Are CHR/Pop radio stations playing less new music?

[70jack90]

I am quite an avid chart watcher, especially to the pop charts, but one thing I've noticed lately is that the radio spins in the 41-50 range is that songs have very low spin counts and a very small audience, such as the song at number 50 has around 250 spins or less. Comparing with the top 40 pop chart 20 years ago in 2002, they are either more than 500 spins or in some cases, nearly 1000 spins. Which asks me the question: Are Top 40 pop stations playing less new music? I mean they focus on the big hits and let them stay for many weeks, while other newer songs don't get a lot of airplay. And there's other great music from other formats such as Hot AC, Alternative or even Active Rock, but they rarely cross over to the pop charts, and stations focus on power rotating songs that have already peaked and overstayed their welcome. What I want to see for pop stations to have a huge amount of diversity of songs rather than a very tight playlist. I don't care about anyone worrying one alternative rock song on pop radio would lose audiences, people want to hear fresh new music! It's such a mystery why radio stations are taking the safe route instead of taking risks and play whatever that's new.

[phieaglesfan712]

I wish radio would give songs the fast rise fast fall treatment like it did with Break My Soul, rather than the hold on to songs forever like Stay. That would definitely freshen up radio and make the charts move faster, considering radio makes up 35-40% of the Hot 100 points.

[Nasarati]

I don't have statistics to back this up, but I've heard that part of the reason pop radio plays fewer new songs and increasingly relies on oldies/songs from a few years ago is this: pop music, as a genre, simply isn't as popular as it used to be -- ergo they have a smaller pool of pop hits to even choose from. There have been times where the Top 40 has been inundated with trap songs, but the Top 40 stations refused to play them, leading to a situation where they had to pad out their rotation with older, staler pop songs.


Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that fewer and fewer people listen to the radio -- and when people listen, it's usually only for a short amount of time, like on the drive home. If you only have ten minutes or so to catch someone's attention, you'll probably rely on a handful of songs you know are surefire hits rather than something new or slightly unfamiliar that might get them to change the dial.

[SabrinaFan]

I've noticed this with my local CHR in the past month or so in particular. Looking at the current chart, there are only seven songs I would say are "new" ("Don't You Worry," "Grand," "2 Be Loved," "Can't Stop Us Now," "Hold Me Closer," "Victoria's Secret," and "Super Freaky Girl), whereas I think even a month ago, there used to be around fifteen. What's even more concerning is that none of these songs have any daytime spins...they're all getting evening or overnight spins.

I completely agree with many of the comments that have already been posted in this thread as to about why this is, but it's definitely worrisome. Even looking at the main pop chart, it's concerning to see that nothing above #15 has more than 5,500 spins, whereas the top songs are getting over 18,000 spins. That's nearly triple the amount of spins, meaning that most of the songs below the top 10 range are bottoming out before they can climb to the top. I definitely miss the diversity of the pop radio charts and hope it can return someday.

[big2000]

My local CHR is quite slow when it comes to adding new songs. In the month of August, they’ve added 8 songs to the playlist (Numb, Massive, Don’t You Worry, Glimpse of Us, Bones, Betty, Victoria’s Secret, Hold Me Closer), and not a lot of them are particularly new. All the songs listed (except for Massive which has already been dropped) only get evening spins or get played on the local top 30 countdown (which gets played on Saturday mornings and Sunday nights) or syndicated shows like American Top 40. Plus, there are only 13 currents they’re giving daytime spins at the moment (Both Lizzo songs, all three Harry Styles songs, Sunroof, I Like You, Vegas, I Ain’t Worried, Bad Habit, RUTH, First Class, and Left and Right). The other daytime slots consist of throwback songs or songs they refuse to let go of like Sweetest Pie, Stay, and That’s What I Want. The other currents on the playlist are shoved into the evening and overnight hours. They can work their way out of this slot (Bad Habit has been getting more daytime spins recently), but it takes a while. There are also several songs on the station’s AllAccess playlist that haven’t even been officially added yet, and are just getting spins from syndicated programming (these include Bad Decisions, Wait For U, Grand, Easy Lover, Can’t Stop Us Now, Until I Found You, etc.).

