Consumers Favor The Internet Over FM Radio

InformationWeek: According to market research firm analyst Constantine Kambanis from TechnoMetrica, "Young adults are more inclined to go to the web than to traditional radio, but we're also finding that the whole U.S. population is starting to prefer the web. The shift is going up the age brackets and down the economic ladder...Currently, about 1 in 7 adults, representing 15 million households, say they listen to music from the web, rather than on the radio... Among young adults, that number jumps to nearly 1 in 3, or about 9 million people...There will always be people who want to listen to radio, but the numbers will be getting smaller."

The article also states that a major attraction of online music is its "customization" and that's what's really hurting traditional radio. Downloading music to a PC or digital music player gives a sense of ownership and permanence to the music that will be hard to compete with in the future...