Radio And Streaming Show Different Song Popularity

Both streaming and digital song sales are up this year (downloads by 4% and streaming 24%), which is a good thing, but some interesting new data shows that there's a big difference between the top songs that radio plays and the most streamed songs.

The reason why this is important is that sales come more as a result of radio play, who's playlist is controlled by consultants and program directors, while streaming is based more on the actual popularity of the song or artist. Here's what the comparison looks like, according to Nielsen and Billboard.

While radio isn't going away by any stretch of the imagination, you have to wonder how its playlists will be affected in the future as streaming increases. With so much of music radio programmed by consultants who are one step removed by the public, perhaps they'll be forced to watch the streaming charts more closely when it comes to choosing songs. Whether they do or not, radio will be changing in future thanks to streaming, you can bet on it.

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