Those high-powered smartphones that can access the Web from virtually anywhere may be the best thing that's happened in years to one of the oldest and most beleaguered of traditional media: radio.

Local stations are racing to create software applications — called apps — and appealing talk and music programming to help them reach the burgeoning number of consumers who see their iPhones, BlackBerrys and Droids as portable entertainment devices.

With the help of apps, smartphone users can listen to live broadcasts from hundreds of radio stations as well as services such as Pandora that offer music tailored to the listener's taste.

"It's extremely meaningful," Clear Channel Executive Vice President Evan Harrison says. About a year after the No. 1 radio company introduced its iHeartRadio app for iPhones, phone users account for 10% of its digital audience.

"We expect to at least double that number" in 2010, he says. "That's a modest goal." Its app for Android phones comes out on Wednesday.

The company attracts about 28 million unique visitors a month, up 30% vs. last year.

CBS Interactive Music Group President David Goodman also is upbeat. "In the last seven months, our streaming audience has doubled," he says. "It's a rocketship in listenership."

Read more in USA Today >>>

Advertisers may be putting fewer dollars into traditional media but a portion of those dollars are heading to radio’s digital platforms. BIA/Kelsey calculates the industry’s online revenue will be up 12% to $382 million this year, with a more robust 20% increase in the coming year.

“Radio’s online assets have proven to positively impact consumer behavior,” said Rick Ducey, chief strategy officer, BIA/Kelsey. “Now radio has to extend this ability to impact consumers into its advertising efforts. Once the cross-platform model is fully embraced by sales teams, and advertisers learn how to effectively plan and buy radio’s digital and air assets, the revenue will follow.”

A bigger proportion of Internet users are spending more time on content sites than they were six years ago, according to a new analysis by the Online Publishers Association. But that growth has come at the expense of communication and commerce sites.

The study showed that people in 2009 on average spent 42% of their time online on content sites compared to 34% in 2003, when the OPA launched its Internet Activity Index, which tracks monthly Internet use across five categories: commerce, communications, community, content and search.

The actual amount of time spent on content sites has nearly doubled since 2003, increasing from an average of three hours, 42 minutes to 6:58.

By contrast, people are not lingering as long on communication-focused properties, which include Web sites and services such as Yahoo Mail, AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Groups. People spent only 27% of their time on communication sites in 2009, down from 46% in 2003. Time spent fell 8% from 5:20 to 4:54.

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"Even in this tough economy, Internet radio is growing ad revenues year over year and is one of the fastest-growing online media categories. Attractive demographics and a connected audience will prove increasingly appealing to advertisers as they look for fresh channels to reach consumers."

Read more in eMarketer >>>

A new study by Forrester Research shows that 10% of mobile phone users use their device to listen to music, up from 5% a year ago. According to a summary of the study by Mediaweek, texting and emailing pictures were also up, while watching TV or videos was flat, and checking the stock market was down (I wonder why!) Specifically, it is the under 30 year olds (18 to 29) that are leading the way, 22% of them use their phones to listen to music while only 7% of the older demographic do the same.

It's all good for Internet radio, as more and more people find their way to their favorite online station via their connected mobile device. Internet radio's audience is growing rapidly as it becomes more and more ubiquitous.

Read more in RBR >>>

Since Napster and the advent of peer-to-peer sharing, the music industry has been frustrated by consumers operating outside legitimate channels.

Ad-supported models may offer a solution.

The “TEMPO Digital Music Discovery & Purchase Process” report from Ipsos MediaCT shows that in late 2008, only 19% of US digital music consumers participated in the fee-based market (that is, iTunes or Rhapsody).

The ad-supported market, represented in this study by MySpace Music, is already bigger than that, with 22% of respondents.

“The ad-supported models are proving to be an effective means of expanding the broader, legitimate market beyond just the fee-based realm,” said Karl Joyce, the report’s lead author.

When respondents were asked to imagine their music consumption habits in a world without file-sharing, ad-supported formats proved even more attractive.

Read more in emarketer >>>

Anyone who suggests iPods reign over internet radio should note the decline in year over year sales, as acknowledged in Apples’ quarterly earnings call.  As PC World wrote, “Traditional iPods are on their way out, eclipsed by a new red-hot generation of products: the iPod touch and iPhone.” As you know, this new red-hot generation of products supports internet radio streaming. Read more in PC World >>>

More and more people have access to the Internet on the go, with 225 million wireless broadband users worldwide recorded in March. Some reports predict there could be 250 million subscribers by the end of the year, and by 2013 there could be as many as 4.5 billion potential wireless subscribers with access to high-speed Internet on their mobile devices. Read more in GigaOm (via RAIN).

Though nearly one-third of digital music downloaders and streamers in the US currently acquire songs illegally using peer-to-peer networks, new ad-supported models for music delivery are gaining momentum as an alternative and have helped to cut down on illegitimate file sharing, according to a study by Ipsos.

