UK’s half-year data shows nearly 80% streaming growth

The British Phonographic Industry released half-year data about music sales in the UK. The report showed that there have been 11.5 billion tracks played in the first six months of 2015, compared with 14.8 billion plays in all of 2014. Dedicated audio streaming services see about 480 million streams a week. Stream Equivalent Album consumption for the first half was 11.49 million, up 79.5% from the year-ago period. Continue Reading

Nielsen Music 360 data sheds more light on music spending habits

Tatiana Simonian, a vice president at Nielsen, gave a presentation at the EDMbiz conference. During the talk, she shared two slides from the Nielsen Music 360 report with data about the industry. The Nielsen data asked its survey respondents who said they paid for streaming which services they spent on. The results showed a larger percentage of paying customers at Pandora One and Spotify, where 33% and 32%, respectively, currently subscribe to the service. Continue Reading

Study: Radio ad spending down nationally, but up locally

Kantar Media released its quarterly report on U.S. advertising expenditures. Overall, the total ad spend in the first quarter of 2015 was $37.4 million, down 4% from the same period last year. The quarterly results for radio revealed a split performance between the local and national levels. The declines in Kantar’s data parallel the ones found in the Radio Advertising Bureau’s research into revenue for 2014. Continue Reading

Nielsen finds radio’s reach remains strong despite stark generational preferences

Nielsen has released its Total Audience Report for the first quarter of 2015. The report showed impressive reach for radio, but a dwindling in how much time that large audience tunes in. Meanwhile, digital services and mobile platforms are seeing quick growth in usage. Terrestrial radio still has the greatest reach, with 93% of the adult population listening each week. However, time spent with radio has been slowly declining as most digital and online hardware has seen spikes in use. Plus the breakdown of audience ages shows low interest in radio among teens and young adults. Continue Reading

Total Audio Audience: The Need for Unified Measurement

by Brad Hill
The audio industry lacks a total audience ratings solution which unifies the measurement of listening across consumer platforms like FM, simulcasting, pureplay streaming, and podcasting. Advertisers want to understand and reach their target audiences, regardless of platform. We surveyed industry leaders for their sentiments and predictions. Continue Reading