2017 has been a great year for radio and radio lovers alike. With new ways that stations and advertisers can communicate with their consumers, the radio industry is at an all-time high.
There have been many radio trends in 2017 that we loved and we wanted to share some of our top picks. These radio trends are what people are listening to, how they are listening to it, and some factors on how things can affect the content we listen to.
Let’s start with the facts. Radio still reaches more people than any other medium according to Nielsen; 93% of American adults to be exact. Listening to radio outside of the home is definitely a radio trend that will never die.
News Radio
A radio trend that continues to grow, especially in 2017, is the News Radio audience. Nielsen’s Total Audience Report shows that more millennials and adults under the age of 50 are keeping up with the news through radio. During the first quarter of 2017, 6.7 million listeners between ages 18-34 listened to news stations compared to the 6.1 million back in 2015. For adults ages 25-54, there were 16.1 million listeners in 2015, and 17 million in 2017.
Millennials
Now let’s look at a radio trend that has had quite a difference over the last few years–millennial listening habits. Nielsen compared listening habits from last year to 2012’s listening habits. Pop Contemporary Hit Radio was the leader in radio millennial format but has had a slight decline throughout the last 5 years (12.2% in 2012 to 11.7% in 2017). Some big gainers in this radio trend were Adult Contemporary (6.2% to 7.3%) country (8.2% to 8.6%) and urban contemporary (4.9% to 6.8%).
On-Demand Streaming
Possibly the biggest radio trend that happened in 2017 is the amount of on-demand streaming. In Nielsen’s U.S. Mid-Year 2017 Report, the report shows that more than 184 billion on-demand audio streams played during the first half of 2017 (a 62.4 % increase from 2016)! If this doesn’t tell you that music streaming has dominated the market, then we don’t know what will.
Stay updated with current radio listenership trends, fun facts, tips on radio advertising and more with our blog! And if you’re looking to broadcast your brand, Push Button Creative Audio has all the right tools to revamp your audio.
