Radio station music research has been around for decades, but many stations are still testing songs the way they have for, well, decades. It’s time to improve results by adjusting the traditional scale used to rate songs. And the best method of finding songs that inspire passion and loyalty are to get rid of the middle.
There are really just three goals of tactical music research:
- Identify songs the audience doesn’t like and stop playing them.
- Find songs they do like and play them more.
- Reveal songs they passionately love and play them a lot more.
We need more passion on the air. And too many stations are rocking their audience to sleep with safe songs nobody dislikes. That’s usually because they choose a method of scoring research that rewards songs in the middle, To inspire passion, force listeners out of no-man’s land.
And being in a musical no-man’s land is a terrible place to be.
Eliminate the middle for more reliable results and a more exciting radio station.