The new songs aren’t given a chance to grow because radio wants to hang on to older songs that should be on their way out by now. The incredibly low spin thresholds you see on the top 50 right now are proof of that.

[gikem]

One thing that I’ve seen nobody mention yet here is that a lot of pop stations are also relying more and more on recurrent and gold songs to plug holes in their schedules. This is a win-win for stations because it keeps people interested in the radio (however many there are) by playing “classic” songs every once in a while to add some variety to an increasingly thin list of current hits, thus allowing their advertisers to stick around. Seems it has been proven with the aging demographic of pop radio that listeners are a lot more interested in the old hits that they know and love rather than the new hits that they’re not as familiar with.

Also doesn’t help that it costs a lot of money to promote new music to the radio, and it’s only gotten worse with the proliferation of streaming, the consolidation of local stations into mega-companies like iHeartMedia, and most recently the COVID pandemic.

[degen]

I feel like the landscape of CHR/Pop at the moment is kind of bizarre. That format is targeted mostly for anyone under the age of 35, so why are they not speeding up the process of playing newer music? Anyone under the age of 35 is more likely to stream music than to listen to their local CHR pop station, so you would think they’d want to be faster with the music they pick up. Why on earth would anyone under the age of 35 tune into their pop station and hear “Heat Waves” or “Stay” which have been on their own personal playlists for like a year now? You would think this format would be RACING to pick up new music so that it’s targeted base can tune in. My local chr pop station feels redundant, because it’s everything I’ve had on my playlist from Winter 2022. I really think the format is being misguided completely at this point.

The other formats I feel like are doing a much better job. Hot AC is doing great blending the old and the new, and AC, Urban AC, etc and the rock stations are doing a great job with playing a variety of oldies that are hard to find on streaming. So really CHR/pop is the only one not adapting to the times. They must be out of their minds to think anyone is going to tune in and turn it up On “Levitating” for the millionth time.

[70jack90]

Thanks for the answers guys.

[carriefan15]

Yes! I’ve been hearing a lot of older (2010-2013 songs) lately here in Phoenix on the CHR stations! I’ve heard Give Me Everything and Clarity specifically Iike every single day for the past week or so. Sometimes twice a day. Not complaining at all as I’ve always wished they play a better variety or newer and older/recurrent songs!

[big2000]

I’m collecting samples of my station’s playlist from AllAccess to show how CHR is over-reliant on older songs (simply because the playlist on my station’s website doesn’t show all songs). I’m still waiting for a daytime sample, but I have a sample for the 11:00pm hour on a Friday.

11:04 PM - Harry Styles: As It Was
11:07 PM - Elton John/Britney Spears: Hold Me Closer
11:10 PM - Doja Cat/SZA: Kiss Me More
11:13 PM - Steve Lacy: Bad Habit
11:16 PM - Lizzo: About Damn Time
11:19 PM - The Kid Laroi/Justin Bieber: Stay
11:21 PM - Kate Bush: Running Up That Hill
11:24 PM - Halsey: So Good

[AD BREAK]

11:36 PM - Harry Styles: Late Night Talking
11:39 PM - Post Malone/Doja Cat: I Like You
11:42 PM - Jay Sean/Lil Wayne: Down
11:46 PM - Charlie Puth/Jungkook: Left and Right
11:48 PM - Nicky Youre/Dazy: Sunroof
11:51 PM - Jax: Victoria’s Secret
11:53 PM - Lil Nas X: That’s What I Want
11:56 PM - Black Eyed Peas/Shakira/David Guetta: Don’t You Worry

With a few exceptions, most of the songs during this hour are still on the chart. I’m still waiting for a daytime sample to see if this is true for all hours of the day.

