For the first time, more than half of Americans that are 12-years-old or over listen to internet radio.
According to “The New Mainstream,” a study by Edison Research and funded by the Streaming Audio Task Force, 53 percent of adults that are online listen to internet radio. While this certainly reinforces the obvious fact that internet radio is gaining a strong foothold as a medium of choice in the music industry, there are a couple of disclaimers we need to explore first before looking deeper into the study.
- The Streaming Audio Task Force is a group put together by Spotify, Pandora and TuneIn to produce market research on internet radio-related topics. Obviously those companies have a clear vested interest in their subject matter.
- The study is referring to “internet radio” as, basically, any way a user streams music online. This includes the classic definition of internet radio, labeled here as Personalized Radio (example: Pandora), as well as Live Streaming (example: iHeartRadio) and On-Demand Streaming (example: Spotify). Lumping these three groups together is something not typically done when looking at the listening patterns of internet users, not just because of the different types of listening experiences each provides, but also because they also are separated when it comes to legal classification.
Regardless, the new information shows a great growth in the digital music industry. In fact, another study researched listening habits during the first two months of this year and found that only 45 percent of users were listening to internet radio (as defined by the Streaming Audio Task Force).
It should also be pointed out that information making up “The New Mainstream” study comes from before iTunes Radio was released as a new competitor to Pandora in the Personalized Radio market. While it is unclear as yet how big of a player Apple’s service will become, it already has made a big splash with more than 11 million users tuning in during the first week the service was available.
Breaking the numbers down further, the survey finds that the most popular internet radio format is Personalized Radio, with 39 percent of online users listening to this platform. Streaming Live is next with 27 percent of online users, and On-Demand streaming follows with 18 percent. Obviously there is some overlap of listeners among the three platforms.
It’s also interesting that the study points out how users listen to online radio, particularly how big of a force mobile is. While 78 percent listen to online radio on their computer, 70 percent of those that listen to internet radio also listen to it on a smartphone.
Certainly internet radio has long been a threat to traditional AM/FM radio, as well satellite radio, and that threat may be even bigger now that so many listen to the radio online. However, while 67 percent of users say they listen to more online radio than they did a year ago, 81 percent they listen to the same or more over-the-air AM/FM radio than they did in the same period. Could it be that online radio is not a replacement for airwave radio, but rather a complement to it? As with most things in the digital music sphere, time will tell.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
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3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
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5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
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7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
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