Data

The owner of popular media outlets like HBO, CNN and TNT intends to offer its own audience-measurement data next year, with hopes of doing some deals based on its efforts in the 2022 upfront, Andrea Zapata, who oversees data, research and insights for the company’s ad-sales unit, said in an interview. “We are doing this because we believe that there has got to be a better alternative in measurement solutions,” she said.

Source: WarnerMedia Plans to Launch Nielsen Measurement Alternative in 2022

Music has lost eight percent of its stateside listenership share to spoken word audio – including podcasts and audiobooks – since 2014, according to a new study. During the last month, the document states, a full 75 percent of the U.S. online population (age 18 and up) has listened to spoken word audio content, with 45 percent of the 330 million-resident nation’s age 13+ population having listened to spoken word entertainment daily.

Source: Music’s Share of Listening Dips 8% in U.S. Amid Spoken Word Audio Growth

Platforms like HBO Max, Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon’s Prime Video, Hulu and Paramount+ continue to keep a vise-like grip on their data, and, nearly a decade into the streaming era, the lack of transparency is making it nearly impossible for dealmakers, and even viewers, to define what is a hit and what is a bomb.

Source: Why Streamers Are Stalling on Sharing Data

A report from eMarkerter suggests that Spotify will hit 41.5 million free users  in the US this year. That’s an increase of 9.7% over 2020, and part of a trend that finds ad-supported listeners making up an increased share of Spotify’s platform. If that trend continues, Spotify is expected to have as many as 52 million US-based ad-supported listeners by 2025.

Source: Spotify Free Users Are Growing Faster Than Paid Subscribers – Why?

As part of its third-quarter earnings release on Tuesday, the streaming giant disclosed it will soon begin reporting viewership stats measured as the total number of hours viewed of a program during its first 28 days on the platform. For years, Netflix has only reported the number of households who watched at least a small portion of a program.

Source: Netflix to Reveal More Viewership Data as Streamer Changes its Internal Metrics

In the past, box office film revenues provided a clear picture of what a star, the agents, studios and theaters should earn after a project made its debut. Now, in the age of streaming, data is more scarce and streaming services are less inclined to offer up information and data.

Source: Creative Artists Agency Co-Chairman Richard Lovett Says Company Mines Streaming Data for Movie Deals

A new report suggests traditional radio is no longer the dominant platform for new music discovery for Americans. That brings into question whether the ‘promotional value’ touted by broadcast corporations as a reason not to pay artists royalties is even valid. That may have been the case fifty years ago when radio was king, but as The Buggles put it, “video killed the radio star.”

Source: For Americans, Radio No Longer Dominant Music Discovery Medium

Six years after it was acquired by Pandora, music analytics platform Next Big Sound is going quiet.  In a blog post published Friday, the brand said it will be shutting down effective Nov. 1. “It’s been a wild ride,” reads the post, signed by “The Next Big Sound Team.” “After 12 years of tracking music data across hundreds of thousands of artists and hundreds of billions of streams, it’s time to say goodbye.”

Source: Pandora Is Shutting Down Next Big Sound

For 2021 to date, global music streaming is up by a remarkable 25.9% from the same period in 2020, according to a new study of international music trends from MRC Data. The total amount of on-demand audio song streams from January through August of this year was 1.7 trillion, as opposed to 1.4 trillion during the first eight months of last year.

Source: Global Song Streams Are Up 25.9% This Year, Says MRC Study of Worldwide Music Trends