Commercial radio driving music sales

by Emma Barnett, Media Week 02-Jul-08, 10:45

LONDON - Radio continues to be the biggest driver for both discovering new music and stimulating music purchases in the digital age, according to research from RadioCentre, the commercial radio industry body.

A total of 56% of respondents said they discover new music mostly from the radio, three times as many as the 17% who cite the internet. Only 13% said that TV was their main source.

Meanwhile, 71% of respondents also said that radio introduced them to an artist they would not have heard elsewhere, while 68% of respondents said that hearing music on the radio influenced them to go out and purchase it, compared to 24% for the internet and 22% for TV.

The internet and radio were shown to be working together in driving the purchase of music, with 57% of people researched saying they have downloaded a song as soon as they’ve heard it on the radio.

Forty-five per cent said they have researched a song on a site like MySpace before buying, while 44% said they have gone to a radio station’s website to find the name of a song playing there and then.

The research was unveiled at the Radio Festival in Glasgow and was carried out during April across six UK cities.