The annual “Digital Music Discovery & Purchase Process” study also found ad-supported models - such as the increasingly popular MySpace Music - are more palatable than file sharing to those who don’t want to pay. Such services are expected to play an increasingly important role as a legitimate channel for music delivery, Ipsos said.

Nielsen web statistics back up this claim. Traffic to MySpace Music has grown 1017% since the site’s inception last fall, the web analytics firm said.

Read more in Marketing Charts >>>

According to consumer info reported by The NPD Group, in Q1 with a 30% awareness level among the population of Web users age 13+, AOL Music had the highest overall awareness among online music sites (i.e., online radio and social networking sites with a music orientation). While awareness is extremely important and necessary building block for a site, consumer usage is often a better predictor of longer term sustainability, according to NPD's entertainment industry analyst, Russ Crupnick.

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SOUTHFIELD, MI -- June 2, 2009: Jacobs Media's online survey of 21,000 members of Rock radio station databases found that streaming is on the rise, with the percentage of respondents who have never streamed radio online at 34 percent, down from 50 percent when the surveys began, in 2005. Thirty-nine percent of respondents in the new survey said they stream radio at least weekly, up from 32 percent a year ago and part of a "steady rise" since 2005.

Read more in Radio Ink >>>

Amid an apparent implosion in its terrestrial broadcast marketplace, radio is experiencing a digital boom. Total radio advertising declined 24% to $3.430 billion during the first quarter of 2009, according to figures released Thursday by trade association the Radio Advertising Bureau, but the radio industry's digital advertising revenues surged 13% to $101 million.

Read more >>>

This week, ComScore published their monthly Media Metrix report. Once again, "Radio" makes it to the top ten fastest growing site categories, with an 8% increase over February (when it was also in the top ten.)

Read the full release here.

CHARLESTON, SC -- April 9, 2009: A new survey from American Media Services finds that the popularity of Internet-only radio is growing, with 27 percent of Americans saying they've listened to 'Net-only radio from a website. The figure is higher for 18-24s -- 47 percent -- and for those under 50, at 34 percent.

But, says AMS, regular radio is maintaining its audience. Seventy-three percent of those surveyed said they are listening to radio about the same amount or more than than they did five years ago.

"Our latest survey shows the continued vibrancy of radio," says AMS Chairman Edward Seeger. "Online radio is an
increasingly important medium. Regular radio is holding its own. The two media offer choices that are compatible and complementary of each other."

Read more in Radio Ink >>>

According to The NPD Group, a leader in market research for the entertainment industry, teens (age 13 to 17) acquired 19 percent less music in 2008 than they did in 2007. CD purchasing declined 26 percent and paid digital downloads fell 13 percent compared with the prior year. In the case of paid digital downloads, 32 percent of teens purchasing less digital music expressed discontent with the music that was available for purchase, while 23 percent claimed to already have a suitable collection of digital music. Twenty-four percent of teens also cited cutbacks in overall entertainment spending as a reason for buying fewer downloads.

More than half of teens (52 percent) listened to online radio in 2008, compared to just 34 percent in 2007.

Read the full release >>>

The research company found that small and mid-size markets continue to perform better than larger ones and that "income from digital sources is quickly proving itself to be a part of radio's future."

Read more in Radioworld >>>

NASHVILLE -- March 6, 2009: Country Radio Broadcasters and Edison Research's "National Country P1 Study 2009" was released Friday at CRS-40, and 77 percent of respondents said they're listening more to country music on the radio more than they did last year... Twenty-seven percent also said they listen often -- "at least a few times a week" -- to their local stations over the Internet.

Read more in Radio Ink. 

Like the cell phones that preceded them, mobile data services--in particular, mobile Internet--are becoming less a luxury and more a necessity among U.S. consumers. And the expanded use of those services (also including mobile email, multimedia messaging and photo uploading) could explode in the next two years.

Read more in Mediapost >>>

 by Caroline Krediet

"I'm in the minority on this one. All the buzz in advertising is over Facebook, Twitter and social media. Yet radio technology is burgeoning. The appointment audio of the podcast is catching on, and satellite radio, HD radio and streaming mobile radio are all gaining interest and audience. So, too, is Internet radio: according to research firm American Media Services, 38% of adults surveyed six months ago said they expected to listen to radio on the Internet at some point in the future; more recently, the figure was 48%..."

Read more in Mediapost >>>

Marina, Calif. - Listening to Web radio music stations increased by 37.6% in 2008, to 6.67 billion hours, and in-stream audio sold against ad-supported cumulative listening hours was up 46% to $74 million, according to a report from AccuStream iMedia Research.

Read more in Digital Media Wire.

With a 30% jump in audience size from December of '07 to '08, radio is among comScore's fastest growing site categories.
Read the full release.

