Streaming Country Music Listeners Grew 36% Last Year

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, February 19, 2020 | 2:31pm CT

P1 Media Group

Streaming Country music grew 36% in the U.S. from 2018 to 2019 according to MRC Data/Nielsen Music. 54% of American Country Radio P1 listeners report streaming every day to a service like Pandora, Spotify or Apple Music. 85% of Country Radio P1s between the ages of 18-44 report streaming to an on-demand audio service either "every day" or "a few a day's a week."

"If you are programming a Country radio station today, the streaming audience is impossible to ignore with more than half of Country radio listeners between the ages of 18-44 reporting streaming music via an on-demand music services every day" said P1 Media Group co-founder Ken Benson. "With so many Country radio listeners using on-demand streaming services, we examined the differences between what radio is playing versus listener choices using on-demand audio streaming services."

"As a proponent of using streaming data to help make programming decisions, I'm excited to see real research showing the correlation between radio listeners and on-demand streaming users," added MRC Data/Nielsen Music's Haley Jones.

Key findings:

• Streaming to Country Music grew by 36% from 2018 to 2019.

• Radio is playing more contemporary music than on-demand Streaming services. 70% of radio's Top 100 most-played songs are from 2018 and 2019 versus only 55% of songs from on-demand streaming services.

• Radio relies more on Core Artists playing more songs from fewer artists while on-demand streaming services play more unique artists.

• Radio plays less variety than the on-demand streaming services. Of the Top 500 songs on Country radio, 62% of the total spins come from the Top 100 songs versus only 46% for on-demand streaming.

• The responses from Country Radio P1 listeners indicates that Country stations either missed or underplayed the biggest hit of 2019 "Old Town Road."