Not many people know that this is my second time working for Jacobs Media. Early on in my career, I worked for the company as a sort of internal support person. Fred Jacobs, Bill Jacobs and, at the time, Tom Calderone went on the road to visit clients, and I stayed in the office providing whatever help they needed to make the visit successful.
One of the services the company offered back then was music testing. We would hire companies to recruit fans of the station’s music to come to a hotel and listen to the hooks of several hundred songs.
They would be handed the tried-and-true tools of the trade: a Scantron sheet and a #2 pencil. If you are too young to know what that is, look it up. After the test, the Scantron sheets would be mailed to the home office, where yours truly would run them through a machine and tabulate the results.
I’m telling you about my early days to point out that, in the 30+ years since I had graphite stains on my hands, not a lot has changed about how radio stations test music. Listeners don’t go to hotels anymore; the tests are conducted online, but the methodology is generally the same. Listen to the hook of a couple hundred songs, rate them on a scale of 1-to-5 and tell us if you are tired of hearing the song on the radio. The main difference is no more #2 pencils.
Meanwhile, the same songs continue to test well over and over again. That consistency may be a testament to the methodology, proving that the system works and the hits keep scoring well. Or it could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Keep testing music the exact same way and keep getting the same results.
It begs the question: Is there another way to identify songs that would be suitable for Classic and Adult Hits stations?
Enter Matt Bailey and his new venture, Graphs About Songs. A radio junkie since age three, his career included time on the air at several Atlanta stations and seventeen years at Coleman Insights, one of the most trusted research firms in the industry. While he was there, Matt launched the company’s Integr8 Research callout division, which evaluates contemporary music for stations across the country.
Now, out on his own, Matt launched two newsletters: Graphs About Songs, which explores trends in popular music through in-depth analysis of Spotify data, Billboard charts, and other publicly published information, and The Hit Momentum Report, a subscription service for programmers focused on Spotify consumption.
“There’s more data than ever about music consumption, but it’s also more confusing and overwhelming than ever,” says Bailey. “I launched Graphs About Songs in February 2024 to show how music is changing and how our love of music remains timeless.”
While I highly recommend looking back over past editions of Graphs About Songs, a recent column titled 19 Oldies Young People Love caught my attention. In the post, Bailey looks at songs that ranked in the top twenty for streams during 2024 and into 2025.
He found dozens of older songs receiving as much streaming play as some of the biggest contemporary hits. Considering people under age 35 still make up more than half of Spotify users (compared to about 23% of the U.S. population), when an older song gets that type of attention, it is being streamed by more than just Baby Boomers or Gen X listeners. It’s transcending generational lines.
Some of the songs that landed in the Top 20 most streamed aren’t surprising. Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” – which took off in late 2020 thanks to a viral TikTok video – and Tears for Fears “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” are both consistently streaming a lot and are staples on radio playlists.
Others like Hall and Oates’ “Rich Girl,” Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” and Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved” also have big streaming numbers but are still on the fringe of the format.
While statistics like these tell us what Classic songs are less likely to push away younger listeners, there are also titles to consider that might help attract them.
In a post looking at Alternative music from the nineties forward, Bailey notes that Coldplay has several titles receiving heavy streaming. One of the most musically accessible artists of the last 25 years, Coldplay receives minimal airplay at Classic and Adult Hits stations, while U2 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are staple artists.
Even more contemporary, the 2000s anthem “Mr. Brightside” is still not a staple at the format despite heavy streaming. A case for airplay could also be made for a few songs from after 2010, such as Vance Joy’s “Riptide” or Cage the Elephant’s “Cigarette Daydreams,” both of which have strong streaming presences.
Now before anyone opens their music scheduling program and starts going crazy, let’s be clear. I’m not positive these songs belong on your station’s playlist, nor is Bailey. He is quick to point out that any song you play needs to fit the target demographics and brand expectations of your station.
A more narrowly focused Classic Rock or Classic Hits station may have a harder time with an artist like Coldplay, while it might be easier on a Variety Hits station where the audience has broader expectations.
There is also a difference between songs with staying power and songs that are streaming in the moment due to a new viral video or other impetus. Bailey says, “The song that’s #1 on streaming isn’t the song your listeners know and love most. The big hits for radio are the songs listeners keep streaming week after week.”
To be clear. Spotify and other streaming data are not a replacement for traditional music testing. If you don’t have access to local research, try to follow the lead of stations that do. If you start freelancing, it’s extremely easy to steer a station off track.
That said, when applied properly and carefully, streaming data like Bailey writes about in Graphs About Songs may be a way to discover some secret weapon titles, engage younger audiences more effectively and spot-check the accuracy of traditional music testing—which is still essentially conducted via Scantron sheet and #2 pencil.
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Mike Stern is a Classic Rock columnist and Features writer for Barrett Media. He has been with Jacobs Media consulting stations in the Classic Rock, Rock, Alternative and AAA world for more than a decade. Prior to that he programmed stations in Chicago, Detroit, Denver Las Vegas and other markets. He also worked as News/Talk Editor for Radio and Records, wrote about Top 40 Radio for Billboard Magazine and had his own radio talent coaching business called Talent Mechanic.
