Substitutability and complementarity of broadcast radio and music streaming services: The millennial perspective

Abstract

Digital technologies have redefined how people use audio media, especially for the millennial audience segment. Faced with the challenge from streaming music, many broadcast radio stations have launched their own mobile apps to compete with the new audio services such as Spotify. Guided by the uses and gratifications conceptual framework, this study employed a national survey to investigate millennials’ perceptions of the substitutability and complementarity of broadcast radio, its apps, and music streaming services. The results showed that while radio listeners perceived broadcast radio and its apps as similar products, they regarded music streaming services as distinct from the two. In addition, this study examined motivators behind the diverse perceptions and identified information, escapism, entertainment, and socialization as important. The results suggest that radio stations should take advantage of the mobile technology and offer unique values through their apps, rather than duplicate the offline consumption experience.

Keywords

audio media millennial mobile apps music streaming services radio U&G

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Albarran

A. B.

Anderson

Bejar

L. G.

Bussart

A. L.

Daggett

Gibson

. . . Way

(2007). “What happened to our audience?” Radio and new technology uses and gratifications among young adult users. Journal of Radio Studies, 14(2), 92–101.

Alnawas

Aburub

(2016). The effect of benefits generated from interacting with branded mobile apps on consumer satisfaction and purchase intentions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 31, 313–322.

Augenstein

(2015). Broadcasters are missing a huge mobile opportunity: Engagement in apps. Retrieved from http://mediashift.org/2015/01/broadcasters-are-missing-huge-mobile-opportunity-engagement-in-apps/

Belcher

J. D.

Haridakis

(2013). The role of background characteristics, music-listening motives, and music selection on music discussion. Communication Quarterly, 61(4), 375–396.

Bentley

J. M.

(2012). A uses and gratifications study of contemporary Christian radio web sites. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 19(1), 2–16.

Bondad-Brown

B. A.

Rice

R. E.

Pearce

K. E.

(2012). Influences on TV viewing and online user-shared video use: Demographics, generations, contextual age, media use, motivations, and audience activity. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 56(4), 471–493.

Cataldo

J. K.

(2016). High-risk older smokers’ perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about lung cancer screening. Cancer Medicine, 5(4), 753–759.

Cha

Chan-Olmsted

S. M.

(2012). Substitutability between online video platforms and television. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 89(2), 261–278.

Colapinto

Manzi

(2016). Music listening in the twenty-first century: Italian consumer attitudes to Internet radio. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 14(2), 213–229.

10.

Deahl

(2019). People are complaining that Spotify’s new interface buries the repeat button. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/19/18230222/spotifys-new-interface-repeat-button-user-complaint

11.

Dimmick

Kline

Stafford

(2000). The gratification niches of personal e-mail and the telephone: Competition, displacement, and complementarity. Communication Research, 27(2), 227–248.

12.

Dutta-Bergman

M. J.

(2004). Complementarity in consumption of news types across traditional and new media. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 48(1), 41–60.

13.

Ferguson

D. A.

Greer

C. F.

Reardon

M. E.

(2007). Uses and gratifications of MP3 players by college students: Are iPods more popular than radio? Journal of Radio Studies, 14(2), 102–121.

14.

First Research. (2017). Radio broadcasting and programming industry profile. Retrieved from http://www.firstresearch.com/Industry-Research/Radio-Broadcasting-and-Programming.html

15.

Flavián

Gurrea

(2007). Perceived substitutability between digital and physical channels: The case of newspapers. Online Information Review, 31(6), 793–813.

16.

Free

D. A.

(2005, August). New radio: A turn on for young adults and a turn off for AM and FM? Paper presented at the annual conference of the Association for Journalism and Mass Communication, San Antonio, TX.

17.

Freire

A. M.

(2007). Remediating radio: Audio streaming, music recommendation and the discourse of radioness. The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 5(2–3), 97–112.

18.

Hampton-Sosa

(2017). The impact of creativity and community facilitation on music streaming adoption and digital piracy. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 444–453.

19.

Harrie

(2017). Radio listening in the Nordic countries 2016. Retrieved from https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/latest/news/radio-listening-nordic-countries-2016

20.

IBISWorld. (2017). IBISWorld industry report 51511: Radio broadcasting in the US. Retrieved from http://clients1.ibisworld.com/reports/us/industry/competitivelandscape.aspx?entid=1258

21.

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). (2019). IFPI global music report 2019. Retrieved from https://www.ifpi.org/news/IFPI-GLOBAL-MUSIC-REPORT-2019

22.

Jacobs

(2016). A tale of two pureplays. Retrieved from https://jacobsmedia.com/tale-two-pure-plays/

23.

Jacobs Media. (2017). Techsurvey13 results: How commercial radio listeners consume media. Retrieved from http://jacobsmedia.com/techsurvey-13-results/

24.

Jauert

Ala-Fossi

Föllmer

Lax

Murphy

(2017). The future of radio revisited: Expert perspectives and future scenarios for radio media in 2025. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 24(1), 7–27.

25.

Kattoula

(2017). 4 reasons why your radio station should have a mobile app. Retrieved from https://jacapps.com/blog/4-reasons-why-your-radio-station-should-have-a-mobile-app/

26.

Katz

Blumler

J. G.

Gurevitch

(1973). Uses and gratifications research. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 37(4), 509–523.

27.

Katz

Haas

Gurevitch

(1973). On the use of the mass media for important things. American Sociological Review, 38(2), 164–181.

28.

Kemp

(2019). Digital 2019: Global Internet use accelerates. Retrieved from https://wearesocial.com/blog/2019/01/digital-2019-global-internet-use-accelerates

29.

