Music Can't Buy Me Love

Today sees the 50^th anniversary of the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack album hitting the top of the UK charts, where it stayed for 21 weeks before being toppled by their next LP.  No mean feat when you consider Ed Sheeran’s X is the longest stayer at number one so far in 2014 at only four weeks.

Being just 30 minutes long, today’s music buying audience might feel short-changed despite having 13 original compositions all from Lennon and McCartney, but the seven songs on side one arguably make up the finest film soundtrack of all time.  Side two is certainly not made up of fillers either.

1964 was an exciting time for British music on both sides of the Atlantic.  The pirate station, Radio Caroline, started broadcasting in the same year and the subject of legal and illegal methods of listening to music continues today.  The Ipsos MediaCT Technology Tracker reports that 9% of GB adults consume music via unofficial (pirate) digital means, but the growth area is through free legal streaming with 16% of adults (increase of 60% in three years).

With the likes of RadioPlayer and Spotify apps, the smartphone has enhanced accessibility for today’s generation of music lovers.  According to the Ipsos Global Trends Survey, 44% of adults across the 20 countries in the study listen to music on their smartphone, with Brazil being the highest at 61%.  Perhaps surprisingly, the UK and US both fall below the average at 36%.

That said, more UK adults now listen to the radio via online/apps than they do via their digital television.  According to a recent set of RAJAR’s MIDAS results, 44% of 25-34 year olds in the UK have used a radio app.  The underlying growth of mobile and out-of-home radio listening is providing the future driver to digital radio listening.

Whether it is 1964 or 2014, radio still has a strong presence in our lives. As a method of broadcasting music, both new and old, it is something money just can’t buy.