[70jack90]

Here's a sample of KIIS-FM (LA)'s playlist that I have from Saturday, September 3, 2022 on its daytime hours from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

10:01 AM - HARRY STYLES Music For A Sushi Restaurant (Current)
10:05 AM - FUTURE Wait For U f/Drake (Current)
10:07 AM - GLASS ANIMALS Heat Waves (Recurrent)

(Commercial break)

10:18 AM - HALSEY So Good (Current)
10:21 AM - DOJA CAT Vegas (Current)
10:24 AM - SELENA GOMEZ Good For You f/A$AP Rocky (Gold, 2015)
10:27 AM - JOJI Glimpse Of Us (Current)
10:30 AM - DOJA CAT Woman (Recurrent)
10:33 AM - BAD BUNNY Me Porto Bonito f/Ch. Corleone (Current)
10:36 AM - HARRY STYLES As It Was (Current)
10:39 AM - JAY SEAN Down f/Lil Wayne (Gold, 2009)

(Commercial break)

10:50 AM - DOJA CAT Need To Know (Recurrent)
10:54 AM - LIZZO About Damn Time (Current)
10:57 AM - ONEREPUBLIC I Ain't Worried (Current)
10:59 AM - HARRY STYLES Late Night Talking (Current)
11:02 AM - ELTON JOHN & BRITNEY SPEARS Hold Me Closer (Current)
11:06 AM - KATE BUSH Running Up That Hill (Current)

(Commercial break)

11:16 AM - MARSHMELLO X KHALID Numb (Current)
11:19 AM - HARRY STYLES Music For A Sushi Restaurant (Current)
11:22 AM - NICKI MINAJ Starships (Gold, 2012)
11:25 AM - STEVE LACY Bad Habit (Current)
11:28 AM - THE WEEKND Save Your Tears (Recurrent)
11:32 AM - JAX Victoria's Secret (Current)
11:34 AM - DOJA CAT Vegas (Current)
11:37 AM - PANIC! AT THE DISCO I Write Sins Not Tragedies (Gold, 2006)

(Commercial break)

11:48 AM - LIL NAS X That's What I Want (Recurrent)
11:51 AM - HARRY STYLES As It Was (Current)
11:53 AM - JOJI Glimpse Of Us (Current)
11:56 AM - JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE Sexyback (Gold, 2006)
12:00 PM - LIZZO About Damn Time (Current)
12:03 PM - ROSA LINN Snap (Current)
12:06 PM - THE WEEKND Out Of Time (Recurrent)

(Commercial break)

12:17 PM - POST MALONE I Like You (A Happier Song) f/Doja Cat (Current)
12:20 PM - HARRY STYLES Late Night Talking (Current)
12:23 PM - EMINEM Love The Way You Lie f/Rihanna (Gold, 2010)
12:26 PM - ONEREPUBLIC I Ain't Worried (Current)
12:29 PM - GLASS ANIMALS Heat Waves (Recurrent)
12:32 PM - ROSALIA Despecha (Current)
12:35 PM - HARRY STYLES Music For A Sushi Restaurant (Current)
12:38 PM - RIHANNA Umbrella f/Jay-Z (Gold, 2007)

(Commercial break)

12:49 PM - POST MALONE & SWAE LEE Sunflower (Gold, 2018)
12:52 PM - DOJA CAT Vegas (Current)
12:55 PM - STEVE LACY Bad Habit (Current)
12:58 PM - BRITNEY SPEARS Baby, One More Time (Gold, 1998)

[Nasarati]

Someone needs to hold radio stations' hands and tell them it's okay to stop playing songs from After Hours. It'll all be okay. They can let go and move on.

[SabrinaFan]

I guess I can give two samples of my station KDWB, one overnight and one daytime, just for comparison. Sadly, even the overnight hours only have two songs I'd consider "new."

