Webcast listening in August gained 4% compared to July’s numbers in Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics monthly Top 20 Ranker, released today. Perennial leader Pandora gained a mild 1%, while Spotify and iHeartRadio jumped 7% and 10% respectively.
As always in RAIN News tracking, we use Average Active Sessions (AAS) as the key metric, through the lens of 6:00am – 12:00am listening, Monday through Sunday.
Continuing a 2016 trend, the year-over-year comparison shows vigorous uplift — 16% more stream listening than August 2015 for the group as a whole. The individual leader in year-over-year listening growth, measured as a percentage of Average Active Sessions, was AccuRadio with an gape-inducing 76% increase. (AccuRadio CEO Kurt Hanson is the Founder and Publisher of RAIN News.) Radio group Emmis, which rejoined the Triton Ranker list in August 2015, had 39% more active sessions this year in August.
Looking at the year-to-date comparison, stream listening grew 8% from January to July. Pandora participated in the growth by 3%, while Spotify jumped 23%. (Spotify listening has grown 45% year-over-year, measured by AAS.) Listening sessions at iHeartRadio grew 4% compared to January.
In this month’s report, Triton interestingly breaks out listening by age group — Boomer, Gen X, and Millennials. Unsurprisingly, broadcast listening skews older, while listening to pureplay internet streaming skews younger.
Below is the historical chart of the Ranker leaders dating back to September, 2009, showing the trajectory Pandora, Spotify, and iHeartRadio, with terrestrial webcast listening clustered underneath:
Here is the graphic year-over-year comparison of the entire Top 20 group:
