Webcast listening in December moved up three percent compared to the previous month, according to Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics monthly Top 20 Ranker, released today. Year-over-year listening to streams gained 11%.
Perennial leader Pandora lifted two percentage points compared to November’s report. Spotify gained 6%, and iHeartRadio saw a one-percent lift in listening. 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.
Digging into the December year-over-year for individual components of Triton’s Ranker, we see AccuRadio as the clear leader in percentage terms, with 70% more average active sessions than December 2015. (We are overlooking Beasley’s 164% gain resulting from the acquisition of Greater Media.) Spotify enjoyed a 44% YoY upward movement, while New York Public Radio lifted 29%.
Not unexpectedly, the holiday music format showed the biggest gain in December, at 66% compared to November. News/Talk lost the most listening in a 26% reduction.
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 below. Note that Spotify’s stream traffic was at 69% of Pandora’s, compared to 67% in November, as Spotify continues is vigorous upward trajectory.
Here is the graphic year-over-year comparison of the entire Top 20 group:
