Earlier this year, Ross on Radio’s Sean Ross interviewed veteran programmer Alan Burns about the latest edition of his “What Women Want” survey, unveiled on May 15, and about the state of radio overall. The survey highlighted, among other things, the depth of listener frustration with current music. While there have been signs of a rebound since Burns’ study was conducted late last year, the study does show the magnitude of the issue and just how far contemporary radio has to rebound.
It isn’t just radio programmers who are frustrated with current music product lately. One of the more surprising findings in Alan Burns and Associates and the Cumulus Media/Westwood One AudioActive Group®’s “What Women Want” was how large the agreement was with this statement: “Today’s music is generally not as good as it was years ago.”
You’d expect to see that with older people and fans of Classic Rock and Classic Hits, but the sentiment was widespread across all format cumes and all ages/generations. 64% of Generation Z, the youngest respondents agreed, while 61% of the oldest—Boomers–saluted it.
We see that sentiment showing up in the reaction to the Top 40 music montages that we tested. In this survey, we see Top 40 Gold– songs like “High Hopes,” “We Found Love,” “Yeah,” etc. –tied with Current/Recurrent Pop for the number one slot with the total audience, No.1 one by a nose with Top 40’s cume, and #1 by a larger margin with the heaviest listeners. That’s a surprise.
Another sign of stagnation: Only two artists – Post Malone and The Weeknd – have broken into the top 20 ranking of Top 40 and Hot AC listeners’ favorite artists in the last seven years.
Labels and radio have always had different goals, but for most of top 40’s history (as well as that of Country, Hot AC, and Urban formats), those interests were somewhat aligned: radio gave music exposure, and labels paid attention to what radio needed.
Lately, though, what’s selling and/or streaming and what appeals to mass audiences has diverged more, with the music industry logically and understandably following sales and streams rather than what works for radio in music testing.
Radio needs to build mass, but the music industry can be profitable with a narrower audience. For example, Taylor Swift’s best-selling album so far is Fearless at 7.3 million copies worldwide. 7.3 million represents only .005% of the global English-speaking population. Swift’s 1989-Taylor’s Version sold 2 million in the US alone. 2 million’s a nice number, but it’s only .006% of the American population. 7 million and 2 million are great sales numbers, and everybody made money. But radio can’t make money on those numbers. How would your boss feel if you only managed a .005 or .006 cume rating?
It’s ironic that radio has probably never fallen more in line with label agendas and goals than it is now, at a time when it feels like we need to be striking out on our own and finding better, more appropriate product. We can’t manufacture it, but we can certainly look past label priorities. Here’s an example: odds are that while “Fortnite” is the label/artist’s choice for the first single off of Taylor’s Tortured Poets album, “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” may wind up being a bigger single, whenever it’s finally worked by the label. By that time, though, it will be old news for Taylor Swift fans and calling it “new music” will create its own issues.
A word of caution here: while women generally agree that music is not as good as it used to be, they still also tell us that discovering new music is very important to them. Let’s find the best new music, regardless of whether it’s currently being “worked.” Reaching back into Top 40’s history, there was a time when stations went looking for and played great album cuts, and even created their own versions of songs.
There have been a few recent signs of possible improvement in current pop music; let’s hope those keep showing up–the audience is asking for better product.
Did you miss the “What Women Want” webinar, or have more questions about the results and what they mean? We’d be happy to share findings with you – just email alan@burnsradio.com or jeff@burnsradio.com.
It’s sobering to see this Alan Burns article because it’s not so pie in the sky as seemingly other consultants, put it, or we’re all doomed as others will put it. The end puts it well, but if people are surprised, they don’t have an ear for it. if only we will address the elephant in the room that some of the greatest programmers in the format have just been unceremoniously dismissed, for plug and play voice trackers out of context, and with disastrous element transitions,, and people getting fired, and radio still wants to move on and act like it’s a product problem. I’m also noticing a huge problem where certain personalities are attempting to relate to their audience by being social media archetypes, and if some people claim, you gotta be like your audience, you’re missing the point and are using the same spreadsheet logic that is going to drive the industry into the grave. You know what would be edgy radio? first break of a show opens up, “I’m having a really horrible mental health day, I’m depressed, I’ve got a lot of things going on, but I know hanging out with you and listening to this music is going to carry me through this day. What are some tips and tricks you use for coping on days like this?” But hey, let’s talk about Selena Gomez‘s new back tattoo. Instead, that’ll move the needle, get it, the needle! Is it any wonder why people would rather just listen to a Spotify playlist? Sincerely, the guy who actually does love radio, even though lately, it doesn’t seem like it, but radio doesn’t really love the listeners these days, as evidenced by four of the top companies . As a young talent, I used to feel sad that I wouldn’t have a place in radio, now, I feel grateful that I avoided the dumpster fire, perception is reality, I really hope in the next five years I’ll eat my words. personally being a part of a noncom adult hit/hott ac that just launched in Maryland, the new product does fit a lot better with the older music and I am grateful when hot AC looks good, and there are certainly legendary stations and brands who haven’t lost their sanity, who will still benefit from this in certain markets. Oh, and hey Alan, we really need to get a jump on that social AC format, radio is dying out here. Hopefully someone wises up, I know it didn’t work in Vancouver, but anything is better than go to our website for this that, and everything else.
Younger people have access to more older music than ever before. Most of us didnt have that. We had no context to compare eras. They do now. If they did not, they might not be so down on current music. PLUS, across all demos, we know that nostalgia was a powerful draw since 2020.
Actually, history repeating itself. This is why I launched Hot ACs in the early 90s (WYXR Phila, KURB Little Rock, etc.). CHR was busy competing with each other by rotating bad music even faster than the guy across the street, while ignoring the fact that all the gold/recurrent songs tested significantly better than any of the so-called “top 10”.
We can keep discussing this but until the music aligns with younger peoples’ values, we’ll see 2-share CHRs in major markets, As CHR PDs lacking in historical perspective lean on what they think their audience wants to hear (90x/week) there will be room for those who know what their audiences want—and deliver it.
There’s an error here: 2 million is about .6% of 335 million.