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Radio Is Streaming’s Next Frontier How Streaming Will Disrupt Radio Like It Did Retail

Report by Mark Mulligan
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Synopsis PDF Excel PowerPoint

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The 20,000 Foot View:  Streaming’s first achievement was becoming a long-term successor to retail, now it has its sights set on doing the same to radio. Even though the revenue per user is much smaller, the addressable market is far higher. Streaming’s post-radio strategy has the potential to be much more far reaching and impactful than subscriptions have been in terms of audience impact at scale. Radio companies are just beginning to wake up to the magnitude of the threat, but in the main underestimate it because traditional radio measurement methodologies underplay the extent of change taking place.

Key Findings

  • Radio is            teens to streaming:            of            year            stream for free, compared to            listen to radio
  • Radio audiences            getting smaller: radio listener penetration            the US, Canada, Australia and            fell to            in            2017 from                       2016
  • Radio audiences            also older:            are aged            plus,            to            for streaming
  • Radio suffers            brand fragmentation, with the average            penetration for the top radio            just            compared to            for Spotify
  • Free streaming            is steady in mature markets            with a clear younger audience           
  • After holding            the Spotify tide for years,            user base is now in            as is Sirius XM’s
  • Curated playlist            is stable at            in            2017,            a young audience spread
  • Curated playlist            are the equivalent of radio            but none have more than            population penetration 
  • Deezer has            highest share of its users            curated playlists            while Amazon has            highest share using user-generated playlists           
  • The most            radio listeners are the most            to adopt streaming:            of weekly            listeners use free streaming
  • Radio companies            to create something that is            what radio nor streaming currently           

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Afternoon Acoustic, Amazon, Amazon Prime Music, Apple, Apple Music,  BBC, Capital, Deep Focus, Deezer, Echo, Global, Google Play Music, Heart, iHeart, iHeart Media, Intense Studying, Liberty Media, Mixcloud, Napster, Peaceful Piano, Radio            Radio            Rap Caviar, Rhapsody, Pandora, Sirius XM, Slacker, Soundcloud, Spotify, Tidal, Vevo, YouTube

*Note: As a supplement to this report, an additional seven slides are included in the Powerpoint published alongside this report.

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