Backstage at Apple's App Store

After more than 30 million Apple App Store downloads there's some pretty interesting data about the apps that people buy vs. those which are free, the kind of apps they download (sports, games, etc), and how ad supported apps are working in the real word. Among other things, I found the statistics about usage once an app is downloaded enlightening--although not too surprising.

Some things to think about as radio forges forward with its digital plans.

iPhone AppStore Secrets - Pinch Media

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Coincidence?

eMarketer published a poll conducted by Harris Interactive chronicling the daily online activities of US college students which they defined as 18-30 years old. Keep in mind this survey does not include cell phones, pda's etc., so no text messaging. Quite honestly no real surprises here. So the reason I'm posting the results? The percentage of students that download music. 25%.

If you happened to watch my multimedia podcast not long ago you would have seen this graph:
It's the nationwide 10 year AQH Rating trend of 18-24 year olds from Arbitron. The shockingly steep decline was just shy of 25%. Hmmm.

• Daily music downloads 25%/Rating point decline 25%

For a significant portion of listeners of all ages, in the past, music discovery was an important part of the radio experience. These data suggest, at least in the abstract, that the music discovery component of radio may also be in significant decline. I have to admit I am guessing here, since it would be impossible to correlate that information from the available data. But, I think it's a good guess.

I can't say it enough, these 18-24's will be graduating into the 25-54 demo before we can blink and based on the declining numbers, unless some dramatic change happens, we won't be welcoming many of them into the P1 radio club.