Share of ear iii

The way people listen to music is changing. The way people listen to radio is changing. But what is music radio in 2016?

The landscape is changing fast and so too is the streaming space. Each is fighting for their share of ear along with our respective traditional network brands. With Rdio’s demise, the streaming players are now iHeartRadio, Beats1, Guvera, Deezer, Pandora and Spotify.

One of the those six mentioned just completed a massive research study here in Australia.

Radiotoday covered off Spotify’s research moves in Europe last year with “What if Spotify was a radio station”. Now it’s Australia’s turn.

“The New Audio Study – Reaching The Spotify Listener In Australia”, has a sample of 2000 plus people across the country with Spotify securing TNS to run the numbers. They also narrowed their reporting to the 18 to 39 set and went about benchmarking Spotify against not only commercial radio network music brands, but even triple j. They define them as “Music Listeners” but the lines of defining who they are blur a little.

From their research, Spotify appears to lead the pack as Australia’s largest ad supported digital music service in terms of weekly reach.

But here’s the kicker: “Spotify is the 4th largest ‘radio station’ in terms of weekly reach” according to their research.

Ah…. Spotify is now a “radio station”. Is it a threat?

They then also benchmark radio listeners versus their Spotfify Free listeners – across various standard dayparts for 18 to 39’s. Here we see “real” radio lead in the key money day part of Breakfast and then radio peaks again in Drive. Spotify in purple then takes up the slack going into night time listening.

While these are broad 18 to 39 snapshots and it doesn’t get into gender splits or pure Time Spent listening (or is that streaming?), Spotify’s intentions are clear; they are wanting to realise the commercial reality.

“The TNS study shows that if you’re buying radio, Spotify extends your reach,” says Andrea Ingham, Spotify’s Director of Sales, Australia.

“We offer brands a unique audience – at scale – in a low clutter, accountable and highly targeted environment. As traditional radio audiences fragment, there’s never been a better time to speak to our users.”

Spotify also offers up more detailed reports into the key markets of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, we will see if we can get our hands on those.

In the shifting sands of pure music loyalty – what makes your music brand standout in 2016?