AccuRadio Achieves Spectacular 80% Growth in 2015 By Targeting At-Work Listeners

On Friday, Triton just released its “January 2016 Top 20 Ranker” data, illustrating that AccuRadio continues to be the fastest growing "personalized" music webcast.  Between January 2015 and December 2015, AccuRadio‘s AQH listener traffic grew 80% – a rate of growth that led all webcasters in ratings service Triton Digital’s “Webcast Metrics Top 20” (U.S., Mon.-Sun. 6a-12m), topping Pandora, iHeartRadio and others.  

AQH (Average Quarter-Hour Persons) 2015 Growth %:
AccuRadio, up 80%
Spotify, up 46%
iHeartMedia, up 25%
Pandora, up 10%
CBS Radio, down 14%

Year-Over-Year growth %, January 2015 - January 2016:
AccuRadio, up 59%
Spotify, up 49%
iHeart, up 21%
Pandora, up 4%

Source: Triton Digital, Mon.-Sun. 6am-12m, Average Active Sessions, U.S.

What’s driving this growth?  For AccuRadio, it’s audiences who listen at work.

AccuRadio attracts educated, at-work audiences ages 35-64 with focused marketing (“Better radio for your workday”), an interface that has been designed with the workday in mind, and an emphasis on music genres appropriate for at-work listening.  No other webcaster focuses more intentionally on this at-work audience than AccuRadio.

As a result, AccuRadio’s hour-by-hour audience profile looks like your average workday: It quickly ramps up in the morning, peaks at midday, then begins to fall in the late afternoon, with a strong Monday through Friday focus.  Furthermore, unlike most online music services, the majority of AccuRadio’s listening is web-based (i.e., on desktop and laptop computers) rather than on mobile devices.   

AccuRadio’s EVP/Music Programming, Paul Maloney explains, “While everyone else is chasing mobile listeners, we’ve had great success and growth from desktop users.”

Knowing their listeners are hard at work, AccuRadio makes conscious programming decisions to complement the rigors of a workday. “Since we’re often tired and sluggish at the beginning of the day or after lunch, upbeat music can be a great motivator. At other times during the day when you want your mind to focus on a task, and genres of music like jazz or classical can help drown out background distractions, both in your environment and in the back of your mind,” reflects Maloney. 

“All of these are moments where music is a great accompaniment, so we crafted lots of channels with these moments in mind,” says Maloney.

Furthermore, because listeners busy at work don't want to be distracted by having to "babysit" an algorithm-driven playlist that veers off-track musically, AccuRadio boasts a team of human programmers who specialize by genre and hand-pick the music for each of AccuRadio’s over 900 channels.

Based on academic studies, AccuRadio has tapped into a huge market for music consumption.  A study by Dr. Teresa Lesiuk in the music therapy program at the University of Miami reveals that employees who listen to music while working completed their tasks more quickly, contributed better ideas, and reported improved moods.  Another study commissioned by a pair of U.K. licensing organizations concluded that 77% of businesses report higher morale when employees listen to music.

Of course, there's nothing new about the radio industry targeting the at-work audience.  Scores of terrestrial radio stations throughout the years made promotional pushes along the lines of "#1 in the Office” or “Your official at-work radio station.”  But while AM/FM terrestrial radio has been doing it for ages, AccuRadio is the only online service that focuses so specifically on the workplace.

AccuRadio (“Better radio for your workday”) offers over 975 expertly-curated channels of rock, pop, R&B, jazz, country, classical, pop standards, Broadway, world music, and more, targeting an upscale, educated, at-work P35-64 demographic.  Each month, over a million unique listeners (largely in the U.S., Canada, and Japan) tune into AccuRadio via its website and its highly-rated mobile apps.