Radio remains an important part of young people’s media habits, with new research suggesting Gen Z values the medium partly because it removes some of the pressure associated with sharing music online.
Research commissioned by iHeartMedia found younger listeners are particularly likely to use radio when listening with other people, with 85% of Gen Z respondents saying they feel less likely to be judged for their music choices while listening to radio with others.
The US study, carried out through Critical Mass Media, examined Gen Z’s relationship with audio amid growing concerns among younger people about how they present themselves online.
Seven in ten respondents said they worry about being judged for the music they play, more than double the proportion among listeners aged 35 and over.
Meanwhile, 40% said they had previously decided against posting something they cared about on social media because they feared how their peers might react, while 44% said they had reduced their use of social media.
Radio appears to offer a more neutral shared experience.
Some 84% of Gen Z respondents said they default to radio when travelling in a car with other people, while 63% said they frequently or almost always listen to radio with others. Across radio listeners as a whole, the equivalent figure was 42%.
The research also suggests traditional radio is continuing to play a role in music discovery. Around 68% of Gen Z respondents were more likely than older generations to see radio as a way of discovering new music, while 91% said radio gives their friendship groups something to talk about.
Separate US audience figures quoted alongside the research show broadcast radio reaching 90% of teenagers aged 13 to 19 each month, compared with 75% for YouTube, 58% for TikTok and 26% for the advertising-supported version of Spotify.
Edison Research’s Share of Ear figures also attribute 47% of Gen Z’s advertising-supported audio listening to radio, compared with 31% for streaming music and 21% for podcasts.
Lainie Fertick, President of Insights at iHeartMedia, said the findings challenged the assumption that teenagers primarily wanted media experiences tailored specifically to them.
She said younger listeners were instead finding value in radio as a shared experience where their individual tastes were not constantly being assessed by other people.
The findings are based on research into American listeners, so cannot be directly applied to young audiences in the UK. However, they offer an interesting counterpoint to the frequently repeated suggestion that younger audiences are moving entirely away from traditional radio towards social media and on-demand audio.
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