Netflix & Pandora Top The List of Students’ Streaming Preferences, Others Not Too Far Behind.

July 8  – With online streaming options continuing to increase, and the big dogs snatching up music start-ups (or starting their own), we took a pulse of the student community to understand how and where this demographic prefers to get their music and movie content online.

Movie & TV Steaming

Netflix tops the list, with 65% of students using the service to watch movies & TV online.  Only 9% of students claim Amazon Instant Video as their preferred channel, the same amount as those who prefer to download their movies for free through peer-sharing sites like BitTorrent.

Music Streaming

Perhaps most impressive is Amazon’s rise to the crowded music-streaming sector within such a short period.  Since the company’s Prime Music announcement in early June, 4 in 10 students say they’re aware of the service, likely due to the company’s extensive reach to both students and parents.

Overall, Pandora reigns as the most popular music streaming service (42%), which was also dubbed the best value (41%).  Spotify falls to second in popularity at 31%, then iTunes at 22%.  Pandora also tops the list as the most used service at 39%.  Beats Music, Rdio and Amazon’s Prime Music all rank last, with less than 3% combined actually using these services.

As a demographic expecting variety and personalization, the degree of music selection with these services is paramount. iTunes leads this category with 40% of students saying they have the best music selection, with Pandora following at 27%, then Spotify at 26%.

Brand Trust

Brand trust still sits in Apple’s camp, with 34% of students preferring the tech giant most.  Amazon and Google follow in second and third place with 15% of students not trusting any of them.

Methodology:

We surveyed 468 students between June 18 and 19 attending 2 year, 4 year, and graduate schools from Chegg’s proprietary national panel of 15,000 students.    Data was weighted and quoted to national norms.    Data is accurate to within +/- 4.5% at the 95% confidence level.

Amazon Fire Phone Gets Students Excited, But They’re Not Ready to Switch

U.S. college students react to Amazon’s new phone, features and brand

June 26, 2014 – Last week, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, so we asked students to tell us what (if any) buzz the Fire Phone is generating on campus.

Most impressive for Amazon: Before the Fire announcement, only 1% of students considered Amazon to be the most innovative mobile electronics maker.  After the announcement, that number shot up to 23%, primarily at the expense of Apple and Samsung.

Overall, students expressed their excitement and surprise at the news, with half telling us they’d consider buying the phone.  Their number one feature, by a landslide, was Firefly technology, which allows users to identify phone numbers, QR/bar codes, movies & TV episodes, music, products and more with a dedicated image-capturing button.  Women were more likely than men to say they’re excited by Firefly, and men were more likely to say they were interested in MayDay than women.  MayDay is the company’s free, on-demand customer service offering on the Fire Phone. 

But, the new product didn’t sway customer loyalty in the phone market.  Forty-five percent of students, while excited about Amazon’s news, told us that the iPhone is the next phone they’re most likely to purchase next.  Samsung follows at 22%, then Amazon at 15%.

For more information, see our infographic below.

Women on College Campuses Feel Less Safe than Male Peers; Almost Twice as Many Women than Men Rank Assault as a Top Concern

Survey Reveals 6 in 10 Students Overall Worry about School Shootings; Striking Gender, Political Differences in Opinions about Safety, Prevention, and Media Hype of Campus Violence

What: Results of the latest student survey conducted by Chegg, The Student Hub, demonstrate the effect and influence recent school shootings and reports of campus violence have on the collective student body. As high profile school shootings and sexual assault reports have become a tragic, yet common, part of the American mainstream, Chegg asked students their feelings on the subject; particularly how safe they feel on campus, how they believe their schools are prepared to prevent violence, and whether or not they believe the news media have exaggerated the issues. The survey explored key themes and found:

Women are markedly more concerned about on-campus violence than men: Women also feel less strongly that their campuses are doing enough to prevent violence, including school shootings and nonlethal violence such as sexual assault:

• Asked how well their school does at preventing sexual assaults on campus 43% of female students believe their school is not doing enough, whereas nearly 7 in 10 (68%) male students believe they are doing enough.
• 41% of female students rank non-lethal assaults, including sexual assault, as a top concern on campus, while only 25% of male students do – that’s almost half. Conversely, 66% of male students rank property crimes as a top concerns, with only 48% of female students saying that.
• 51% of male students believe that the media exaggerates gun violence, compared with only 36% of female students agreeing with the same statement.

With this in mind, 45% of female students feel their school does not do enough to prevent gun violence, while only 36% of males feel likewise.

There are distinct differences along party lines as well:

• Conservative students feel most safe on campus, at 73%, while liberal students are slightly more cautious at 59%.
• Asked if their school does enough to prevent gun violence: 50% of liberal-leaning students say their school does enough, whereas 68% of conservative-leaning students believe that.
• Across the political spectrum, 65% of self-identified conservative students agree that the media exaggerates gun violence, while only 26% of liberals and 46% of moderates agree with the statement.

