I would assume most people are listening to MP3s, internet or satellite streaming music, and vinyl/CDs nowadays. If so, why do people still listen to FM music stations?
Force of habit and local traffic would be my guess. That and they’re free as opposed to your other choices.
I’d say that your assumption is very, very far off from reality.
Same reason AM music stations still exist. People who aren’t allowed or don’t have the capability to listen to MP3s, tapes, records, discs, or streaming feeds still exist.
People are still driving around in cars without satellite radio or phone connectors. My last car that I still had just 6 months ago had neither of those, but it did have a CD changer, but I quickly got tired of having CDs around to listen to (because I wasn’t buying new CDs!)
A lot of the time now when I get in my car if my phone bluetooth doesn’t take over for me and start playing music, I just listen to the radio. For a while I was enjoying one station’s afternoon drive talk show, so my radio was tuned to that when I was in the car whether or not it was afternoon drive time.
Also some of the local music stations now are the “FM home of the [sports team]!” so I’ll have the radio tuned there for a game and keep it on later when I get in the car again.
I have satellite radio but it came free with the car and I don’t want to get too attached to it, so I don’t want to pay for it when the free sub runs out.
Also, since there is so much streaming and MP3ing going on inside my house, I’m tired of it even tho I have 30,000 songs. And I’m not hearing anything new, or anything pop-classic. So hearing what’s on FM radio is a bit of freshness.
Anyway, for me - cars and inertia.
What better way to hear a wide variety of new artists and songs for free, so you know what music to get later?
I listen to an FM music station about half the time when I’m in the car. I’m not going to pay for satellite radio when I can get music for free. I very rarely buy MP3s, and I’ve never really explored the streaming service options. FM radio music is good enough for my purposes. I don’t really see any reason to do anything else.
The morning local shock jock is pretty good in my area and NPR gives me local news in the morning.
For the drive home I switch to MP3 or podcasts.
Recorded media have coexisted with music radio since there has been music radio. New forms of recorded media evolving with time (LP->CD->MP3->etc.) have not changed that.
Another OP who thinks every one should be just like them because they are so damn perfect.
I might not go that far, but it sure has a “let them eat cake” ring to it.
Bingo. If I wanted to listen over and over again to the same stuff I’ve been listening to for the past fifty years, I wouldn’t need a radio. But I really like hearing good new music, and I tend to do this while driving because it’s a good time to listen to music. And since there are a couple of good stations I can listen to, I don’t feel the need to pay for Sirius.
FM sounds better than SiriusXM for music. And HD radio has good sound plus the ability to pause and rewind.
This will almost certainly come as a shock to the OP, but I don’t really “listen” to music the same way as when I was in my 20s. I no longer jump to get every new release, put on my headphones, crank it up to 11, and listen to figure out on which tracks the lead guitarist uses a genuine pre-1970 Stratocaster and on which he settles for for his everyday Squire.
These days, I mostly listen to music for pleasant, non-involving background sound. I certainly don’t see any need to pay for streaming or satellite radio. Sure, sometimes on a long trip I’ll listen to mp3, but the other 95% of the time, conventional radio works just fine.
Personally, the only time I ever listen to the radio is in the car. And it’s generally AM sports talk radio. If they had any political talk besides right, far right, and insane, I might listen but alas, no luck. Once in a blue moon I’ll turn FM on for classical music. At home, I never turn the radio on. Besides cars and workplaces, I don’t think radio has much of an audience anymore. But in the car, FM and AM are free, satellite radio costs money. I’ll take free.
This is a golden age for actual human radio broadcasting. College stations, free form stations, all have apps that you can listen to anywhere in the world, on your phone. Their shows are archived so you don’t even have to listen in real time. WFMU, WMBR, WZBC, WCBN are all audible outside their local areas, internationally.This condition is completely new in history.
What is the alternative to FM radio?
Youtube, Pandora, Sirius, MP3s?
I prefer a human touch in broadcasting. Someone who is into music can’t rely on algorithms or computers to tell them what to listen to next.
I don’t have satellite or internet capabilities in my car. I will listen to MP3s, but sometimes I want to hear something different, and that’s what radio is for. It’s always there, and it’s free.
I still hear FM radio all the time at office workplaces and shops/eateries (especially the mom ‘n’ pop kind).
A lot of people, probably most, aren’t enthusiastic enough about music to be highly selective and compile a library of what they listen to, especially in their car, or to pay the cost of subscribing to any other source of lisetning, even if their car is not equipped for it, and many aren’t… They just turn the ignition key and their favorite country music station comes on,free, and it’s good enough.