“It’s the [most important] question for the format, and one I have been thinking about for a while.”
That’s iHeart Radio Minneapolis VP of programming Gregg Swedberg referring to the ongoing discussion about the influence of streaming vs. callout at Country radio – the topic of five different panels at February’s Country Radio Seminar.
On one of those panels, Warner Music Nashville SVP/radio Kristen Williams noted her label’s commitment to Cole Swindell’s “Forever to Me,” a song that developed callout stories long after streaming had run its course. That song finally reached No. 1 in April, around the same time as other slow-building hits like LOCASH’s “Hometown Home” and Dylan Scott’s “This Town’s Been Too Good to Us.”
If streaming vs. callout is an existential question, it’s worth noting that Country’s existence is the most comfortable of the major current-based formats, in terms of both ratings and the radio/label relationship. That’s a contrast to pop formats where pure radio records are in short supply, but where both product flow and the label relationship are disintegrating quickly.
But the slow-building, callout-driven hits are a remnant of the pre-Morgan Wallen Country format, where passive records dominated the chart. Even the label reps who remain committed to them would like to see the process expedited. “There’s a happy medium between 13 weeks [for superstar releases] and 50 weeks,” says Curb SVP/promotion R.J. Meacham. “The ideal would be 30 weeks,” says Big Machine EVP/GM Kris Lamb.
KYGO Denver is the major-market Country station that has been most successfully informed by streaming. OM Brian Michel believes that “Country needs more active records than ever, because of the infinite choices in entertainment. We need to drive passion and the desire to engage with our brands. Passive just aids in being forgotten.”
That doesn’t mean “some of those passive songs don’t develop into real hits for the audience,” Michel adds, “but there needs to be some modicum of ‘give a care.’ That doesn’t mean ‘play everything that is new or everything that streams,’ either. Brand expectation should be considered.”
PDs skeptical about streaming have long expressed concerns about its lack of granularity. Swedberg says he would take streaming numbers more seriously if he could see skip data, saves-to-user playlists, and whether streams were generated by user search (as opposed to editorial playlists). It’s worth noting that those concerns come from a PD whose KEEY (K102) Minneapolis has been considered one of Country’s most active stations over the years.
At this moment, says Galaxy’s Skip Bishop, programmers pay attention to both, but research outweighs streaming at the last minute [when a hit song comes home at radio]. Bishop sees the callout-driven success of “Hometown Home” as example of radio’s continued influence.
Lamb also sees Jackson Dean’s “Heaven to Betsy,” now just outside the top 10 more than a year after its release as a radio flex. “We know it’s all radio-based, and I think that’s incredible … This is at least one case study that radio remains a viable model of new-music discovery. It’s not just about callout; it’s about the active engagement that we’re seeing from the consumers that are discovering the music for the very first time.”
As evidence, Lamb says “Betsy” debuted on Shazam’s national Country chart after reaching radio’s top 20. Big Machine national director of promotion/marketing Brooke Diaz says that Dean’s best Spotify day was Monday, with 20% more streams than the day of its release. Lamb sees the number of streams coming from Dean’s artist page also as evidence that listeners are discovering the song via radio.
Similarly, Shaboozey’s “Good News,” a follow-up single without the obvious virality of “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” finally cracked Spotify’s top 200 in July, a move that researcher Matt Bailey believes was driven by airplay. Around that time, “Good News” was strong in callout at not just Country but at certain successful medium-market CHR stations. It is again telling of the differences between Country and CHR that the song is taking adds for push week at Country as it closes in on No. 1, but moved on from Top 40 after peaking at No. 5.
Curb’s Meacham says he did see a streaming increase when “This Town” cracked the top 20. He notes that song always had some elements of virality including engagement on Scott’s socials, even as previous single “Can’t Have Mine” was still climbing the charts. New single “What He’ll Never Have,” which came to radio with a streaming story and early radio champions, is developing more quickly than its predecessor, although he doesn’t expect to see radio boost streaming until it gets to a similar place on the charts.
Beyond streaming, Galaxy VP of Promotion Kerry Wolfe notes that radio promotion is still worthwhile, even if it isn’t as directly monetizable as a stream. “Hit records on radio increase ROI with touring, sponsorships, merchandising, and the ability to showcase their talent on national media outlets. LOCASH and Galaxy Label Group benefit from all of those,” he says.
One indication of what radio considers to be a story is the one the labels decide to tell in their trade advertising for songs, still a relatively robust practice in Country. A look at Country Aircheck’s weekly and daily editions this week saw ads on behalf of 18 titles, not counting pure CMA-voting-targeted ads.
While streaming stories get more real estate than radio stories, the biggest selling point remains the chart itself. Of those 18 songs, 11 ads emphasized chart moves, while three mentioned other chart activity (total stations, most-added). Eight mentioned streaming, primarily emphasizing aggregate numbers. Three mentioned individual station call letters; a change from when stations complained about “alphabet soup.” Two mentioned callout.
During the chart doldrums that often precede a callout-driven song’s ascent to the top 20, one often wonders what labels are seeing to separate their song from others in similar gridlock. For Meacham, even though “we know we’re not in the cycle of people who break in 16 weeks,” there was enough initial streaming data to be optimistic. Bishop says data from RateTheMusic and NuVoodoo made him confident that “Hometown” would eventually see similar research stories at radio.
So how does chart gridlock end? “Let’s not have songs that don’t research get in the ways of the ones that do. We need to move on from songs that we know are just okay in favor of songs that might be great by artists our station believes in,” says Swedberg. Lamb says he would be able to make his triage decisions on songs earlier if radio would truly commit to getting songs to the 150-daytime-spins level sooner.
Ironically, a recent Ross on Radio article on “Programming to Listeners Who Love Radio” drew a response from veteran Country programmer Bob Moody, whose 12-week rule on currents (which then rested for 4-6 weeks before returning to recurrent) was one of the industry’s most controversial in the ’90s at the highly successful WPOC Baltimore.
Moody admits the 12-week rule would be “difficult if not impossible now,” but thinks it would be easier in diary markets than in the hand-to-hand combat of PPM. He adds that “some of the same record-industry folks who hated it at the time have told me how much they longed for the days of four singles each year.”
