Nielsen’s Music 360 report found that radio is still the place where most people (48%) discover new music, compared to just 7% for YouTube.

But once they have found it, 64% of teens listen to music through YouTube, the popular video-sharing website owned by Google.

Even so, old-fashioned radio — whose demise was marked in the 1979 hit single Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles — is still a big player in the music industry.

The report found that 56% of teens listen to music on the radio while 53% use Apple’s iTunes music player and half of teens still listen to music on compact discs, or CDs.

Despite the plethora of social networking, blogs and endorsements, 54% of the 3 000 Americans surveyed for the report said they are more likely to buy music on the recommendation of a friend than the endorsement of a music chat room or blog.

The report also found that only 36% of teens bought a physical CD in the last year, compared to 51% who purchased some kind of digital download.

The findings reflect a 3% slump in US album sales in the first six months of 2012 from 2011, and a 6% rise in digital song sales, Nielsen SoundScan reported in July.