In our last post, we explored the fall and rise of Hip Hop, shown as Hip Hop’s share of the top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 each week.  Although Hip Hop’s appeal has rebounded back to 2008 levels after reaching a low point in 2012, there are three fundamental differences between Hip Hop’s … Continue reading Three Reasons Today’s Hip Hop is Different Than Yesterday’s »

In 2012, a flurry of articles began appearing in the music press asking, “Is Hip Hop dead?” Most articles simply bemoaned the lack of authenticity of the genre’s good old days, or complained it was becoming “too white,” but a few articles actually cited data.  Did you know not a single African-American artist hit #1 … Continue reading The Fall and Rise of Hip Hop »

In our last post, we outlined three reasons you should examine streaming data to help pick new music. Before fully embracing streaming data as a new secret weapon, here are five limits to what you can learn from streaming: 1) Streaming data only shows the positive, not the negative. There is a fundamental difference between … Continue reading The Limitations of Using Streaming Data to Pick New Music »

While many radio programmers use sales, Shazam and Mscore alongside their new music research to gauge which songs are most popular with their audience, examining what songs listeners are streaming isn’t as commonplace—and we think it should be. The fact is, music sales are declining, both for physical CDs and for digital downloads on services … Continue reading How Streaming Data Can Help Radio Pick New Music »

In case you missed our webinar on June 22, you can now check it out below! Be sure visit our blog for even more insight and for hands-on tips you can immediately use as a part of your new music programming toolbox.  

Now that we’ve quantified Shazam’s track record of predicting hits, including its positives and its possible pitfalls, here are three specific recommendations on how to use Shazam alongside your new music research and other music popularity measures in your programming arsenal: 1) Use Shazam to spot potential hits that are on the edges of your … Continue reading Three Tips for Effectively Using Shazam »

How Shazam Can Help You Predict Hits: Part 3 In our previous post, we spotlighted the styles of songs Shazam can consistently help you predict. Now, let’s examine situations where Shazam may not give you a heads up on tomorrow’s hits. Songs that are typically pure Pop CHR, especially by established artists While Shazam has … Continue reading Which Hits Shazam Doesn’t Spot Early »

How Shazam Can Help You Predict Hits: Part 2 In our last post, we examined Shazam’s track record of predicting hits, finding that 94% of the songs that rise to Shazam’s Top 10 ultimately become at least Top 30 hits. However, we also found a wide variation in exactly how early Shazam can spot tomorrow’s … Continue reading Which Hits Shazam Can Help You Spot Early »

How Shazam Can Help You Predict Hits:Part 1 How good is Shazam at predicting hits? When Shazam® emerged a few years ago, radio programmers quickly saw its potential as a hit-predicting oracle, and since then Shazam has grown so large that Mediabase® recently added market-specific Shazam data. Shazam has a vested interest in fostering the … Continue reading How Shazam Can Help You Predict Hits »