Kaiser: MP3 Players (41 minutes a day) #1 With Teens, Radio And Their Comupter #2 (32 Minutes Per Day)

The transformation of the cell phone into a media content delivery platform, and the widespread adoption of the iPod and other MP3 devices, have facilitated an explosion in media consumption among American youth. players.

A national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that with technology allowing nearly 24-hour media access as children and teens go about their daily lives, the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth.

Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time 'media multitasking' (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

Generation M²: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds is the third in a series of large-scale, nationally representative surveys by the Foundation about young people's media use. It includes data from all three waves of the study (1999, 2004, and 2009), and is among the largest and most comprehensive publicly available sources of information about media use among American youth.

Nielsen: Teen Media Habits Still Include Radio And Country Ranks #3

Nic Covey, director of insights for The Nielsen Company at the annual What Teens Want Conference:

Not totally lost to digital, radio is still the primary source of music consumption for 16% of teens and a secondary source for 21% of teens, globally.

Considering that teens may find themselves in older cars not yet equipped to play from their MP3 player and that radio still serves as an information source for local social happenings of extra relevance to teens, some degree of radio listenership should be expected. And while not the most popular source of audio consumption, radio preferences can still give us a broader perspective into the musical tastes of today’s teens.

In the U.S., a 2008 study by Scarborough Research showed that “Pop Contemporary Hit Radio” was the most popular format among older teens 18–20 (listened to by 40% of this segment), followed by Rhythmic Contemporary and Country.

While radio, records, 8-tracks, cassettes and CD players had their generations, this is the generation of the MP3 player. Already today, the MP3 player is the top method of music consumption for teens around the world. Thirty-nine percent of teens globally say it is their primary method of listening to music, followed not by CDs or radio, but the home computer, which is the primary source of music for 33% of teens globally. Forty-five percent of teens globally say they listen to five or more hours of music per week on their computer; 12% say they listen to 20 hours or more.

Click to read the report (pdf).

Reaching Out To Teens, Hoping They Turn On HD Radio

Take a look, and a listen, to two innovative approaches:

.. at Greater Media, Boston

.. at Delmarva Broadcasting in Wilmington

Note how viral they are trying to be. Social networking, and NO corporate logos anywhere to be seen. Although, of course, viral is when they tell their friends about US.. not just US trying to get them to do so, but these two seem well worth keeping an eye on. Have you heard anything new lately to bring teens back to the traditional radio dial which impressed YOU?