Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Dave Van Dyke: Pandora TSL Drop Is Due To Boredom

The newer the Pandora consumer the higher the satisfaction level. Over time, though, the satisfaction level is affected by "fatigue or boredom." Make no mistake that even those Pandora users who have been using the service for more than three years, retain high levels of satisfaction, but responses for the service being "Just OK", "Somewhat Dissatisfied" and "Very Dissatisfied" increase the longer the user experiences the service.

The Bridge Ratings President blogs that this is "The Decade of Radio Cannibalism."

Terrestial radio has it problems, but - fortunately for us in 2010 - a "bored" audience isn't one of them (at least not yet).

Lets resolve to improve our content and entertainment value to keep today's loyal listeners engaged.

3 comments:

Mike Brooks said...

Jaye,

Encouraging news for radio in that survey. I think that there's little doubt among radio programmers that we need to keep it local and interesting but darn few of them are "walking the walk".
The bean counters still rule and the siren call of voice tracking still trumps "live and local". How do we break the vicious cycle. Soon enough there will be dashboard "radios" that can surf the web and place literally thousands of "radio stations" including Pandora, at your fingertips.

Tom Webster said...

I worry about studies like this, because they tempt the broadcaster to lean back and say "look, see--Pandora's a fad." Nothing could be further from the truth, as Clear Channel, CBS and other webcasters can attest, since Pandora is cleaning their clocks right now online.

First of all, we don't really have a benchmark for these numbers. How would overall satisfaction look for your station over a three year period? Do you think it might show declines as the "halo" effects wear off? Of course it would. The only way these numbers have meaning is if we can see a comparison of "satisfaction over time" between terrestrial radio (or webcasts of terrestrial radio) and Pandora--you might find that Pandora's "eroding" satisfaction levels are actually better than you think. Or not--you can't tell from this data.

But the more sinister bias of this conclusion is that the longer you expose a body of listeners to Pandora, the more "bored" or dissatisfied they are likely to become. Unfortunately, that assumes facts not in evidence with this study.

Facebook Thread said...

Bobbie Ashley
.. nope something new everyday!!!! I also seem to learn new things about people too at the station!

Scott Innes
what i love about radio today! Is the fact that everything They told US not to do Years Ago is in fact what they are TELLING US to do today!!! lol

Scott Innes
Jaye..My son Josh 23 just took a Job at Kilt in Houston. Sports Radio 610. Doing Sports Up-dates for the Morning show and host hi own show from 10-11am. A chip off the old block i might ad. lol

Stacey Cohen
..so interesting yesterday was in the car with my 19 year old he plugged his phone into my car radio and said this is Pandora and explained it like a radio station that you program yourself. I really had no clue what it was heard about it but never really paid attention to it. I said it seems like an ipod to me.. He said he had it on his other phone... He seemed to really like it. He just got this phone this week had the other for two years and he said he used to use it in school when he was allowed to listen to music so I would say he fits the profile of having it for a few years and very satisfied with it.

Paul Jerome Orr
Okay, so my lesson for the day is keep it interesting. Agreed.

Also, each time we put a listener on who simply states their name and city (or maybe where they work, or what part of town they're in)....we strengthen our brand. People like being part of something bigger than themselves.
camaraderie - a spirit of friendly good fellowship - this is our great advantage over Pandora and Ipod

Thanks Jaye, I'm now heading to update my listener drops and thank my morning guy for the cool Carrie Underwood nugget he shared with US this morning.

Kent Schumaker
Great Read, Jaye.