Kinnally

Lacayo

McClung

Sapolsky

(2008). Getting up on the download: College students’ motivations for acquiring music via the web. New Media & Society, 10(6), 893–913.

30.

Cho

C.-H.

Roberts

M. S.

(2005). Internet uses and gratifications: A structural equation model of interactive advertising. Journal of Advertising, 34(2), 57–70.

31.

Krause

A. E.

North

A. C.

Heritage

(2014). The uses and gratifications of using Facebook music listening applications. Computers in Human Behavior, 39, 71–77.

32.

LaRose

Lin

C. A.

Eastin

M. S.

(2003). Unregulated Internet usage: Addiction, habit, or deficient self-regulation? Media Psychology, 5(3), 225–253.

33.

Lee

S.-Y.

Lee

S.-W.

(2015). Online video services and other media: Substitutes or complement. Computers in Human Behavior, 51, 293–299.

34.

Lee

Kuo

E. C. Y.

(2002). Internet and displacement effect: Children’s media use and activities in Singapore. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 7(2). doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2002.tb00143.x

35.

Lin

C. A.

(2001). Audience attributes, media supplementation, and likely online service adoption. Mass Communication and Society, 4(1), 19–38.

36.

Lin

C. A.

(2006). Predicting satellite radio adoption via listening motives, activity, and format preference. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 50(1), 140–159.

37.

Lin

C. A.

(2009). Exploring the online radio adoption decision-making process: Cognition, attitude, and technology fluidity. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 86(4), 884–899.

38.

Lonsdale

A. J.

North

A. C.

(2011). Why do we listen to music? A uses and gratifications analysis. British Journal of Psychology, 102(1), 108–134.

39.

Luck

(2016). The psychology of streaming: Exploring music listeners’ motivations to favour access over ownership. International Journal of Music Business Research, 5, 46–61.

40.

McClung

Pompper

Kinnally

(2007). The functions of radio for teens: Where radio fits among youth media choices. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 15(2), 103–119.

41.

Mendelsohn

(1964). Listening to the radio. In Dexter

L. A.

White

D. M.

(Eds.), People, society, and mass communications (pp. 239–249). New York, NY: Free Press of Glencoe.

42.

Meyer

(2016). Millennials as digital natives: Myths and realities. Retrieved from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/millennials-digital-natives/

43.

Miller

L. S.

(2017). Paradigm shift: Why radio must adapt to the rise of digital. Retrieved from http://musonomics.com/musonomics_report_paradigm_shift_why_radio_must_adapt_to_the_rise_of_digital_08.29.2017.pdf

44.

Moody

Greer

Linn

(2003). Public radio station web sites and their users. Journal of Radio Studies, 10(2), 255–261.

45.

Mulligan

(2018). Sweden might just have shown us what the future of music revenues will look like. Retrieved from https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/sweden-might-just-have-shown-us-what-the-future-of-the-music-revenues-will-look-like/

46.

Nielsen. (2016). Audio today: A focus on network radio. Retrieved from https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/report/2016/audio-today-focus-on-network-radio/

47.

Nielsen. (2017a). Millennials on millennials: Digital music and communication. Retrieved from https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/report/2017/millennials-on-millennials-digital-music-and-communication/

48.

Nielsen. (2017b). State of the media: Audio today 2017. Retrieved from http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2017/state-of-the-media-audio-today-2017.html

49.

Nielsen. (2017c). The Nielsen total audience report: Q1 2017. Retrieved from https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/report/2017/the-nielsen-total-audience-report-q1-2017/

50.

Perse

E. M.

Dunn

D. G.

(1998). The utility of home computers and media use: Implications of multimedia and connectivity. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 42(4), 435–456.

51.

Pew Research Center. (2006). The state of the news media 2006. Retrieved from http://assets.pewresearch.org.s3.amazonaws.com/files/journalism/State-of-the-News-Media-Report-2006-FINAL.pdf

52.

Priestman

(2002). Web radio: Radio production for Internet streaming. Oxford, UK: Focal Press.

53.

Resler

(2017, April 14). 7 mistakes radio stations make with their mobile apps [Web log message]. Retrieved from https://jacobsmedia.com/common-mistakes-radio-stations-make-with-their-mobile-apps/

54.

Rogers

E. M.

(1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). New York, NY: The Free Press.

55.

Rosales

R. G.

(2013). Citizen participation and the uses of mobile technology in radio broadcasting. Telematics and Informatics, 30(3), 252–257.

56.

Ruggiero

T. E.

(2000). Uses and gratifications theory in the 21st century. Mass Communication and Society, 3(1), 3–37.

57.

Seo

W. J.

Green

B. C.

(2008). Development of the Motivation Scale for Sport Online Consumption. Journal of Sport Management, 22(1), 82–109.

58.

Spotify. (2018). What’s new with Spotify Premium. Retrieved from https://newsroom.spotify.com/2018–10–18/whats-new-with-spotify-premium/

59.

Stark

Weichselbaum

(2013). What attracts listeners to Web radio? A case study from Germany. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 11(2), 185–202.

60.

Statista. (2017). Reach of selected social networks in the United States as of February 2017, by age group. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/305245/us-social-network-penetration-age-group/

61.

Stewart

(2018). Radio: Revenue, reach, and resilience. Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/industry/technology/technology-media-and-telecom-predictions/radio-revenue.html

62.

Towers

W. M.

(1987). Radio listenership and uses and gratifications: A replication. Communication Research Reports, 4(1), 57–64.