NextRadio Industry Blog

Welcome back! As we mentioned in our last post, we’ve 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 instant usage reporting, and that has been such a powerful tool in helping shape the story around NextRadio’s adoption, retention, and future. In this post, we’ll share some of those findings.

But before we really get into it, here’s where we currently stand…

BY THE NUMBERS

• 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 4.8/5.0 Google Play Store user rating

A GOOD LOOK AT MONTH-TO-MONTH TRENDS

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.

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:

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.

Watch out for a special NAB Show preview post the Friday before showtime with full details!

So, NextRadio was all over the RAB/NAB Radio Show… and for good reason! If you’re a fan of live and local radio (research shows that you probably are), there’s just no debate about whether NextRadio is a good thing. It’s free radio in your pocket, it’s a fresh interactive experience with your favorite stations, it gives broadcasters new opportunities to connect with their audience, and it gives advertisers further reach. FM receivers are already in all smartphones – what we need now is a unified voice for action on the part of more carriers to activate them.

Last week showed us and the industry, that radio is all in. When people saw the app working, vibrant, and full of content, it’s a no-brainer. When they hear record label and radio group owners excited about the promotion opportunities and data reporting, it’s hard to be anything but optimistic. The remaining voices of dissent seem to, for the intensity of their opinion, have little knowledge of the app’s features (come by, we’re happy to show it to you!) or have other products to promote and therefore very little tolerance for other options, which is unfortunate. People like options. I’m sure plenty of research shows that as well.

More about our presence at the Show below.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Over 920,000 app downloads – over 4,500 a day
• Over 10,380 FM radio stations tuned to from the app – over 3,000 a day
• Over 1,150,000 hours of listening through NextRadio – up 19% from last month
• A 4/5 Google Play Store user rating

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

Buzz buzz! New NextRadio app features were unveiled at a press conference in our booth. These include Live Guide, dynamically-driven related content cards, improved navigation, and more. These exciting new updates to the app are slated for mid-October. In the meantime, you can view a video of the press conference here, more here with links to video and the press release on our site. Also link to the video on the video page so we can swap it out later.

iBiquity and TagStation announced a partnership to deliver a comprehensive broadcast radio solution for connected car dashboards. Read the press release here and watch out for much much more, especially next month at DASH – The Connected Car AudioTainment™ Conference.

And just before the show kicked off, RCS announced support for TagStation within its automation systems. Now RCS clients can deliver enhancements to their broadcasts seamlessly to NextRadio. Read more in the press release.

BE EVERYWHERE

What does all this mean for NextRadio? Considering our precarious position in the automobile dash and the dwindling presence of radios in the home, the kind of support we saw this year at the Radio Show brings us even closer to the shared goal of truly reaching listeners wherever they are.

The new features coming out next month enable better affinity and more connection with your listeners and advertisers.The iBiquity partnership gets radio closer to a solid connected car dash solution. More supported automation systems ease onboarding for more stations.

NextRadio had the spotlight at this year's show from the keynote, to the press conferences, and inside sessions with good reason. It just makes sense. There are millions of sleeping radios in pockets throughout our nation. Why not collectively wake those up? Hubbard’s Ginny Morris put it plainly in Thursday morning’s super session, “This means more radios in the marketplace…”.

Broadcasters, let’s continue building that unified front and showing wireless carriers and handset makers we have something consumers want. 93% of people listen to radio every week. Why not make it even easier to get to? Sign up for TagStation today and make the experience irresistible.

Indiana governor Mike Pence in his keynote to the entire conference said, “Here’s to radio’s past and here’s to NextRadio.” Jaws dropped. Thanks for the incredible shout-out.

MOVING FORWARD

NEW PHONE MANIA… Speaking of being everywhere, FOUR new NextRadio-enabled phones hit the market on Friday, adding to the app’s reach throughout the country and bringing the device count to a nice round 30. The HTC Desire^® 510, HTC One^® E8, and LG G3 Vigor™ became the latest additions to the NextRadio family of supported devices. Keep track of availability with our handy wireless carrier breakdown. And if you’re not on Sprint, don’t forget to let your carrier know how important free access to FM radio on your smartphone is to you.

Oh, Super Bowl… time to think about parties, appetizers, maybe a new TV? Or if you’re like half the viewing audience, you’re in it for the commercials. Big Game advertising means big bucks; a mere $4 million gets you a 30-second spot this year. It got us thinking: Why not update you on the NextRadio proposition of reaching more of your audience with a bit more gusto? With some recent milestones and listening trending the way it has been, enhanced ad sales through NextRadio are something we can all be planning for in the very near future. And it won’t cost you $4 mil unless you would like to prepay for TagStation services for the next 9,523 years.

SO! Below we have a review of NextRadio’s enhanced content capabilities and some new figures to whet your appetite. But first…

BY THE NUMBERS

• Over 1,725,000 app downloads
• Over 11,280 FM radio stations tuned to from the app
• Over 3,050,000 hours of listening through NextRadio
• A 4/5 Google Play Store user rating

THE CONSUMER AWARENESS CAMPAIGN IS ON!

Think of any promotion your station is currently running: Ticket giveaways, a live broadcast event, a radio-thon, special in-studio guest, etc. Now imagine quickly and easily adding immediate points of action to those on-air spots that could cause a serious surge in audience engagement. Best of all, those points of action are right in the palm of your listener’s hand.

Because listening measurement for NextRadio flows into us in real time, we know that stations providing a level of interactivity – even if it’s just station branding – have more listening through NextRadio than those stations that don’t. Making that one-to-one, multi-level connection with the listener takes your great programming and does something even greater on the smartphone.

And as Gordon Smith points out in a recent NAB@Work newsletter, “Ultimately, a robust broadcast radio presence in smartphones depends on you. The more stations are providing exciting, interactive hybrid radio content via users’ smartphones, the more popular these products will become. We encourage you to get on board with NextRadio and the hybrid radio experience in 2015.”

MOVING FORWARD

Continued progress with phones… the Moto E has always been FM-enabled and if you found one, you could download and use NextRadio on it. But now, Motorola’s most affordable phone now comes preloaded with NextRadio on both Sprint and Boost Mobile! Visit our growing list of supported devices to see if you may be able to enjoy NextRadio on your current phone too! If not, here’s a good place to sound off about it: (freeradioonmyphone.org site no longer active).

We'll be back in a couple of weeks with more exciting news. In the meantime, we’re continuing to spread the message about the importance of radio in smartphones as a lifeline in emergencies, and will continue to show the benefits of the NextRadio app with representation at both EBU’s Digital Radio Summit in Geneva, Switzerland and the Winter Meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in D.C.

GO TEAM!

Let your voice be heard! Let your wireless carrier know that you care about FM radio on your smartphone. Visit FreeRadioOnMyPhone.org to take action today.