NextRadio’s latest trending numbers

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Next RadioTagStation has done some interesting new analysis that tracks month-to-month growth in NextRadio use. One of the greatest benefits of this type of listening is the usage reporting, and that has been such a powerful tool in helping shape the story around NextRadio’s adoption, retention, and future.


Here’s where NextRadio currently stands:

–Over 240,000 app downloads

–Over 7,700 FM radio stations tuned to from the app

–Over 190,000 hours of listening through NextRadio

–A 4.1/5.0 Google Play Store user rating

From their most recent post:

Trends are fun. They also tell us an important story. Are we moving in the right direction? Is our growth relative to market saturation where it needs to be? Can we take our results on the road and use them to support the idea that FM radio in the smartphone is valuable, not only to our industry, but to regular consumers? Without that story, we have no case.

So let’s take our good look. We’ve tracked three metrics since November and parsed out the growth by percentage each month since. Ending with February, we get three measurements of growth for each. Now, these are not unfamiliar numbers if you’ve been following along… we report on total stations tuned every two weeks. But what gets lost sometimes with seeing a flat new number in a list, even though it’s higher, is HOW MUCH higher it is since last time.

m2m_graphs

Average Stations Listened to Per Day
Nov-Dec: +8%
Dec-Jan: +30%
Jan-Feb: +43%

Considering there are a finite number of FM radio stations in the US, we can say this definitively by looking at this growth pattern: We are reaching your listeners. The carrier network drives our current ability to stretch our presence into the far corners of our United States, and for that, Sprint has been invaluable.

Average Minutes Listened Per Day
Nov-Dec: +20%
Dec-Jan: +60%
Jan-Feb: +62%

There’s movement by leaps and bounds on this one, but we expect that. Considering the steady rise of FM-enabled smartphones on the market, app downloads, and awareness, we want to see that new users are ACTIVE listeners. This growth supports that idea.

Average Listening Sessions Per Day
Nov-Dec: +15%
Dec-Jan: +51%
Jan-Feb: +76%

Again, the narrative to this story is that we’re seeing big leaps in these metrics month over month, that growth has accelerated significantly starting in January, and that simply means we’re adding a lot of new users every day and they are returning more frequently to listen.

We hope that your takeaway as broadcasters is that this growth in NextRadio listening is benefiting everybody. Your listeners have another way to hear you, and from the looks of things, they’re taking advantage of it! Now for one more visual, we hope you’ll take to heart:

100towers
Chances are decent that your radio stations are within the majority of stations that have already been tuned to by NextRadio users. If the user was lucky, they saw a station logo to accompany what they were listening to. And if they were in the just the right place at the just right time, they saw a whole lot more from the stations taking advantage of the full features of NextRadio: album art, station feedback, song purchasing, etc… or maybe just the undeniable importance of a bit more affinity between themselves and their favorite local programming.

There’s never been a better time to get involved. Take that free logo and turn it into a real immersive radio-listening experience for all of these new listeners. They’ll thank you for it.

“So happy. Because I don’t have a very good WiFi or cell signal in many places I go, it is a huge plus to have this app. It works great and is super easy.” – Jeff J., five stars, Google Play Store

Moving Forward

As you may have already read, our enhanced advertising beta testing will start shortly. We’ll be excited to expand on that and provide details on our findings as we gather them. In the meantime, you can find us as at a couple more industry events.

Paul and Libby will be at the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Annual Convention next week talking about the importance of broadcaster participation to the life and quality of the NextRadio app and the station benefits that come from that participation. Libby will be providing TagStation license signups and demos as well. We hope to make many new OK friends!

And of course, we look forward to seeing many of you at NextRadio’s booth #C1054 at the 2014 NAB Show in Vegas next month. Again, we will be giving demos of the NextRadio app to anyone who may still have not had the chance to see it up close and personally. TagStation data service demos and licenses will also be available on the spot! There are a few more appearances and sessions to keep an eye out for featuring TagStation, the NextRadio app, and discussions about the connected car.