New study shows teens listen to music most through YouTube, radio still dominates music discovery

A new study from Nielsen that surveyed 3,000 online participants has revealed that teens are using YouTube as their largest source for consuming music and that radio is still the dominant way people are discovering new music. Here are the stastics for both categories:

How teens listen to music:
64% of teens listen to music through YouTube
56% of teens listen to music on the radio
53% of teens listen to music through iTunes
50% of teens listen to music on CD

How people discover music:
48% discover music most often through the radio
10% discover music most often through friends/relatives
7% discover music most often through YouTube

Other statistics released show that recommendations from a friend are the strongest, music player applications outweigh radio apps on smartphones, males prefer rock while females prefer top 40 and digital music is seen to have better value than a CD. You can view the full statistics here, which have been copied below:

Positive recommendations from a friend are most likely to influence purchase decisions
54% are more likely to make a purchase based off a positive recommendation from a friend
25% are more likely to make a purchase based off a music blog/chat rooms
12% are more likely to make a purchase based off an endorsement from a brand
8% of all respondents share music on social networking sites, while 6% upload music.

Music player apps are most prevalent, followed by radio and music store apps
54% have music player apps on their smartphones
47% have radio apps on their smartphones
26% have music store apps on their smartphones

Males purchase rock music most often, while females prefer top 40
38% of males purchase rock most often
15% of females (compared to 9% of males) purchase top 40 most often

Digital music is seen as a slightly better value than a physical CD
63% of purchasers identified digital albums as a very or fairly good value
61% identified digital tracks as a very or fairly good value
55% identified physical CDs as a very or fairly good value

Younger consumers who do buy digital tracks, are more likely to purchase new music immediately after its release
33% of teens purchased a digital track within one week of release
21% of persons 18+ purchased a digital track within one week of release
36% of teens have bought a CD in the last year; 51% of teens have purchased some kind of music download

18-24 year olds are most likely to attend a music event (among those who attend any type of live event)
7% attending once a week or more
30% attending once a month

Although 18-24 year olds attend more live events, teens are more likely to purchase T-shirts and posters while there.
54% (compared to 46% of 18-24 year olds) of teen attendees purchase concert tees
14% (compared to 7% of 18-24 year olds) of teen attendees purchase concert posters

Listeners enjoy hearing movie soundtracks over music related TV shows or video games
42% enjoy hearing music via music related TV show
59% enjoy hearing music via movie soundtracks
28% enjoy hearing music via music related video games

Older consumers have decreased their spending the most during the current economy
41% of respondents 55+ reduced their spending to a large degree=
39% of respondents 45-54 reduced their spending to a large degree
Only 28% of respondents age 25-34 reduced their spending to a large degree