How many listeners does it take to make an online radio station a success?
Since starting this venture some years ago there’s been a question I could never answer with any degree of certainty. How many people listen? My answer would range from “a few”, to “hundreds” to “thousands”, depending not only on my bravado, but on what system was giving me the data. The data was often full of anomalies, difficult to fathom and sometimes downright misleading.
Recently I came across a simple, straight-up system called StreamAnalyst.com, a company established in Brussels, Belgium in 2003. It takes all its data directly from the streaming servers and presents it cleanly, unadulterated and orderable in a number of settings. They have hundreds of radio stations as subscribers.
So, with StreamAnalyst’s help, I can report the following: last month, around 29,000 connections were made with radio.sydney. However, many were just a few seconds long.
I asked Jean-Luc Halleux (pic right), CEO of StreamAnalysts, about this: ”Most of the very short listening sessions come from bots (computer programs) that scan the internet for search engines, intelligence agencies and technical research. So, it is perfectly normal to have many short sessions.”
But when you drill down, it leaves a discerning 2,800 who stay on for more than 5  minutes, most a lot longer. These are the radio.sydney listeners who are here for the music. My instinct is that, of that number, around half are ‘regulars’ and the other half are the ‘searchers’, many of whom become regulars and spread the word.
In terms of which channel rules, radio.sydney BLUE leads the pack with about 50% and RED and WHITE have around 25% each.
Despite (or because of) the station name, listeners come from the US 47%, Australia 20%, Canada 14%,
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followed by European and Asian countries. Most listening happens between 8am – 7pm Sydney time (night-time in North America).
On all channels the higher bit-rates are most popular. (The last days of 32 kbps?) The most popular browser for radio.sydney listeners is Chrome and, unsurprisingly, ITunes and WinAmp are the most popular players. iOS is the most popular mobile platform.
Jean-Luc again: "We are impressed by the professional attention given by radio.sydney to the listenin g behaviour of their audience and how they continuously improve and adapt to delight their listeners. The figures look good and we see that the station management is very attentive.”
My instinct has always been to present a program that I’d be happy to listen to myself and then hope there are enough out there with much the same tastes. It’s a niche market, but getting less niche it seems. The very fact that the notion of listenership now comes into the mix as a factor lifts the radio.sydney venture to another level.
Jean Luc: “The stats for radio.sydney BLUE in particular put it among the most promising young radio stations. It could be a good time for any potential commercial supporter after an international audience to consider radio.sydney a long-term, cost-effective branding vehicle.”
There’s a lot more data to be mined. And it will be forthcoming. Thanks to Jean-Luc and all at StreamAnalysts for their guidance and support.
Jean-Luc: “It's a real pleasure to help radio.sydney calculate their audience statistics. Using professional statistics data is key. It always provides much more insight into what listeners want!”
And, as always, happy and enjoyable listening. (You've always been more than a stat.)
Max.
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