How to Get Radio Airplay: 3 Tools That Actually Work
How to Get Radio Airplay: 3 Tools That Actually Work
Understanding how your music performs on radio is essential for strategic growth. Radio airplay analytics tools give you detailed insights into where, how often, and by whom your tracks are played. For artists, managers, and labels, this kind of data isn't optional—it’s a critical part of promotion, benchmarking, and market development.
Three top tools dominate this field: Viberate, Chartmetric, and Songstats. Each platform offers a different level of depth, focus, and usability.
Price Comparison Summary
Viberate costs from €19.90/month when billed annually at €239. Chartmetric is priced at $1400 per year or $150 per month. Songstats offers its Professional plan at €999.99 per year.
Now let’s break down what each tool offers in their radio airplay dashboards.
Viberate Airplay Analytics
Viberate offers a modular dashboard that allows users to analyze radio airplay from multiple angles. It delivers a clear picture of artist performance through several modules.
The "Career Health on Radio Airplay" module gauges an artist’s airplay strength using visual meters. It shows rankings both overall and by genre and identifies direct competitors in the same radio space.
The "12-Month Overview" summarizes the last year's radio activity, including total spins, the number of stations, countries reached, and the top-performing tracks.
"Spins Through Time" uses interactive graphs to show how monthly spins change over time. Users can see peaks, dips, and link them to specific stations.
The "Most Spinned Tracks" section ranks songs by the number of spins, shows their reach across countries and stations, and tracks release years to measure long-term relevance.
The geographical data is visualized in the "Spins by Country and City" module, which uses maps and detailed pop-ups to show local data.
"Station & Artist Overlap" identifies subgenres of stations and other artists frequently played alongside the artist, offering insights into shared audiences.
The "Top Stations" module lists key stations by total spins and provides track-specific airplay insights. It also allows regional filtering.
"Airtime Distribution" shows what times of day and which days of the week the artist's songs are played most, helping with scheduling and promotion.
Finally, "Latest Spins" provides real-time updates on recent plays and is searchable by track, station, or city.
This makes Viberate a robust solution for analyzing radio airplay across timelines, geographies, and track catalogs.
Chartmetric Airplay Analytics
Chartmetric's radio dashboard focuses on both global overviews and detailed breakdowns.
The "Summary Stats" module includes data for cities, countries, stations, and total plays. It also features a world map showing the top 50 cities where the tracks have been played.
The "Total Plays Breakdown" module offers four views: tracks, stations, countries, and cities. Each view
displays daily play counts and includes a detailed side panel showing performance rankings.
"Top Tracks by Plays" ranks songs by total plays and shows trend lines for weekly and 28-day performance. It also includes the first and last spin dates for each track.
Everything is exportable and customizable with filters for time, country, station, or track. Chartmetric leans more toward global reach and macro-level performance, making it ideal for strategic planners.
Songstats Airplay Analytics
Songstats takes a track-first approach with a simplified interface and integrated royalties tracking.
The "Performance Overview" module shows total plays, the number of stations playing the track, SiriusXM plays, and estimated royalties. It also includes a function to claim royalties directly.
"Trend Chart" visualizes radio performance over time with a line graph, and a slider helps zoom in on specific time periods.
The "Stations & Locations" module lists the radio stations and geographic regions that are playing the track.
"Most Played Tracks" ranks the top-performing songs using album art and basic metadata. Each entry is clickable for deeper insights.
"Recently Played Module" shows a grid of recently aired songs, each of which can be clicked for detailed analytics.
The "Track-Level Analytics" module offers in-depth data on individual songs, showing performance over time, station breakdowns, and geographic reach.
While Songstats hides some data behind a paywall, it stands out by offering integrated royalties tracking and artist-focused visuals.
Final Thoughts
Each of these tools excels in different areas. Viberate offers the most detailed and interactive dashboard with artist-centric insights. Chartmetric provides strong comparative analysis and macro trends. Songstats is useful for individual track monitoring and early-stage airplay tracking.
If you're evaluating how to get radio airplay and need to measure progress, all three tools are viable, depending on your use case and budget. Viberate's lower price and modular depth make it accessible for indies. Chartmetric fits best for data-driven teams. Songstats caters well to artists focused on single-track promotion and monetization.
Choose based on your promotional goals, and make data part of your airplay strategy.