One of the most important sections in our Sponsorship and Advertising Youth Culture Lifestyle Report 2008 is about music. This is because many trends often originate within certain new subcultures of music, including the influence of musicians, which effect fans and result in a snowball effect that can lead to designers and others to recreate style or trends and often claiming them as their “own.”
When it comes to sponsorship and advertising, music has a tremendous impact on global youth culture. Results to this question quantify that direct relationship and the importance of understanding different subcultures in music, as well as where trends are headed towards reaching specific markets through brand association with music and musicians. Overall, when asked “Does music have an impact on the types of products that you buy?” among a representative sampling of thousands of 13-25-year-olds across North America, 72.6% say that music has an impact on the types of products that they buy. 27.4% say No.
73.3% of females say Yes, music has an impact compared with 70.1% of males, which is up considerably for both genders with 58.2% of females saying Yes last year compared with 57.3% of males last year. Overall, both genders are clearly influenced by music and music in terms of impacting their product purchasing decisions. 
By age groups, you can see the direct correlations based on age whereby younger demographics have higher percentages that are influenced by music in their purchasing decisions, peaking among 13-14-year-olds at 78.8% which is up from 68.6% last year, and decreasing to 64.5% among 21-25-year-olds, which is also up from 51.9% last year. However looking at the results by age, all ages are influenced by music in their purchasing decisions.
Together, these questions indicate the importance of brands to work in combination with music, including sponsorship, artists’ support, products such as merch, record labels, and also discovering emerging trends in music and new subcultures that are driving new trends within youth culture today.
For more information about the Sponsorship and Advertising Effectiveness Profile Report 2008, email info@labelnetworks.com; (323) 630-4000.