6:00 PM Hour - Thursday
6:03 PM - Post Malone - Better Now
6:06 PM - Harry Styles - Late Night Talking
6:09 PM - Doja Cat - Vegas
6:11 PM - Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
6:14 PM - Nicky Youre / Dazy - Sunroof
6:16 PM - Lil Nas X - That's What I Want
6:19 PM - Jax - Victoria's Secret
6:22 PM - Glass Animals - Heat Waves
6:26 PM - Post Malone / Doja Cat - I Like You
6:29 PM - Morgan Wallen - Wasted on You

(Commercial break)

6:45 PM - Doja Cat - Get Into It (Yuh)
6:47 PM - Harry Styles - As It Was
6:50 PM - Jeremih / Yg - Don't Tell 'Em

3:00 AM Hour - Saturday
3:00 AM - Doja Cat - Get Into It (Yuh)
3:02 AM - Pitbull / Zac Brown - Can't Stop Us Now

(Commercial break)

3:12 AM - Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
3:14 AM - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis / Ray Dalton - Can't Hold Us
3:18 AM - OneRepublic - I Ain't Worried
3:21 AM - Rihanna / Calvin Harris - We Found Love
3:24 AM - Post Malone / Doja Cat - I Like You
3:27 AM - Maneskin - Beggin'
3:31 AM - Lizzo - 2 Be Loved
3:34 AM - Taylor Swift - Style
3:37 AM - Harry Styles - As It Was
3:40 AM - Post Malone - Circles
3:43 AM - Joji - Glimpse of Us
3:46 AM - Lizzo - About Damn Time
3:49 AM - Lorde - Royals
3:52 AM - Yung Gravy - Betty
3:55 AM - Selena Gomez - Wolves
3:58 AM - Lil Nas X - That's What I Want

[big2000]

Sept 4, 2022 14:33:48 GMT -5 Nasarati said:

Someone needs to hold radio stations' hands and tell them it's okay to stop playing songs from After Hours. It'll all be okay. They can let go and move on.

Agreed. My station never added Out of Time yet they still play Blinding Lights.

[phieaglesfan712]

Sept 4, 2022 14:33:48 GMT -5 Nasarati said:

Someone needs to hold radio stations' hands and tell them it's okay to stop playing songs from After Hours. It'll all be okay. They can let go and move on.

Better yet, radio stations need stop playing old songs like Stay and As It Was incessantly.

I just e-mailed my local alternative station to try to get them to stop playing AIW.

[Nasarati]

Sept 4, 2022 15:33:31 GMT -5 phieaglesfan712 said:

Sept 4, 2022 14:33:48 GMT -5 Nasarati said:

Someone needs to hold radio stations' hands and tell them it's okay to stop playing songs from After Hours. It'll all be okay. They can let go and move on.

Better yet, radio stations need stop playing old songs like Stay and As It Was incessantly.

I just e-mailed my local alternative station to try to get them to stop playing AIW.

Nice try, but there's no way in hell they're yoinking AIT yet. As It Was might feel overplayed, but it's not old at all. It's only been out for six months. It's literally still number one in the country. Get ready to enjoy it for another six months at minimum.

At least it's from this year, which cannot be said of all these other songs radio is clinging to, like Stay.

[phieaglesfan712]

Sept 4, 2022 15:39:25 GMT -5 Nasarati said:

Sept 4, 2022 15:33:31 GMT -5 phieaglesfan712 said:

Better yet, radio stations need stop playing old songs like Stay and As It Was incessantly.

I just e-mailed my local alternative station to try to get them to stop playing AIW.

Nice try, but there's no way in hell they're yoinking AIT yet. As It Was might feel overplayed, but it's not old at all. It's only been out for six months. It's literally still number one in the country. Get ready to enjoy it for another six months at minimum.

At least it's from this year, which cannot be said of all these other songs radio is clinging to, like Stay.

I get that AIW is a big pop song, but the song has no place being played all day on an alternative station.

[Gary]

Sept 4, 2022 16:50:11 GMT -5 phieaglesfan712 said:

Sept 4, 2022 15:39:25 GMT -5 Nasarati said:

Nice try, but there's no way in hell they're yoinking AIT yet. As It Was might feel overplayed, but it's not old at all. It's only been out for six months. It's literally still number one in the country. Get ready to enjoy it for another six months at minimum.

At least it's from this year, which cannot be said of all these other songs radio is clinging to, like Stay.

I get that AIW is a big pop song, but the song has no place being played all day on an alternative station.

It is on the rock/alternative airplay chart so your station is not the only one

Alternate solution:

Change the station? Just sayin...

