Today's Country: A 55/45 Gender Balance, Younger And More Female

Tom Taylor at Radio-Info:

"Country has been courting younger women lately and that seems to show up in the CMA study. But isn’t there a risk of losing older guys, once a stronghold for country? The format’s always resisted fragmentation, but it may be getting there on a de facto basis."

1. “CountryPhiles” tend to be Caucasian, married, and living in a smaller town.

Leo Burnett’s Carol Foley says “protecting and more fully leveraging this group should be the country music industry’s top priority, because even small erosion among this group has substantial negative revenue implications.”

2. “MusicPhiles” like other musical genres, too to lean male (55%) and are younger, more diverse (sometimes Hispanic) and more urban.

Starcom MediaVest’s Jana O’Brien says “they like country more than they love it.”

The CMA study identifies five groups among the “low funders”, and says “Today’s Traditional” (“CountryPhiles in training”) and “Pop Country” (very urban, responding to new, female, pop-leaning country artists; MusicPhiles in training”) are the two most promising sub-groups in terms of future revenues. 39% of adults 18-54 are “country music fans.”