Integr8 Research: Does Your Radio Format Audience Stream Or Buy Music?

Integr8 Research

The latest INTEGR8 blog, "Do Your Format's Fans Stream Or Buy Their Music?" has just posted. 

This is the latest in a series of blogs to determine whether stations should rely more heaving on streaming usage or sales data when programming new music. The first post suggested that both sales and streaming data remain relevant to radio, at least for now. The second post showed how streaming users are typically younger than music purchasers.

The latest post examines which styles of songs are most popular among streaming users, music purchasers, and radio listeners, according to BILLBOARD’s 2016 year end charts.

Some of the findings:

Listeners stream Hip-Hop significantly more than they buy it or hear it on the radio. 

POP HIP-HOP by artists such as DRAKE, RIHANNA and FLO RIDA, were almost as well represented in radio exposure as they were in streaming popularity.

COUNTRY fans are still paying to own their favorite songs: Only 9% of the biggest songs in digital singles sales were COUNTRY titles. Country music is biggest of all, however, on radio. Of the most played songs on the radio in 2016, 13% were COUNTRY songs, bigger than both sales and streaming.

ADULT POP songs are better represented in sales

CLUB DANCE is a bit bigger on streaming than in digital sales or radio airplay

ALTERNATIVE isn’t as big on streaming as it is in sales and radio exposure

RHYTHMIC POP/R&B is smaller in sales than it is in radio airplay and streaming plays

Streaming usage is strongest among 13- to 24-year-olds, while digital download purchasers are more likely to be between 25 and 54 years of age.

Streaming statistics count how many times people play a song, not how many different people played it. For radio, it’s not merely enough to play songs with a few huge fans. Radio needs songs that a large percentage of its audience loves.

Song sales tell you how many new people bought a song, not if people who already bought it are still listening to it. Unlike streaming, sales statistics can give you a sense of how many different people like a song since you only need to buy a song once.

Haters don’t hurt streaming or sales figures -- but they do hurt radio. When your radio station plays a song some listeners hate, there’s a good chance they’ll change stations. 

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