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Lmao

[carriefan15]

In the last couple hours, 104.7 KISS FM in Phoenix played Tik Tok, Rude Boy, Don’t Cha, Hey Mama, Time of Our Lives and Poker Face. Then all the new songs of course around those. But pretty wild with the sudden variety!

[mrmike855]

Yes they are, but it's probably because fewer people listen to the radio, especially for new songs. Even in 2002, there were people who genuinely listened to the radio for new music and would buy those songs on CD. But in 2022, very few people do. When you have the ability to listen to any song you want, whenever you want (assuming you've paid for Spotify, or if you're willing to use 4G for YouTube or Spotify) you probably aren't going to listen to a strictly controlled set of songs.

At the same time, radio stations have to know they aren't super popular, and playing a new, relatively unknown song isn't going to attract listeners, so instead, they stick with very popular songs because they know people will tune in for them. Much like how TV networks will drag a show out, long past its prime, radio stations will drag out a popular song long past its expiration date, because it is a known successful entity, and the lack of consistent listeners makes them especially cautious about adding new songs. I know this board seems to have a lot of respect for the radio, but it's surprising that few people seem to acknowledge this fact.

Also, my local CHR station is very slow at adding new songs. They're rhythmic-leaning, so they'll jump on songs by rappers (relatively speaking), but for everyone else, you have to make the top 10 to even be considered for a playlist spot, most of the time is spent playing older songs. This even extends to known rappers, they constantly played Lil Nas X's "Industry Baby", even while "That's What I Want" was increasing in popularity, and it was the same with "Montero" compared with "Industry Baby". 

[big2000]

My station is commercial free today (for Labor Day) and the playlist today has actually had a nice boost in variety, with more new songs being played during the day. I don’t think this will stick around, but a nice change of pace.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

A few years ago, I came up with a theory that I didn't really explore or develop into any sort of a thesis but I've mentioned it once or twice around here or somewhere that CHR/Pop (and current hit music radio formats in general) would cease to exist by 2030. The date may or may not be true but the general idea is that radio's focus on current music will continue to dwindle in the coming years due to its audience and how people listen to radio. I think the current pop radio charts and landscape has been supportive of this theory.

We've been seeing the bigger hits holding for much longer in the last few years. Songs generally take longer to peak than they used to (this is less so now than it was two years ago though). The total spins of the songs at the top are about the same or higher while the airplay of the songs at the bottom continue to drop, which signifies that radio is still playing the big hits, but they're playing less of the up-and-comers or minor hits. Minor hits (those that miss the top 10, usually) drop like a brick once they peak and presumably don't have much recurrent airplay.

People don't listen to radio for new music. I haven't actually looked for research to back that up but I firmly believe that. I'm also of the belief (and have seen some articles on this) that people don't listen to radio for particularly long periods of time, at least not like they used to. During commutes, or while doing other activities. (though I'd venture a guess that the listener profile differs for other radio formats, like AC or Country, where people may engage with those stations for a lot longer).
People want familiarity. There's enough choice now that if radio plays too many songs the listener is unfamiliar with, they'll switch to something else. The job of radio is to hold the listener's attention, and keep them coming back. That's why pop radio isn't going to risk it with too many new songs. It might also be why, in today's landscape, pop radio may not have as many current singles in rotation compared to past years, because today's current hits haven't penetrated the pop culture landscape the way the hits of 2012, 2002 or 1992 might have. So if it were 1992 and radio randomly picked 20 current hits, chances are most people would know most of them. Today in 2022, you do the same, I'd venture a guess that a lot of people would be unfamiliar with a lot of those songs.
Also consider that pop radio's target demographic is fairly young, but young people are quite likely the least likely to listen to radio by choice given the availability of streaming services.
I think in the coming years, Pop will continue shifting toward the Hot AC and AC model and relying more on recent big hits from the 2000s and 2010s to hold those listeners, while keeping the bigger already-established hits or newest released by already-established artists in rotation for that current touch.

