Study: Radio Airplay Drives Music Sales

The NAB Tuesday released a commissioned study, conducted by Nielsen, showing a direct correlation between radio airplay and music sales. According to the study, radio airplay is the dominant driver of music sales, beginning with the first week of consistent radio airplay and continuing through the peak sales week.

The new Nielsen study examines how music exposure relates to music consumption, showing a significant relationship between radio airplay and digital song sales. The results indicate that radio is more highly correlated with music sales than any metric studied, which also included satellite radio, music video, on-demand streaming, and programmed streaming services.

"This study highlights clearly the enormous value that radio airplay provides in promoting music and generating music sales," said NAB Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton. "Local radio remains the premiere platform for exposing new music and generating sales for record labels."

The study further concluded that increased radio airplay results in an immediate impact on song sales. In fact, radio continues to support song sales up to and beyond peak sales week, demonstrating radio's ability to drive song sales and lengthen the lifecycle of a song, according to the study commissioned by NAB.

In conducting the research, Nielsen analyzed data from the top 15 spun songs for all radio and for measured formats from October 29, 2012 to October 27, 2013 using Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS data.