New York, NY — From gospel and the blues to jazz and hip hop, African-Americans have long shaped American music – and continue to do so. Listen Up: Music and the Multicultural Consumer is the latest report released as part of the Nielsen Diverse Intelligence Series. The report highlights how African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic consumers in the U.S. are discovering, buying, and interacting with music and offers additional insights with three breakout focused reports including Listen Up: African-American Consumers and Music.African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Hispanics – the “Multicultural” consumers – are taking the music industry by storm. According to current U.S. Census Bureau projections, the American consumer is increasingly the multicultural consumer; forecasted to become the majority of the U.S. population by 2043. Given that Multicultural consumers account for 31 percent of the total spend on music and, on average, spend $7 more on music than the total market, this growing group is increasingly influencing the music market.
Today, the African-American community is 44 million strong – that’s 14 percent of the total U.S. population. And this growing demographic is young: 53 percent of Blacks are under the age of 35, compared with 47 percent of the general population. This younger audience has an influence on music that is outsized to its share of the overall population; and as early adopters of technology, this engaged and connected group has the power to continue to inspire musical trends.
Young and digitally adept, African-American listeners have taken advantage of music streaming and online radio to satisfy their music tastes and share the experience on social media sites. Music brand integration is an ideal way for marketers to create a bond with existing and potential Black consumers.
The range of platforms for reaching this audience is wide and varied with Internet, mobile, TV, and radio being key platforms of engagement. As this demographic has influenced pop-culture and musical trends for decades, marketers that successfully use music to reach out to this connected and influential group will be poised for success in the marketplace.
A copy of both Listen Up: Music and the Multicultural Consumer and Listen Up: African-American Consumers and Music as well as the other two reports can be downloaded at www.nielsen.com (under Reports: Media and Entertainment).
About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA, and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.
PRESS CONTACT:
Flo McAfee
flo@summerlandstudio.com
202-486-3673