Also related, I also think this will continue to have a bigger impact on the Hot 100 as well. Situations like "Bad Habits," "Blinding Lights," "As It Was," etc will become more common, not because they are massive hits, but because they've become a bit of a default go-to for radio. Songs that are established hits that are current enough to check that box, but familiar enough to listeners not to lose them. These are the songs that fit the more classic-description of what a hit is, songs everyone knows, whereas many of the hits today are more segmented, specific to segments of the population based on demographic or source of the music. You can have a song that is a huge hit for one group of people, and be completely known by another group of people. By the nature of statistics, the songs that are known by the most people will be the ones that chart best, and those songs also happen to be the ones that radio will play, because familiarity.

Now, I fully admit that I'm mostly talking out of my ass at this point. I haven't done the research to back all of this up. This is just my estimation based on how I perceive and understand radio, trends, the industry and pop culture in general.

[Daenerys]

Would the assumption then be that radio becomes even more glued to callouts? Or that callouts essentially become the programming list as radio measure the familiarity and favorability of certain songs and certain hits and becomes locked in to a seasonal/rotational programming agenda based on what radio thinks it's audiences want to hear? That then creates the impression that radio is less willing to experiment and try out songs from less established artists. I imagine that means less radio deals or more precisely "less slots for radio deals", and there is a barrier of entry for organic hits in the traditional radio sense if I am understanding that appropriately. 

Do labels then plan to release certain songs to the format and set-up agreements with big radio chains to "try songs out"?

The picture provided seems to me to be a more formalized process of the commodization of radio, and radio partnering more regularly with labels to take the soul out of radio and run it more like syndicated programming across the nation. You could argue radio is already there. To me is just seems like an acceleration of where we currently are. In this scenario I see radio being beholden to labels more than anything, since they aren't trying to find the new hit themselves, and are relying on labels to send them songs and hits.

It seems radio will become even more regulated than it already is, potentially if your theory turns out to be right.

[SabrinaFan]

Excellent post, and I completely agree with what you said. I just had a couple of thoughts/observations to add.

Sept 6, 2022 21:32:39 GMT -5 Devil Marlena Nylund said:

Minor hits (those that miss the top 10, usually) drop like a brick once they peak and presumably don't have much recurrent airplay.

I've noticed the definition of "minor hit" seems to be expanding, and the threshold seems to be moving towards top 5 now. Lately, I've noticed pretty much anything that misses the top 5 drops like a rock. Two current examples would be Beyoncé's "Break My Soul." It was #7 last week, and now it's plummeted all the way down to #15 losing hundreds of spins at a time. "Running Up That Hill" seems like it will be the same case, as it had a positive bullet of 117 just eight days ago, and now the bullet's already dropped to -2147 in just that span of a week, despite that it was gaining last week. The Kid Laroi's "Thousand Miles" is perhaps the most obvious example of this, where it was gaining one week and all of a sudden started getting updates where it was losing 700-800 spins per day. On the other hand, the stuff that does make the top 5 like "As It Was," "Stay" and "Heat Waves" lingers around forever.

I've also noticed that for these minor hits, once the bullet hits -200 or more, the demise of the song is pretty much inevitable. The only example this year I can think of where that didn't happen is Tyga and Doja Cat's "Freaky Deaky," which floundered in the top 30 with a negative bullet for months before radio dropped it.

Sept 6, 2022 21:32:39 GMT -5 Devil Marlena Nylund said:

People don't listen to radio for new music. I haven't actually looked for research to back that up but I firmly believe that. I'm also of the belief (and have seen some articles on this) that people don't listen to radio for particularly long periods of time, at least not like they used to. During commutes, or while doing other activities. (though I'd venture a guess that the listener profile differs for other radio formats, like AC or Country, where people may engage with those stations for a lot longer).

People want familiarity. There's enough choice now that if radio plays too many songs the listener is unfamiliar with, they'll switch to something else. The job of radio is to hold the listener's attention, and keep them coming back. That's why pop radio isn't going to risk it with too many new songs.

