Smartphones, tablets, apps, podcasts... We now consume music on the go and have hundreds of thousands of songs available for us, in one click. Thanks to shifts in consumer listening behaviour, we are now starting to see digital music consumption as a contributor to the charts.
The way we consume radio and particularly music has changed a lot in the past century. After a few decades of low engaged audiences, radio is back, grown up and stronger than ever. Users are increasingly embracing internet radio and on a growing range of devices from PC’s to smartphones, tablets, in cars and various other electronic gadgets. Radio is accessible anywhere.
Prior to 2014, the charts were very much dominated by radio playlists. What was a miss was that, as the penetration of smartphones rose, users were moving away from traditional music consumption. Gone were the days of flicking on the radio in the morning, or in the office, but rather more personalised listening.
Users are more inclined to listen to the radio on the go via apps such at TuneIn or Spotify, Google Play or even 8Tracks. Users can choose they favourite artists, discover new ones and share with their friends. National charts no longer rely simply on record stores, otherwise they would be lying. They gather data from different sources including apps and online radio stations.
Shazam for example, turned music into data and uses it to analise and predict which songs will become top hits allowing advertisers to adapt their strategies and messages. On the other hand, promoters use the data provided from Spotify regarding the geography of listeners in order to organise a new gig.
As radio evolves, so do the revenue models. We have seen the creation of monthly subscriptions, ad-free subscriptions and subscription-only services. It’s also interesting to see pre-order strategies before the release of a new single or album becoming more popular. Nowadays 40% of marketing budgets is dedicated to this which proves that this strategy is here to stay.
The issue here is that it has taken quite a while for the music industry to understand and appreciate the value of streaming music. It has taken time to recognise that there are several ways of listening to music and the music charts have only recently started to include the results coming from online radio through the number of listens and ratings which is a much more realistic representation of music consumption.
Since its appearance in the 20’s, radio has not stopped surprising us and shaping our culture and it is still one of the most important mediums. Radio is a way to discover what is happening in the world, to discover new music, listen to new points of view and most of all to entertain us.
By Brooke McGregor, Senior Account Manager at Mapp Media.
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