Audio Sources

Where did everyday music come from in 2012? Audio Sources describe those distribution channels by means of which music is purchased, archived and made accessible. This includes physical recordings (CD, LP, MC etc.), electronic services in terms of downloading and streaming of digital music (iTunes, last.fm, Spotify etc.) as well as traditional radio reception and last but not least musical content on websites or digital storage media.

Even in 2012 radio reception represents by far the most frequently accessed Audio Source in everyday life within German population: Nearly 80 % used radio reception at least once per week for music listening. The CD follows second in rank with a total of 43 % and is thus the most regularly used physical recording for at least weekly music playback. Next in line are free of charge video-sharing websites like Youtube, Vimeo and Dailymotion which are frequented by 27 % of the Germans at least once a week in order to listen to music. In other terms video-sharing websites are 2012’s most important digital distribution channel for music in Germany, followed by Internet radio with a total of 14 %. Internal memory within mobile devices, portable flash drives as well as self compiled CDs outperform cassette and vinyl records concerning the frequency of use. Still, these “traditional” analog recordings are surprisingly well ahead of music streaming services such as Spotify, Simfy (4 %) and personal web radio, e.g. LastFM and Pandora (2 %). A bit more regularly used are various music playback services like websites and blogs (6 %), web based music cloud provider (7 %) and music files on external hard drives as well as on file servers (each 11 %).

Please access data on the complementary aspects of audio media usage (Audio Devices, Audio Emitters) via the Data Browser on the right-hand side.