Young Music Fans Now Listen to Streaming Services as Often as AM/FM Radio

The streaming revolution is about to overtake radio, and the results ain’t gonna be pretty as the oldsters at the major labels try to hold onto yesteryear. According to The NPD Group [via Deadline], a Q4 2012 survey showed that streaming services accounted for about as much weekly music listening time among 13-to-35 year olds than AM/FM terrestrial radio, a new milestone.

Streaming services accounted for roughly 23% of weekly listening time (up from 17% in 2011) while AM/FM radio accounted for 24% (down from 26% in 2011), a near statistical dead heat. NPD’s Russ Crupnick credits the proliferation of mobile streaming options for the growth. Older music listeners unsurprisingly still prefer radio.

Pandora, the most popular streaming service, is used by 39% of the 13-35 year olds surveyed, followed by Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio (11%), the free version of Spotify (9%), Grooveshark (3%), Slacker (2%), Pandora One (2%), TuneIn (2%), Last.fm (2%), and Xbox Music (2%).

This news shouldn’t effect you and me very much; metal, of course, is rarely played on the radio anyway. If anything, this shift should benefit the metal industry by helping fans more easily access and discover the music they want to hear. But it does pose a problem for the major labels that are used to achieving mainstream success through tightly-controlled radio playlists based on decades of leveraged relationships. We’ll see what happens; it’ll definitely be interesting.