Brian Wright “Radio & Spotify”

 Spotify Is a Direct Competitor for Radio’s Listening Time

Every time a radio station encourages listeners to open Spotify, it conditions the audience to leave radio for incremental periods of time. Radio’s #1 competitor are other media platform and Spotify is one of the biggest. After going over hundreds & hundreds of actual Nielsen diaries and data, it clearly shows that Spotify and some other platforms are capturing a great deal of top-of-mind awareness and reducing Time Spent Listening for radio. In actual Nielsen verbatim comments, Spotify is stated as a media choice without even being asked. Once listeners begin building routines around streaming platforms, radio loses daily usage occasions.

Spotify’s primary business model is built around capturing as much audio time as possible, and much of it comes at the expense of radio’s TSL. Their appeal comes through:

• Personalized playlists
• Algorithmic recommendations
• Podcasts
• On-demand listening
• Smart speaker integration

Broadcast radio cannot at all afford to introduce, recommend or train listeners to migrate toward these platforms that are specifically designed to replace radio listening.

Radio’s Relationship With Other Music Media Platforms Creates A Net Loss.

Spotify rarely promotes local radio stations. The relationship is not reciprocal.

When some radio stations promote:

• “Find us on Spotify”
• “Listen to this playlist on Spotify”
• “Stream this artist on Spotify”

they are effectively providing free marketing for a billion-dollar streaming company that competes for:

• audience attention & time
• revenue generation
• music discovery
• in-car listening
• connected device usage

Radio stations should focus promotional energy on our own brands, apps, websites, streams, and personalities instead of strengthening a competitor’s brands. It is very difficult to bring listeners back.

Radio’s Power Is Human Connection & Not Endless Music

Spotify wins on scale and convenience. Radio wins on companionship, emotion, immediacy, and local relevance. Even with this, radio users have a persistent pull to other media platforms, so to give them any encouragement to sample them, for any reason will have a big negative impact on your station’s Time Spent Listening & Cumulative audience!

*When your radio station has just 10 of your core listeners devoting 20% more of their listening time with Spotify, rather than your station, your Average-Quarter-Hour-Persons drop will have a significantly negative impact on your ratings. Enough to drop you 3-4 positions in market rank!

Remember… you do not have to affect your entire universe of listeners to have a universal effect on your ratings. Diary attribution is huge.

Broadcast radio’s differentiators include:

• Live personalities
• Local connection
• Community involvement
• Weather and emergency information
• Shared audience experiences
• Contests and listener interaction
• Human curation and storytelling

Promoting Spotify reinforces the false idea that radio is primarily “just music.” That diminishes radio’s most valuable advantage: personality and emotional connection.

Spotify Encourages Passive Brand Loyalty to Algorithms

Radio stations spend decades building recognizable brands and emotional familiarity. Spotify spends millions and works endlessly to shift loyalty away from your radio station and toward:

• playlists
• moods
• algorithms
• recommendation engines

Listeners may remember catchy titles like:

• “Chill Hits”
• “RapCaviar”
• “Discover Weekly”

instead of remembering your station’s brands, morning shows, or personalities that you have worked for years on and rely on.

Once listeners become attached to algorithmic playlists rather than your station’s listener benefits, identities, long-term brand equity weakens.

Radio Should Drive Audiences to Their Own Platforms

Radio strategy should prioritize their owned assets that enhance their own audio product:

• station apps
• station streams
• smart speaker skills
• podcasts
• websites
• social channels
• text clubs
• email databases

Owned platforms create:

• personalized, direct listener relationships
• measurable engagement
• Revenue opportunities
• listener data
• direct communication channels

Promoting Spotify strengthens someone else’s platform while weakening your ability to maintain direct audience relationships.Spotify Reduces the Perceived Value of Radio Curation

Great radio programming involves:

• personality integration
• music scheduling
• emotional pacing
• daypart strategy
• audience targeting
• imaging
• flow management

When stations position Spotify as equally valuable, they unintentionally undermine the expertise of programmers and talent who create compelling broadcast experiences.

Radio should reinforce the idea that:

• a great station is curated with the purpose listener satisfaction
• personalities matter
• sequencing matters
• community matters

Radio Risks Becoming a Marketing Funnel for Streaming Competitors

If broadcast radio consistently directs listeners toward Spotify for playlists, artist content, or music discovery, radio gradually positions itself as a promotional vehicle for other products other than their own.

That weakens radio’s perceived importance in the media environment.

A better strategy is:

• “Stay with us”
• “Use our app”
• “Hear it here first”
• “Connect with our personalities”
• “Join our community”

Conclusion

Broadcast radio should avoid promoting Spotify because:

• Spotify competes directly for listening time and revenue streams
• Radio gains little strategic value in return
• Streaming platforms weaken habitual radio listening, everyday
• Spotify shifts loyalty away from station brands and personalities
• Radio’s true competitive advantage is human connection, not music quantity

The future success of broadcast radio depends on strengthening its unique identity: Local, live, trusted, emotional, personality-driven companionship that algorithms cannot fully replace, but streaming platforms are trying as hard as they can to change this. We should not make it any easier for them!

Brian is a 30 year radio veteran who has successfully served many companies over the years as Program Director, Operations Manger and VP of programming and consultant with Wright Media Group. For the last 15 years Wright has enjoyed building alliances with scores of stations in the US & Canada helping them grow in ratings and revenue.  Contact Brian at brianw6187@aol.com.