One quarter of all at-work AM/FM Radio listeners listen using headphones or earbuds
In 1997, Edison Research’s groundbreaking “Radio Goes to Work: The At-Work Listening Study” shattered many of the myths about at-work listening that had been prevalent for decades. “At-Work” listening, the study found, didn’t always mean 9-to-5 or “in-office,” and it wasn’t only for women. It also didn’t mean “forced listening” to “the station the whole office can agree on”; the overwhelming majority chose their own at-work radio station.
Sixteen years later, media usage at work is far more complicated than “who chooses the radio station?” On Sept. 20, 2013 at 10:50 a.m., Edison Research will debut “What’s Working At Work?” as part of the NAB/RAB Radio Show in Orlando, Fla. The presentation is sponsored by online radio platform Radionomy. The study is the result of a national survey of 1,043 Adults age 18 and over who work full or part time.
Edison Research president Larry Rosin says the new study “will be a comprehensive study of media usage at work in 2013, from AM/FM radio, whether over-the-air, on a desktop or a mobile device, to Pandora, Spotify, Sirius/XM Satellite Radio, respondents’ own music collections, online video and even television Where does radio fit in and how can it ‘protect its turf’? What are the strategies that anyone trying to build at-work listening must follow now?
“When we fielded our study in 1997, only 16% of workers ever accessed the Internet while on the job. Today the percentage is 73%. This has brought enormous shifts in at-work audio usages, which our presentation at The Radio Show will display,” Rosin said. “One small finding of potentially great significance – 26% of those who say they listen to AM/FM Radio while at work listen using headphones or earbuds. Among younger workers this number is much higher.”
Radionomy CEO Alexandre Saboundjian says, “This is valuable information for current and prospective Radionomy broadcasters—and for all broadcasters. It helps each of these groups understand how many people they can reach through online radio on a daily basis. In addition, this study provides an important message which we can take to advertisers who are interested in partnering with Radionomy. This study shows that people depend on content from online radio platforms every day.”