Nielsen Reports: Radio is Still Where Most Americans Hear New Music First

Surprised? ... But it looks like YouTube is gaining 

REUTERS - Video hasn't yet killed the radio star after all, although YouTube has taken over as the place where most teens listen to music, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Nielsen's Music 360 report found that radio is still the place where most people (48 percent) discover new music, compared to just 7 percent for YouTube.

But once they have found it, 64 percent of teens listen to music through YouTube, the popular video-sharing website owned by Google Inc .


Even so, old-fashioned radio -- whose demise was marked in the 1979 hit single "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles -- is still a big player in the music industry.

The report found that 56 percent of teens listen to music on the radio while 53 percent use Apple Inc's iTunes music player and half of teens still listen to music on compact discs, or CDs.

Despite the plethora of social networking, blogs and endorsements, 54 percent of the 3,000 Americans surveyed for the report said they are more likely to buy music on the recommendation of a friend than the endorsement of a music chat room or blog.

The report also found that only 36 percent of teens bought a physical CD in the last year, compared to 51 percent who purchased some kind of digital download.

The findings reflect a 3 percent slump in U.S. album sales in the first six months of 2012 from 2011, and a 6 percent rise in digital song sales, Nielsen SoundScan reported in July. (Reporting by Jill Serjeant, Editing by Gary Crosse)

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