Report: How Radio Gets A Handle On The Hits

Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” may be exactly that at the moment, but what if top 40 had a crystal ball to predict which Dragons track was next to breathe fire at the format?

For many PDs, reports Billboard, that crystal ball already exists in the form of such research as SoundOut, HitPredictor, RateTheMusic and Mscore. Some of that research predicts that Imagine Dragons’ “Demons”—which is already a factor at alternative and adult top 40—has what it takes to impact  mainstream. “Demons” is already playing on CBS Radio’s “Tomorrow’s Hits Today,” the Radio.com station based on SoundOut’s research of music consumers.

CBS Radio VP of research and audience measurement Gary Heller notes, “It wasn’t long ago when all radio had was callout, requests, sales and gut to help determine a song’s potential.” How things have changed.

While using callout research to test music has been around for half a century, the introduction of RateTheMusic nearly 10 years ago moved the process online and keyed in on super-active database members in order to get a read on songs well before what would normally be seen in callout, and sometimes before release. 

According to Mediabase/­Clear Channel executive VP of integrated music marketing worldwide Alyssa Pollack, who oversees the service used by 200 stations, “Rate­TheMusic is usually four to six weeks ahead of the curve. If PDs want to know what songs work with women 25-34 listening in afternoon drive, we can get that deep.”

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