Weekend Update

AOL Radio Not Affected by End of AOL Music Following Friday's reports that AOL Music is shutting down, some people apparently believed that also meant the end of AOL Radio. But we're told that AOL Radio is in no way affected by the end of AOL Music. The first clarification of that -- in light of some erroenous information that had begun circulating -- came from AOL Radio Program Director Thomas Chau, who tweeted, "AOL Radio will still be around and so I will still be doing that for the time being." In a later Twitter posting, he added, "To be clear since some seem to be confused, AOL Radio is not shutting down." AOL Radio -- now "powered by Slacker" -- will, we're told, continue to "offer over 350 Internet radio stations with song skipping, and includes music, news, sports and talk." AOL Radio previously was "powered by" CBS Radio from April 2008 until the change to Slacker in October 2011. The roots of AOL Radio are directly related to the roots of AOL Music, which might have spurred the confusion. AOL Radio traces its roots to two companies it acquired in June 1999, for $400 million -- Spinner.com and Nullsoft. Spinner.com was formerly known as TheDJ.com. Nullsoft was the maker of the popular Winamp and SHOUTcast products. Both new organizations operated out of the same office in San Francisco. The Spinner.com brand was retired in July 2003, but has existed as the AOL Music blog and a series of channels on AOL Radio. AOL Radio launched as Radio@AOL, essentially a rebranded Spinner.com, using technology from RealNetworks on October 16, 2001 as part of the AOL 7.0 software announced that same day. A Closer Look: "The Infinite Dial 2013: Navigating Digital Platforms" Thursday afternoon we reported on some highlights from the webinar on "The Infinite Dial: Navigating Digital Platforms" from Arbitron and Edison Research -- looking at P1 listeners from a nine radio format categories: Adult Contemporary, CHR, Classic Rock/Classic Hits, Country, News/Talk/Sports, Public Radio, Religious, Rock, and Urban. Now, a closer look at the results of this year's edition of the annual study is presented on some of the key findings about P1s. The study finds that Rock, Public Radio and CHR P1s are most likely to have Wi-Fi access in their homes, while 67 percent of respondents overall have Internet access and Wi-Fi in the home. Also, 24 percent have at least five devices connected to Wi-Fi in the home, with more than one-third of Rock, Public Radio and CHR P1s having five or more Wi-Fi connected devices. CHR P1s have the highest online radio listening levels with 47 percent having listened in the last week. More than four in ten Public Radio, Rock and Urban P1s also listened to online radio in the last week. Overall, 33 percent of those surveyed listened to online radio in the past week. CHR P1s were also the most likely to listen to Pandora in the last week, followed by Public Radio, Urban and Rock P1s. Twenty percent of respondents listened to Pandora in the last week. More than two-thirds of those surveyed were aware of Pandora, followed by 45 percent awareness of iHeartRadio and 22 percent awareness for Spotify. Rock and Public Radio P1s are most aware of podcasting, with 46 percent overall aware of the term. Approximately one in eight (or 32 million people) have listened to a podcast in the past month, with Public Radio P1s the most likely to have listened to one by a long shot. Six in ten Rock and CHR P1s watched YouTube in the past week, with 37 percent overall having watched. Over six in ten CHR and Urban P1s keep their cell phone "within arm's length," with 52 percent overall saying they do. Urban P1s were the most likely to use their mobile phone to wake up in the morning, and more than half of those surveyed own a smartphone. CHR (75 percent), Rock (70 percent) and Urban (67 percent) P1s were most likely to own a smartphone. Four in ten Public Radio and AC P1s own a tablet, with 29 percent overall owning one. CHR P1s are most likely to have a social network profile (82 percent), followed by Rock (74 percent), Urban (72 percent) and Public Radio (71 percent). Also, 27 percent use social networking sites "several" times a day, with 45 percent of CHR P1s saying they do so, followed by Rock (36 percent) and Urban (35 percent). AM/FM Radio is "the king of in-car media" used by 84 percent of those surveyed. CD player was ranked second, followed by iPod/MP3 player, satellite radio, online radio and HD Radio with just three percent. Rock and Classic Rock/Hits P1s were most likely to listen to AM/FM in the car (94 percent each), followed by Public Radio (93 percent), News/Talk/Sports (92 percent) and Country and Religious P1s (91 percent). Near half of those surveyed said it is "very/somewhat important" to learn about and keep up with new music, led by Rock P1s (75 percent), CHR (65 percent) and Urban (60 percent). Also, 83 percent would be "very/somewhat disappointed" if their favorite station went off the air. Public Radio and Religious P1s (96 percent) led this category, followed by Rock, Country and Classic Rock/Hits. Only nine percent of those surveyed follow their favorite station on Facebook, with Urban, Rock and CHR P1s the most likely to do so. And only eight percent have signed up to recieve email from their favorite station, though 20 percent of Rock P1s do, followed by Religious, Public Radio and Urban. Radio email recipients are unsurprisingly more "tech-savvy" than those who do not. Approximately half of those surveyed listened to AM/FM radio just before arriving at the store to shop, with Urban P1s (66 percent) leading the pack, followed by Country (61 percent), CHR (58 percent) and AC (55 percent). The 2013 study may be downloaded free of charge by Arbitron clients via the Arbitron website at my.arbitron.com. The TPM Super Sixty - Week of April 28, 2013 For Radio ... From Radio ... By Radio The Original 21st Century Mass Appeal Hit Music Radio Format Bruno Mars' WHEN I WAS YOUR MAN loses 1238 total plays from a week ago. P!nk's JUST GIVE ME A REASON -- our second biggest gainer -- adds 2327. And what a week ago seemed impossible happens -- a differential of 3393 in favor of MAN turns to a 172 in favor of REASON. And so there's a new TPM Number One SuperHit on the new Super Sixty, for the week of April 28, 2013 -- now online at TotalPopularMusic.com. WHEN I WAS A MAN is forced back to runner-up after four weeks in the TPM Penthouse, as JUST GIVE ME A REASON, up 3-1, begins a first week at Total Popular Music Number One ... This week's top gainer, +2399, is Justin Timberlake's MIRRORS, which vaults 16-8, and very well could be the next TPM Number One ... Third of the gainers is CAN'T HOLD US from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis with Ray Dalton, +2205, leaping 20-13 .. Fourth, The new Selena Gomez COME AND GET IT, +2164, 30-21 ... Fifth, last week's Big Breaker from Jason Derulo, THE OTHER SIDE, +1409, 54-31 ... Of 23 songs qualifying for the Top Gainers list, the first 12 are SuperGainers (+800 or more plays), led by the four posting gains over 2,000 total plays ... And there's a new TPM Big Breaker -- Daft Punk's GET LUCKY, +745 plays from 0 a week ago, entering the new Sixty at 45. The main TPM Super Sixty chart is online at TotalPopularMusic.com. That page also offers this week's featured new songs, Hitbounds, and the 50-position TPM Recurrents chart. And each song listed -- more than 120 in all -- offers an On Demand link. The separate "Super Sixty Airplay" chart is available at our main website, and is also published at TotalPopularMusic.Blogspot.com. A full listing of this week's Top TPM Gainers is found below the Super Sixty Airplay chart at both locations. "Total Popular Music" is the PPM-friendly "New Mass Appeal Hit Music Radio Format" from Mark Harris Broadcast Consulting -- featuring "All the Hits for All the Listeners" -- and able to deliver double digit shares from a 6 to 60 total demographic, while especially targeting any audience segment desired within that wide span. (Contact MHBC for more specifics!)