COUNTRY MUSIC HALFWAY THROUGH 2018: LISTENERS SAY “BETTER”

“Country music is getting better” is a sentiment I’ve been hearing more of these days.

And it’s not just coming from Program Directors. It’s coming from listeners, too.

Earlier this year when we presented Roadmap 2018 at A&O&B’s annual pre-CRS seminar in Nashville, the percent of respondents who felt that in 2017 “country music had gotten better/stayed the same” was off slightly from 2016: 89-87% in the US and 83-81% in Canada.

Trends

As you can see in the US trend chart below, our 2017 mid-year report found the Like A Lot scores off as well (in this chart, lower is better).

However halfway through 2018 however the numbers are looking better.

The average Like A Lot Rank for all 34 songs (US) we sent to recurrent since the first of the year is significantly improved: 8.9 – 8.1.

Total Positive scores are up as well – albeit it slightly – so far in 2018 (in this chart higher is better).

For added perspective, we divided the final, half-year, Like A Lot Rank scores into three groups: the top, middle, and bottom third of our tested currents. This year saw roughly a one point improvement in all three groups (in this chart lower is better).

Compared to 2012…

We’re still behind where we were in 2012 when we first started tracking half-year performance.

Back then our overall LAL Rank average was 7.6 and there were six titles that averaged 2.0 or lower. There are just two songs that ranked 2.0 of lower in the first half of 2018.

Still, 2018’s mid-year report is encouraging.

Encouraging enough that the next time someone asks you how Country Music is doing these days, you can tell them, “Getting better.”

And you’ll have some numbers to back you up.

Related: A&O&B’s 2017 Year-End Music Report

Photo: Canva