I was streaming a Hot AC in Canada (97.3 The Wave) and was surprised by the amount of differing types of music. It seems like there's a lot of EDM still and a lot of new music that seems more "adventurous." Another station from Australia was an AC which didn't quite stick to the "formula" and played more forgotten hits. Are the listeners of other countries more open minded, since a lot of it comes down to audience testing?
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Does the U.S. "play it safe" with music more than other countries.
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
Canada has some very specific rules called "Can-Con" (for "Canadian Content") which require a high percentage of music that is "Canadian" (artist, composer, recording location, etc) and that makes quite a percentage of the music played to comply with those rules.
Also, Canada has rules that affect some formats about music repetition and the like. It's a different country, with somewhat different tastes and much more government regulation of radio programming.
In the case of both Australia and Canada, keep in mind that not always are the songs and artists that are hits here also hits in other countries. Look at Cliff Richard who had many huge songs in England, but is pretty much unknown here.
When I was programming CHR in the 60's in South America, the Stones were vastly more popular than the Beatles, and CCR beat them both!
Not sure about Australia, but Canadian stations have a "Canadian content" requirement. Thirty percent of all music played must be by Canadian artists and recorded in Canada. That adds a lot of "adventurous" music to playlist. Also, remember that songs that are well-known and (to listeners like you) sound "safe" on American radio might be less familiar in Canada or Australia, and vice versa. I'd venture to guess that the Australian AC you heard was playing songs that were hits in Australia, some of which are American minor hits that were pushed and clicked with listeners down under.
I wouldn't call commercial stations in other countries more "adventurous" necessarily. Most commercial radio stations in Canada are owned by Bell, Rogers, Corus, etc., and Bell's Bounce Radio (adult and hits) and Move (AC) have fairly tight playlists.
In fact, most North American ACs and Hot ACs tend to be less uptempo / more "pop rock"-friendly compared to the equivalents in other countries. For example, Dubai 92 sticks to familiarity, yet the station is not overloaded with Taylor Swift and Katy Perry like many American ACs. Nor do they frequently play "filler" like Sara Bareilles or Ingrid Michaelson. Dubai 92 is not afraid of playing rap or R&B, provided the songs played are hits, yet they also play some older 80s/90s ballads. Also, AC stations that are more rhythmic-friendly than the average American AC include Heart in the UK, Kfm in Cape Town, and 104.6 RTL in Berlin, just to name a few.
So the "play it safe" mantra is probably perceived by the less rhythmic sound in the US, and not as much of the playlist being "wide". Remember, most commercial stations do not program similarly to a station like BBC Radio 2.
I never hear artists like Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson do not get played in the u.s. apparently they don't test well. I made a thread about that kind of soft rock. Apparently it's too downtempo, yet a lot of the music that gets played overseas is too uptempo. It basically leaves us with kind of a bland "rhythmic-esque" music which is horribly boring. Both the soft rock tracks and the "true" rhythmic tracks are ones that are actually interesting to me.
A more recent example is Australian singer Kylie Minogue. In the US, she had a handful of hits during the 1980s and the 2000s; however, she's had many more hits in other parts of the world, especially in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
Kylie Minogue singles discography (Wikipedia)
Sara Bareilles's "Love Song" and "Brave" were both big hits on AC and Hot AC stations in the US, and I still hear them on the radio from time to time. But she hasn't had any hits anywhere in the world since then, not just here. And Ingrid Michaelson has had several AC hits in the U.S. since 2018, but they've all been Christmas songs, so that seems to be the niche she's found.
Great example, Marcos_C. I saw Minogue on the MTV European Awards several years ago and was surprised to learn that she was still around and was still quite popular. She performed an impressive duet with Robbie Williams, another artist who never got as much airplay in the States as he did in the UK. In fact, that whole show was a smorgasbord of singers that were unfamiliar to me.
It seems like a decade or so ago ladies like Bareilles, Michaelson and Colbie Callait could be heard everywhere. Now that Hot AC stations have gotten even "hotter", I guess the season for soft vocalists like that has passed.
Actually, I heard Chicago's WLIT-FM (93.9 Lite FM) play Colbie Caillat's "Bubbly" shortly before the station flipped to Christmas music yesterday afternoon.
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Harvey_Dogg
Guest
I don't think listeners in the UK and Canada are necessarily more open minded. It's American radio that assumes it's listeners are not open minded.
Every station in every country is likely playing to its own audience.
I take issue with the term "play it safe." Any time a radio station plays a new song or a new artist, it's taking a risk. Playing it safe to me is playing classic hits or classic rock. But there's risk involved in everything else. The question is how much risk do you want to take? The goal is creating a positive environment where the listeners will be more accepting of a new song or new artist because it's mixed in with stuff they know. So like everything, it depends on the format you're listening to.
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Harvey_Dogg
Guest
The American way. Let's divide the people for money. Here's your spoon fed music. Here's your spoon fed news. And, it you are in this category, here's how you should think and feel.
By the way, I lived in the UK. I listened to BBC Radio 2, Radio Caroline, and BBC Radio 1. Better Radio!!!!
By the way, I lived in the UK. I listened to BBC Radio 2, Radio Caroline, and BBC Radio 1. Better Radio!!!!
We have a version of the BBC in this country, and it's called NPR. Some also say it's better radio.
NPR here doesn't do mainstream pop and AC like Radio 2 and Radio 1, or classic rock and pop like Radio Caroline. The only reason those stations come across as different and daring to American ears is that they play songs that were popular in the UK but not so much (or at all) in the US. Playlist size is pretty much the same.
Only because those formats are already covered by commercial stations.
But when you look at the music played by non-commercial radio in this country, it's a lot different from what gets played on the commercial stations. Not sure that you could call what they do as playing it safe.
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Harvey_Dogg
Guest
BBC Radio Two was eclectic and played all kinds of music. But no screamers. BBC Radio One was pop which was largely new wave. Radio Caroline played progressive rock.
Oh, I stand corrected. I didn't realize you were in England more than 30 years ago. I got my first taste of Radio 1 and Radio 2 online around 2010, never had explored the BBC's offerings much before then.
I don't know for sure if Canada is really more adventurous than any other country that broadcasts music on radio though. However on the streaming side Youtube, Spotify, Tunein, Iheart, Live365, Accuradio, 8tracks for some years we seen KPOP songs get mentioned as most streamed songs on their platform or EDM or Pop Music from Latin America in other years.
Some have went on to have a Billion views at least according to the labels Youtube page.
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