Studies, surveys, and metrics abounded in 2014. RAIN News readers demonstrated acute interest in research which attempted to tease out trends in the fast-changing field of streaming audio. Click through for a rundown. Continue Reading
Will Page, Director of Economics at Spotify, published a revealing analysis of how Meghan Trainor’s hit song “All About That Bass” became a charted hit, pushed more by streaming than by radio — and even before the track was available to purchase in the U.K. The cross-continental story raises questions about music distribution strategies in an era when online engagement can create hit without traditional levers. Continue Reading
Most of today’s online music services include some feature that encourages listeners to discover new artists and songs. According to a new study from MusicWatch, though, the biggest driver of discovery is actually online video. Numbers from the consumer research company showed that 34% of respondents said video services were the most influential source of new music discovery. Continue Reading
Ad network TargetSpot announced a partnership with audience measurement company Quantcast, which will allow TargetSpot to more finely identify audience characteristics across its portfolio of streaming audio publishers. The agreement represents an important example of the Big Data movement in online audio, and the increasing expectation of targeted audience segments among advertisers. Continue Reading
Dave Van Dyke of Bridge Ratings Media Research has published some recent data about pureplay listening in a LinkedIn post. “Something interesting is happening on the internet streaming front,” Van Dyke writes. He projects that time spent listening to pureplay streaming will exceed terrestrial simulcasting by next year. Continue Reading
Month-over-month webcast listening was moved upward in September, according to Triton Digital’s monthly Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. The upward movement was nearly unanimous among the top-20 entities measured by Triton. Year-over-year and year-to-date gains were also apparent in September. Continue Reading
Nielsen released its Q3 Total Audience Report, formerly called the Cross Platform Report. The name change signifies a philosophical reconception as well as new marketplace realities. In the metrics, AM/FM time-spent listening dropped slightly year-over-year, but it is the generational shift which really stands out. Continue Reading
SoundExchange, the performing rights organization that collects and distributes streaming royalties to labels and artists, has released three year-end top-10 and top-20 charts. The Top Streamed Breakout Artists list is based on newness to royalty collection — specifically, qualifying recording artists can not have received SoundExchange royalty payments before September 1, 2013. Continue Reading
Mobile streaming of radio stations cannot replace digital broadcasting in Australia — that’s the message from Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), which commissioned a whitepaper study from broadcast technology expert Professor Reg Coutts. Continue Reading
Nielsen posted interesting observations derived from a study of streaming activity for the week ending November 9. In that week, for the first time in the 10 years that Nielsen has been tracking online audio, more than 4-billion streams were consumed. Video streams also broke a record, surpassing 2-billion. Continue Reading
Streaming services may be doing more than people realize to help music sales. According to a survey of music consumers by the Country Music Association, the respondents were more likely to buy music after hearing it on a streaming platform than if they heard the same song on terrestrial radio. Continue Reading
“I have good news and I have bad news,” states Steve Mulder, Director of User Experience and Analytics at NPR Digital Services. He analyzed third-quarter metrics of stream performance across 173 NPR stations (data sourced from Triton Digital). Continue Reading