Students generally feel safe, but all have concerns:

• 56% of all students worry at least a little about school shootings; 9%, or nearly 1 in 10, students worry about school shootings a lot.
• In ranking on-campus safety concerns, together 55% of all students list property crimes as their top concern; 34% rank non-lethal assault (including sexual assault); only 10% of students rank gun violence as their top concern.
• 67% of all students report feeling safe on or near their campus.

Their real fears mean students aren’t overwhelmingly skeptical of media hype: The majority of students don’t believe media exaggerates gun violence in schools, and they also believe that gun violence results more from mental health issues vs. legislative controls. That said, they believe the country will likely enact stricter gun control measures:

• 58% of all students do not agree that the media exaggerates gun violence in schools.
• 69% of all students believe the epidemic in gun violence is more a product of mental health issues than it is a lack of suitable gun control legislation.
• 65% of all students believe the country is moving towards enacting, and ultimately will enact, stricter gun control measures.
• A significant minority (43%) of today’s college students would even be willing to give up their 2nd Amendment rights in order to have a safer society.

Why: Through its interactions with over 13 million high school and college students, Chegg has deep insight into the student landscape. As a student-first company, it’s Chegg’s prerogative to keep a constant pulse on the collective nationwide student mindset – from the brands they like, to the trends they follow, and even the differing views they have on the most recent news. While Chegg’s mission is to deliver tools and services to help this group be successful in their education, it’s paramount to also understand the other elements that make up the full student experience, because that also contributes to their long-term success.

How: Chegg polled its proprietary Cheggheads panel of more than 15,000 High School and College students. 1,765 students took the poll between June 12 and June 15. Data was weighted to national norms and is accurate +/- 2.3% at the 95% confidence level.

Introducing Cheggheads: A 15,000 Student-Strong Insight Community

High School & College Students React to Apple’s Purchase of Beats Music & Beats Electronics

As a student-first company, it’s our prerogative to keep a constant pulse on the collective nationwide student mindset – from the brands they like, to the trends they follow, and even the differing views they have on the most recent news. While we pride ourselves on delivering tools and services to help this group be successful in their education, it’s paramount we also understand the other elements that make up the full student experience, because that matters just as much to them and contributes to their long-term success.

The rate of innovation and change is faster than ever, and within the student sphere, trends, opinions and reactions can change by the day. So, we recruited 15,000 high school and college students across the nation who – via survey, live chat, quick polls or interviews – provide us with their up-to-date reactions. This means we (and you) will understand the collective student mindset on a particular topic as well as the breakdown of differing opinions, and why that matters – right away.

In the wake of Apple’s prominently covered acquisition of Beats Music & Beats Electronics, we reached out to the Cheggheads to understand their thoughts on the merger, how it affected both brands and if this move by the tech giant would change students’ purchasing behavior.

This is what they said:

Students know about the Beats brand, but don’t overwhelmingly use it.
• 99% of students know of Beats Electronics (presumably Beats by Dre headphones), but only 15% claim to currently use the brand.
• 3 out of 5 students (61%) have heard of Beats Music, but only 3% claim to use it.

The merger matters at a macro level, but doesn’t necessarily affect most students on a personal or micro level.
• 50% of students think the merger will make Apple more popular with students overall but only 18% believe it makes Apple more appealing to them personally.
• 38% of students think the merger will make Apple more “stylish” and 23% of students think it makes Apple more “cool”.

Most students think Apple bought Beats Music & Beats Electronics because of the company’s name recognition.
• 72% of students believe Apple bought Beats primarily because of its brand popularity; and 35% believe it was an “act of desperation”.
• Only one in five students (20%) believe Apple bought Beats for the company’s technology.

And while it’s hard to anticipate purchasing impact this early, students don’t think the merger is going to make them change their purchasing behavior:
• Headphones (17% more, 15% less)
• iPhones (9% more, 9% less)
• Mac (6% more, 8% less)

The positive impact seems to be in the streaming music space, where 17% said they’d be more likely to use iTunes or Beats Music versus 10%, who said they’d be less likely to do so.

Students know the Apple brand. They know the Beats brand. And they knew about the news, and had an opinion on how it impacted their lives. As news like this continues to break and trends change, we’ll provide regular student opinions via the Chegghead community because it’s our goal to be on top of the student pulse for you.

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Methodology: Chegg surveyed 1,450 members of the Cheggheads student feedback community between May 30 and June 1. The community is recruited from Chegg’s audience of more than 13 million high school and college students, then balanced and weighted to national norms on gender, school type, and region. With a sample size of 1,400, estimates are accurate +/- 2.6% at the 95% confidence level.