Mayumi -- my prayers are with you guys.
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On the topic of radio.....the audience is large and up in 2012 from 2011.
"In addition to increasing its audience of persons aged 12 and older, young radio listeners also increased slightly with persons aged 12 to 17 at 22.8 million weekly listeners. Adults aged 18 to 34 showed the largest increase year over year, adding 845,000 weekly radio listeners. Adults aged 18 to 49 and Adults aged 25-54 showed year over year declines in weekly radio listening. Radio attracts 126.3 million adults aged 18 to 49 and 119.9 million adults aged 25 to 54 on a weekly basis."
Link:
arbitron.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=822 BUT the growth in radio listeners is NOT in people who are likely to be Adam fans -- +1.8 million Spanish-language listeners and increase in black listeners to urban radio formats.
Adam's core market is "Adult Pop" -- and that is down on radio but still large.
Impressions on Pop radio often sound impressive, but you also need to look at reach -- and CHR/Pop radio reaches only about 5% of US adults. So a song with 123 million impressions might reach 10 million unique people, with an average frequency of 12.3 exposures to the song.
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Where do hits come from? -- some come from radio airplay,like Bruno Mars. But many big hits have come from the Internet. From Justin Bieber to Harlem Shake and Gangman Style to Thrift Shop -- a lot of stars and hits are being created on the Internet, not by radio.
And TV and Movies have been responsible for many stars and hits. We do not get Kelly Clarkson or songs like fun's "We Are Young" without TV. And would radio stations have ever played "Skyfall" if it was not in a movie?
Radio is an important push media for music discovery. But it is not the only path.