Country Music streaming grew by 36% in US in 2019 with radio listeners having more contemporary tastes than on-demand streamers according to a recent report from P1 Media Group. Yet despite the general trend to playing more contemporary music, Country Radio missed the immense popularity of Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ which spent 19 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The findings were based on MRC Data/Nielsen Music Top 500 most played Country songs and interviews with a representative sample of radio and streaming listeners.
Country Music listening survey key findings
- Streaming to Country Music grew by 36% from 2018 to 2019
- 85% of radio listeners between the ages of 18 to 44 whose primary listening is Country Music report streaming to an on-demand audio service either ‘every day’ or ‘a few a day’s a week’.
- Radio is playing more contemporary music than on-demand streaming services. 70% of radio’s Top 100 most-played songs are from 2018 and 2019 versus only 55% of songs from on-demand streaming services
- Radio relies more on Core Artists playing more songs from fewer artists while on-demand streaming services play more unique artists.
- Radio plays less variety than the on-demand streaming services. Of the Top 500 songs on Country radio, 62% of the total spins come from the Top 100 songs versus 46% for on-demand streaming
- The responses from radio listeners whose primary listening is Country Music indicates that Country stations either missed or underplayed the biggest hit of 2019 ‘Old Town Road’.
Lil Nas X’s ‘Old Town Road’ was 2019’s most consumed song with over 2.5 Bn streams and is the new record holder for most weeks spent at number one with 19 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite these record stats and the popular remix featuring Country artist Billy Rae Cyrus, Country Radio disregarded the immense popularity of ‘Old Town Road.’ This #1 song did not appear on the Top 500 Country airplay chart for 2019.
