PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. – Internet radio listening is gaining among people ages 13 to 35, and AM/ FM listening is declining, The NPD Group found in a consumer survey.
But the two music-delivery technologies are still neck-and-neck in the amount of time that the age group spends listening to music.
NPD also reported a decline in the amount of time that consumers listen to CDs and digital music files.
In the fourth quarter of 2012, Pandora and other subscription-based and free Internet radio services accounted for 23 percent of average weekly music-listening time in the 13 to 35 age group, up from a year-ago 17 percent, NPD found.
Listening to AM/FM radio accounted for 24 percent of music-listening time in that age group, down by 2 percentage points.
In contrast, Internet radio accounted for just 13 percent of music listening by people in the 36-andolder age group, while AM/FM radio accounted for a 41 percent share of music-listening time.
In examining music-listening habits, NPD also found that 62 percent of consumers in the 13 to 35 age group who use streaming services said they used these services more than they had in the past.
And the car is one of the venues where those consumers are listening to more Internet-streamed music. More than half of Pandora and iHeartRadio streaming-music users used their mobile phone to access those services, and about one in five Pandora or iHeartRadio users are connecting to those services in their cars, NPD found.
Pandora and iHeart were the two most-often-used sources of Internet radio in the 13 to 35 age group, NPD found.
In other findings, NPD said the 13 to 35 age group spilt up the rest of its weekly music-listening time like this: digital files, 15 percent; on-demand streaming, 14 percent; CDs, 9 percent; satellite-radio, 5 percent; and other, 10 percent.
Among Internet-streaming listeners, music-listening share broke out like this among consumers ages 13 to 35 in the fourth quarter: Pandora (free version), 39 percent; iHeartRadio, 11 percent; Spotify (free version), 9 percent; Grooveshark, 3 percent; Slacker, 2 percent; PandoraOne, 2 percent; TuneIn, 2 percent; Last.fm, 2 percent; and Xbox Music, 2 percent.
