StreamStats™
On-demand music streaming consumption is exploding and Bridge Ratings Media Research has been working with this fascinating new research tool for eight years.
We provide market-based, station-based and audience-focused custom on-demand streaming data for radio stations across America.
The Music Consumption Story
On-demand streams in 2024 accounted for 88% of all music consumption in the United States, a 7.0% growth over 2023 .
Streaming has contributed approximately 84% of total music industry revenues for the fifth straight year with paid subscriptions outpacing other types in this category. In the first half of 2024, streaming services grew 4% at retail value to a record high $7.3 billion.
During this period, revenues from paid subscription services grew 4% to $5.7 billion and accounted for 78% of streaming revenues – nearly two-thirds of total mid-year revenue. Limited-tier subscriptions fell 4% to $503 million and include services such as Amazon Prime, Pandora Plus, music licenses for streaming fitness services, which are narrowed by factors like mobile access, catalog availability, product features, or device restrictions.
The song sales metric is important in terms of determining song popularity for the radio and record industries. Song streams is a good indicator of initial consumer interest and Bridge Ratings STREAMSTATS charts will often show songs with immediate impact climbing high on the chart,
On-demand streaming measures popularity, song passion and song sustainability – three key indicators to properly align music playlists with true music consumption.
The interest in music streaming by radio listeners has been the focus of many of the research studies we have conducted over the last ten years here at Bridge Ratings and we see a direct correlation between radio listening and listener streaming behavior…each complements the other.
Our streaming service, StreamStats™, is different because it includes primary or P1 radio format listeners. Heavy radio listeners stream differently than light or non-radio users. This is a key point for program directors who seek to understand how their listeners are consuming music.
Bridge Ratings streaming data is weighted by the volume of streams per streaming platform, i.e. streaming platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music and Apple music contribute significant data points to our charts and are weighted in our samples.
Demographic profiles of each of our streaming partners are also taken into consideration for the StreamStats™ data.
P1 or Primary listener data is achieved through screeners instituted through local radio listener panels in each of our client markets. This is our differentiator: other streaming services supply total streams attained for a song without taking into consideration what type of radio consumer is to be included. Bridge Ratings StreamStats data is a subset of all data collected and includes only a client station’s P1 listener consumption.
Our reports include metrics for Song Popularity, Song Passion and Song Passion Retention.
Song popularity as measured by streams is a primary ranking metric but is not useful unless the number of consumers contributing to those streams is evident. Therefore, Bridge Ratings’ StreamStats™ also provides each title’s stream count in addition to a Song Value Index which reflects consumer passion for a song over a period of time.
Understanding the relationship between streaming and radio listening behaviors is helping Bridge Ratings StreamStats clients properly align their on-air playlists with the true consumption behavior of their core audience.
We see a direct correlation between use of on-demand streaming data for programming music and increases in audience tune-in occasions and time-spent-listening.
Music consumers utilize radio’s curation of all of the available good music to help them determine which songs they will stream and vice versa. Radio stations that pay attention to on-demand streaming data more closely mirror listener consumption behavior.
Bridge Ratings offers this service which will give programmers real consumption insight not available from call-out , online or auditorium testing.
Our data includes a metric that also tracks song passion over time. Never before has radio had a tool to reflect true passion, burn and frequency of streaming listens. This type of granular station-specific data is not available anywhere else.
As our clients stations properly utilize this information weekly to align their music libraries to the true consumption tastes of their listeners, we are hearing that ratings as a result of this new way to expose music are among the best-ever achieved by the stations.
Working with this information is easy. It is fun. It is exciting.
More importantly - it works.
And, StreamStats™ is very affordable. Barter or cash.
Contact Dave Van Dyke by filling in the form at the bottom of this page for a demo and no-cost consultation to determine if our on-demand streaming tool is right for you.
