“Before and after” pictures can sometimes be startling.
Especially when something that was iconic has changed dramatically, is no longer present or when something new “suddenly” appears.
Because
we’re paying attention to our formats on a daily basis and appropriately navigating our
stations through changes, good programmers aren't generally subject to before-and-after-shock.
Even so, side-by-sides of the past and present can be both interesting and useful in giving us a perspective on the pace of change.
Here’s a “before and after” look at Mediabase’s Top 10 Most
Played Artists (all stations) for the year 2009 and just 3 ½ years later the
most played artists to date in 2013. Only three artists - Kenny, Tim and Brad –
appear in both snapshots. Seven artists from 2009 have been replaced by seven different artists so far this year.
2009
|
Artist
|
Spins
|
2013
|
Artist
|
Spins
|
|
1
|
KENNY CHESNEY
|
1093702
|
1
|
CHESNEY, KENNY
|
529588
|
|
2
|
TOBY KEITH
|
1043185
|
2
|
SHELTON, BLAKE
|
481823
|
|
3
|
TIM MCGRAW
|
882167
|
3
|
ALDEAN, JASON
|
481657
|
|
4
|
GEORGE STRAIT
|
847920
|
4
|
PAISLEY, BRAD
|
458663
|
|
5
|
BRAD PAISLEY
|
846708
|
5
|
UNDERWOOD, CARRIE
|
426473
|
|
6
|
RASCAL FLATTS
|
835130
|
6
|
BROWN, ZAC BAND
|
404099
|
|
7
|
KEITH URBAN
|
825170
|
7
|
MCGRAW, TIM
|
381991
|
|
8
|
ALAN JACKSON
|
750887
|
8
|
BRYAN, LUKE
|
359250
|
|
9
|
TAYLOR SWIFT
|
636428
|
9
|
LADY ANTEBELLUM
|
345478
|
|
10
|
BROOKS & DUNN
|
625323
|
10
|
LAMBERT, MIRANDA
|
331575
|
If we pull the lens back a bit to look at the Top 20 most played artists over the same time period, we can see more consistency in names but a number of rankings are significantly different and there’s quite a bit of churn at the bottom of both lists.
2009
|
Artist
|
Spins
|
2013
|
Artist
|
Spins
|
|
1
|
KENNY CHESNEY
|
1093702
|
1
|
CHESNEY, KENNY
|
529588
|
|
2
|
TOBY KEITH
|
1043185
|
2
|
SHELTON, BLAKE
|
481823
|
|
3
|
TIM MCGRAW
|
882167
|
3
|
ALDEAN, JASON
|
481657
|
|
4
|
GEORGE STRAIT
|
847920
|
4
|
PAISLEY, BRAD
|
458663
|
|
5
|
BRAD PAISLEY
|
846708
|
5
|
UNDERWOOD, CARRIE
|
426473
|
|
6
|
RASCAL FLATTS
|
835130
|
6
|
BROWN, ZAC BAND
|
404099
|
|
7
|
KEITH URBAN
|
825170
|
7
|
MCGRAW, TIM
|
381991
|
|
8
|
ALAN JACKSON
|
750887
|
8
|
BRYAN, LUKE
|
359250
|
|
9
|
TAYLOR SWIFT
|
636428
|
9
|
LADY ANTEBELLUM
|
345478
|
|
10
|
BROOKS & DUNN
|
625323
|
10
|
LAMBERT, MIRANDA
|
331575
|
|
11
|
DIERKS BENTLEY
|
606851
|
11
|
URBAN, KEITH
|
327423
|
|
12
|
MONTGOMERY GENTRY
|
570204
|
12
|
THE BAND PERRY
|
326189
|
|
13
|
CARRIE UNDERWOOD
|
560249
|
13
|
STRAIT, GEORGE
|
310322
|
|
14
|
SUGARLAND
|
526223
|
14
|
KEITH, TOBY
|
306397
|
|
15
|
DARIUS RUCKER
|
511694
|
15
|
BENTLEY, DIERKS
|
299723
|
|
16
|
JASON ALDEAN
|
499024
|
16
|
RASCAL FLATTS
|
280816
|
|
17
|
ZAC BROWN BAND
|
474769
|
17
|
BRICE, LEE
|
279473
|
|
18
|
BILLY CURRINGTON
|
458349
|
18
|
CHURCH, ERIC
|
277111
|
|
19
|
GARTH BROOKS
|
447462
|
19
|
FLORIDA-GEORGIA LINE
|
276032
|
|
20
|
RODNEY ATKINS
|
444324
|
20
|
HAYES, HUNTER
|
271619
|
A look at album sales yields a similar picture; fully half of the artists making up this year’s top 10 selling albums (Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, The Band Perry, Hunter Hayes and Little Big Town) weren’t in the top 25 for the year 2009.
Again, this is not particularly surprising. Back in February at CRS, A&O&B reported that listeners claimed to have '"discovered" four of these five acts within the past 12 months (Florida Georgia Line being the exception).
As a "before and after" side note, not too long ago, stations’ “Core/Key
Artists” lists often numbered somewhere between 6 and 9. For many stations today that list is 50%
longer. And that’s a good thing for the
format.
None of this should be surprising of course, and that’s the
point.
“Before and after” is fun and makes for an interesting look at the speed with which things change (or don't change). But staying on top of listener trends is a far better way to be relevant.
A&O&B provides clients free, ongoing
opportunities to keep up with their listeners’ preferences and attitudes with
online music surveys including twice-monthly testing of currents, and quarterly
testing of gold titles; plus, our annual online Roadmap survey which reports listener
behavior and perceptions on a large number of topics. Learn more here and at aandoandb.com.
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