Webcast listening in October lost 2% compared to the previous month, erasing a two-point gain in September, according to Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics monthly Top 20 Ranker, released today.
Perennial leader Pandora was down an identical 2% month-over-month. Spotify (-1%) and iHeartRadio (-5%), always the #2 and #3 brands in this report, likewise lost a bit of ground. 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.
Pandora’s webcast rating has encountered difficulty since April, Pandora’s high point of the year. From April through October, Pandora has lost 9% in Average Active Sessions, and October’s number (2,035,621 average sessions) is the lowest number since January (2,011,163). During the same period (from April) Spotify has shown 11% growth and iHeartRadio has dropped 14%.
Continuing a 2016 trend, the year-over-year comparison shows vigorous uplift — 10% more stream listening than October 2015 for the group as a whole. Last month, the Sept2015-Sept2016 number was +12%.) The individual leader in year-over-year listening growth, measured as a percentage of Average Active Sessions, was AccuRadio, as last month, with a leaping 69% increase. (AccuRadio CEO Kurt Hanson is the Founder and Publisher of RAIN News.) New York Public Radio jumped 25% in stream listening year-over-year.
Looking at the year-to-date comparison, stream listening grew 9% from January to October, for the whole group. In the top three, Spotify led the way with a 29% uplift.
In the October report, Triton Digital broke out a Time of Day chart, illustrating that mid-day is streaming’s key drive time (so to speak), with peaks in late morning and early afternoon. That pattern holds on weekends, though the trendline is softer.
Below is the historical chart of the Ranker leaders dating back to September, 2009, showing the trajectory Pandora, Spotify, and iHeartRadio, with leaders of terrestrial webcast listening clustered underneath:
Here is the graphic year-over-year comparison of the entire Top 20 group:
