When It Comes to Genres Of Music, Not All Streamers Are Alike

Most programmers now regularly examine streaming data from MRC Data’s BDSradio or whatever BuzzAngle is now to help pick the best new music. However, the folks at Intregra 8 Research decided to take a look behind the curtain to examine the data that drives those aggregated data platforms.

Intrega8 examined the Top 20 most-played songs in the U.S. on the five major music streaming platforms during the week of June 15th, 2021. 

Here are key discoveries they made about each streaming service:

#1: Amazon Music listeners have the greatest interest in Country—and Classic Rock.

If you were to examine the most streamed songs in the U.S. on aggregated charts, Country hardly exists. Among Amazon Music users, however, 40% of the 20 most-streamed songs are Country titles. Amazon has aggressively pursued Country listeners, most notably signing an exclusive deal with superstar Garth Brooks.

#2: Pandora users also love Country—but their charts have a caveat.  Like Amazon Music, 40% of the Top 20 most-played songs on Pandora are Country songs, but some of the biggest Country hits currently, such as Luke Combs’ “Forever After All” and Dylan Scott’s “Nobody,” are notoriously absent from Pandora’s most-played chart. That’s because Next Big Sound, the subsidiary of Pandora that publishes its streaming data, intentionally “sunsets” all songs they no longer consider new, typically after just 16 weeks on their chart. The oldest exception was Cole Swindell’s “Single Saturday Night,” which was still on Pandora’s chart for 24 weeks. As we’ve observed, while most CHR titles run their course around that time, Country fans remain interested in the format’s biggest hits for 28 to 44 weeks.

#3 Apple Music users are heavily into Hip Hop

#4 Hip Hop and Novelty at home on YouTube

#5 Spotify is the new Sam Goody

So how different are the five major streaming services’ biggest hits?

Sixty-six different individual songs comprised the list we examined of songs that were Top 20 on at least one streaming service. Among those 66 songs, only one song was Top 20 on all five services: Olivia Rodrigo’s “good 4 u.”

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