Blog Archives - Integr8 Research

Introducing Integr8 USA: Real Callout Research You Really Can Afford

May 10, 2023

The most frustrating thing I face in my work with Integr8 New Music Research is talking with a station who really wants callout research, but whom we simply aren’t able to help. Sometimes, the cost of customized local new music research—even for the most bare-bones program we can offer—doesn’t financially make sense for the station. … Continue reading Introducing Integr8 USA: Real Callout Research You Really Can Afford »

WEBINAR: Retention Rate: The Magic New Metric for Measuring Hit Potential in Streaming Data

May 4, 2023

Here’s our webinar from April 19th, 2023 introducing Retention Rate: The Magic New Metric for Measuring Hit Potential in Streaming Data. This webinar shows real-life examples of how last year’s biggest hits performed on Spotify compared to how those songs performed in Integr8 New Music Research. You’ll learn the correct way to examine music streaming … Continue reading WEBINAR: Retention Rate: The Magic New Metric for Measuring Hit Potential in Streaming Data »

Retention Rate: The Magic New Metric for Measuring Hit Potential in Streaming Data

April 4, 2023

Within a week of its debut, Spotify users in the U.S. played Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” a record-shattering 31 million times—more streams in one week than any other song at the time. Naturally, CHR and Hot AC stations also immediately added the highly anticipated song by an iconic core artist. Surely, with record-breaking streaming figures and … Continue reading Retention Rate: The Magic New Metric for Measuring Hit Potential in Streaming Data »

The Five Most Important Hits of 2022

January 18, 2023

Understanding why these songs were big in 2022 will help you program effectively in 2023 If some expert tells you new music is dead, they’re looking at the numbers, but they’re not listening to the songs. For the last few years, I’ve started each new year examining Billboard’s Top 100 Songs of the past year … Continue reading The Five Most Important Hits of 2022 »

The Taylor Swift Effect: What Taylor’s chart triumph means for how listeners consume new music

November 9, 2022

When Taylor Swift dropped her 10th studio album on October 21, 2022, Midnights instantly became the #1 album in the country, according to the Billboard 200. The lead track “Anti-Hero” became the most added song on CHR, Hot AC, and AC radio. It was even the top selling album on Vinyl for its debut week. … Continue reading The Taylor Swift Effect: What Taylor’s chart triumph means for how listeners consume new music »

The Rise of the Superhit

October 19, 2022

Turn on your local hit music station right now. There’s a good chance you’ll hear a song from the last decade. Sure, there’s consensus that new music is in a rut. (We explained why new music won’t suck forever in our previous post.) While we’ve seen plenty of new music slumps come and go at … Continue reading The Rise of the Superhit »

Why New Music Won’t Suck Forever

September 21, 2022

New music sucks. The experts agree. Legendary programmer Guy Zapoleon, inventor of CHR’s Music Cycle, said it’s the worst doldrums he’s ever seen. Coleman Insights’ Contemporary Music Superstudy found that North America’s favorite songs in 2021 were mostly the same songs they loved most in 2020. Luminate, purveyors of BDS radio, observed that on-demand streaming … Continue reading Why New Music Won’t Suck Forever »

How to Spot the Real Hits in Streaming Data

May 25, 2022

Streaming data ought to be the best music popularity measurement ever created. After all, it shows us which songs people play when they’re in control of their music. That data comes from every single streaming user—not just a paucity of PPM panelists as MScore shows. Unlike library tests and callout, streaming data reflects every song … Continue reading How to Spot the Real Hits in Streaming Data »

Why Your Spin Counts Don’t Count Anymore (And Why They Never Really Did)

April 20, 2022

When you started your programming career—if you were lucky—you had a mentor who bestowed upon you a way to figure out when your listeners should know a new song and when they were likely getting sick of it. The time-honored benchmarks that you received were your own station’s spin counts. “Don’t test a song in … Continue reading Why Your Spin Counts Don’t Count Anymore (And Why They Never Really Did) »

How The Weeknd Defeated a 61-Year Chart Record (And Why it Matters For How You Use Streaming Data)

March 16, 2022

Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” was always the #1 song of all time, according to Billboard. It first hit #1 on the Hot 100 in September 1960, thanks to a teen-led Twist craze, then reached #1 again in early 1962 when twisting belatedly caught on with celebrities and well-heeled fashionable adults who typically never touched teenybopper … Continue reading How The Weeknd Defeated a 61-Year Chart Record (And Why it Matters For How You Use Streaming Data) »