While most Web experts were busy tracking the “meteoric” rise of social networking and online video watching in 2008, another broadband phenomenon was arriving with little notice. According to Arbitron/Edison Media Research, the share of at-work listeners tuning into Internet stream rather than over the air radio went from 12% to 20%. In the college grad demographic, 30% of all radio listening is from Internet sources now. Major players like Pandora, CBS’ Last.fm and Slacker have experienced staggering growth in the past year alone; 33 million Americans a week now listen to Internet radio streams. CBS Radio, Clear Channel and other traditional terrestrial radio networks are starting to pour their on-air stations online even more aggressively than TV network brought prime time to the Web last year. Old time radio knows the enemy when it sees it. As Larry Rosin, president, Edison Media Research, said about his latest research, “For a growing number of people, obviously especially those whose work is in front of a computer all day, the Internet is simply a better solution for ‘radio’ listening than a traditional AM/FM radio.”

Read more in MinOnline.

By Heidi Dawley

After years of being out there and talked about, but not much more, internet radio may finally go from an interesting idea to a stand-alone commercial medium.

And that promise is pretty grand in the view of some analysts. "In 2009, internet radio may not just reinvigorate the medium of radio. It may reinvent it,” predicts Deloitte, the consulting outfit.

Read more in Media Life.

Americans' frequent use of the Internet has almost doubled over the last five years; 48% now report using the Internet more than one hour per day compared to 26% in 2002.  Read more

This Week In Consumer Electronics (TWICE) covers the internet radio usage survey published earlier this year by Edison Media Research. The article noted that as internet rdaio gains popularity, it is "increasing the market potential for home audio products incorporating Internet radio streaming, an Edison Media Research study implies."

Read the full article.

According to Arbitron's October PPM survey:

• The New York Radio Metro has the highest share (1.3 percent) of unweighted quarter hours credited to encoded Internet streams of AM/FM stations
• Adult Contemporary and News Talk are the formats that have the highest share of quarter hours among encoded streams of AM/FM radio stations..
• Digital radio listening is an “at-the-office” phenomenon based on PPM listening metrics for location of listening, employment status and education.
• Digital radio listeners are concentrated in the 25 to 54 year old demographic.
• Digital radio listeners are 32% more likely to be employed full-time than the population at large.
• Digital radio listeners are 24% more likely to be College graduates than average.

Read the full release. 

Paragon Media Strategies, reports that 14- to 24-year-olds mostly say their radio listening has increased over the last year or two, while they said the opposite last year. Paragon recruited the respondents and conducted the study online.

Read more coverage in The New York Times.

Newspaper websites have more value as of now, but local radio and television websites are "positioned for significant growth over the next few years," says the "What's a Website Worth? Valuation Metrics for Local Websites" report from BIAfn and advertising-research firm Borrell Associates.

Read more in Radio Ink.

Listening to the radio continues to be part of Americans’ daily life, according to results of a nationwide telephone survey that American Media Services released today.

• 39% of Internet radio listeners did so in the past week, up from 23% six months ago
• 48% expect to listen to radio over the internet in the future, up from 38% six months ago
• Nearly half of Americans (47 percent) said it doesn’t matter to them whether their radio program is originating locally.  Only 28 percent said it mattered a lot.

Read more from American Media Services. 

"Bernstein Research expects 2008 online advertising revenue to grow 20% in the United States and 22% overseas. Even if the macro-environment worsens significantly in the second half of this year, the analyst firm expects at least 19% revenue growth in the U.S. and 21% overseas."

Read more in MediaPost.

Recent studies have shown that internet radio listeners are at-work, affluent and educated:

• Work hours are "prime time" for internet radio listeners, according to Arbitron/Edison's "The Infinite Dial 2007."
• The at-work internet radio audience has grown from 12% to 20% in one year, states a 2008 Arbitron/Edison study.
• The same study reports that 30% of college graduates at work say they listen to internet radio.
• Internet radio listeners are 40% more likely to live in a household with an annual income of $100k, according to Arbitron/Edison's "The Infinite Dial 2007."

In a new survey by Parks Associates, roughly two-thirds of U.S. and Canadian broadband households reported regular use of a PC to play music while at home, and one-third said they use a television to listen to music. MP3 players ranked equal to TVs, with one-third of households using these platforms for music, in the new report titled Digital Media Habits II.

Read the announcement from Parks Associate

From the Arbitron/Edison Media Research "Internet & Multimedia 2008 Study"

The portion of American workers who are choosing to listen to radio via the Internet as opposed to through a traditional radio receiver grew dramatically from 2007 to 2008.

According to data from the Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet & Multimedia series of studies, among people who are employed full or part time and listen to radio at work, the portion listening most often via the Internet has grown from 12% to 20% in one year's time.

Read the full article.

The digitally savvy consumer is 3x more likely to listen to internet radio than the general populaion, says a recent report from Scarborough. They are also heavy online spenders and skew male.

For the full report, download Understanding The Digitally Savvy Consumer.