemporary Music SuperStudy, Coleman is presenting a free Webinar on Tuesday, April 30 from 2p-3p EDT. More information is available here.