This is just an observation, but at least for my local CHR, I've noticed that they increasingly play the "new music" bumper for songs that aren't actually all that new, but aren't quite hits that people would undeniably recognize yet. For example, they're still referring to Halsey's "So Good" and Marshmello/Khalid's "Numb" as "new music." I wouldn't consider either of those songs to be particularly "new" since they've been charting for three months now, but I don't think they're quite popular enough where the general public would recognize them. This seems to support your point of people wanting familiarity, so radio stations are throwing around the phrase "new music" a lot more loosely. Almost as a way to say "you might not know this song yet, but it's okay!" lol.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Sept 7, 2022 12:14:45 GMT -5 SabrinaFan said:

This is just an observation, but at least for my local CHR, I've noticed that they increasingly play the "new music" bumper for songs that aren't actually all that new, but aren't quite hits that people would undeniably recognize yet. For example, they're still referring to Halsey's "So Good" and Marshmello/Khalid's "Numb" as "new music." I wouldn't consider either of those songs to be particularly "new" since they've been charting for three months now, but I don't think they're quite popular enough where the general public would recognize them. This seems to support your point of people wanting familiarity, so radio stations are throwing around the phrase "new music" a lot more loosely. Almost as a way to say "you might not know this song yet, but it's okay!" lol.

Yes, this is a good point! I’ve also noticed that for at least a couple years now, where a song that isn’t new will be labeled as a new song on my local pop station. Even songs close to being eligible for recurrent on the pop radio chart (but that didn’t chart super high) I’ve heard labeled as new with a promo bumper. I thought it was odd before but your explanation makes a lot of sense. It’s as if people need to be informed that “okay, we’re going to play something you may not know but don’t worry. We know it’s probably new to you and it’s just going to be this song so stick with us here for a minute. We promise it’ll be okay!”

[SPRΞΞ]

i think, unless you have a radio deal, that Pop radio waits to massively spin a new song until it performs well on streaming (Spotify and Apple).

[anton687]

I think that this particular CHR trend is due to the fact that the streaming audience is moving on from songs a lot slower these days. Keep in mind that some of the biggest CHR hits of the past few years - "Blinding Lights", "Save Your Tears", "Levitating", "Heat Waves", "Mood", "STAY", "As It Was", etc. - all stuck around on the streaming charts for ages. The general public clearly wants to keep hearing these songs, so as long as they get good callouts, radio will keep playing them.

That being said, I do think that they are more reticent to play new stuff than they should be, which also exacerbates this situation. Peaks between 11 and 15 are increasingly more prominent on Pop these days, mainly for the more radio-driven hits. These songs also tend to either be less pop-friendly or have lower streaming numbers, so Pop probably wants to go back to its own section of staples more often instead. Are there exceptions? Of course. But that's just my take on it.

[SabrinaFan]

A local station of mine that's unaffiliated with any major company has recently been playing a throwback song from the 1990s/2000s at the top of every hour on Wednesdays, marketing it as "Nostalgia on Top Wednesdays." I feel like at some point, CHR/Pop could move more towards intentionally trying to appeal to listeners with more and more throwbacks. Since radio is thought of as "old school" in the age of streaming, I could absolutely see the format trying to appeal to the comfort of playing familiar throwback songs that people may not have listened to for a while. I've seen a lot of people comment on here recently about hearing more and more throwbacks on the radio, and there's even a whole thread with people listing semi-obscure throwbacks their station plays (not obscure in the sense people wouldn't know it, more "wow, I haven't heard this in forever!") Nostalgia is a powerful drug, so radio would be smart to play upon that by putting more and more throwbacks in the mix. Of course, the drawback of this is that if radio stations are intentionally trying to market themselves off of familiarity, that probably means they'll be taking those slots away from newer songs, since those wouldn't cater as much to the "familiarity" marketing point.

Of course, all of this is already happening to an extent, but all of this is to say I think radio marketing off of nostalgia will become more intentional and pervasive in the coming years.

[uncanny614]

Sept 7, 2022 16:48:55 GMT -5 SPRΞΞ said:

i think, unless you have a radio deal, that Pop radio waits to massively spin a new song until it performs well on streaming (Spotify and Apple).

So why do you think pop radio is not playing or scared of "Pink Venom" by Blackpink?