How to Get Your Song on the Radio Using Data Tools

Liam Preston

Sep 14, 2025

Data-driven promotion removes guesswork from your radio strategy. Here's how you can use it to increase your chances of airplay:

Understanding How Data Helps Get Your Song on the Radio

One of the most effective ways to improve your odds of airplay is identifying strong markets and radio stations. Tools like Viberate, Chartmetric, and Songstats show exactly where your track is being played and how often, allowing you to detect where early traction is building. You can then double down on promotion in those regions to grow your presence further.

Targeting the right audience and format is another major benefit of airplay data. These tools reveal valuable insights into listener demographics and radio station formats that are compatible with your track. 

This helps you focus your pitches on stations whose audiences align with your music, improving your pitch success rate.

Monitoring radio spins over time allows you to track momentum and validate your strategy. A clear rise in spins signals growing demand, which promoters and A&R teams use as justification to expand campaigns or approach larger outlets.

Building credibility with stakeholders becomes easier when you present concrete airplay data. Labels, venues, sponsors, and playlist curators are more likely to support you when they see proven traction from radio.

Data also enables smarter timing and placement of promotional efforts. Spotting increases in radio spins early in a campaign lets you react while momentum is fresh—whether that means adjusting the timing of a remix, refining your regional focus, or adapting your messaging.

Cross-platform promotion benefits significantly from airplay analytics. When radio spins increase, it's often a good time to seek playlist placements or ramp up streaming campaigns, helping to reinforce your song across multiple channels.

Touring strategies can also be shaped by airplay data. If a specific city shows strong radio play, it’s a clear signal to prioritize live shows in that area. Bringing data to promoters reduces risk and improves your chances of strong turnout.

To summarize: Data-driven promotion allows for precise market targeting, helps match your music with the right stations, confirms momentum through hard data, builds credibility with industry partners, and gives you the ability to time your campaign more effectively. It also enhances cross-platform promotion and supports smarter touring decisions.

If your goal is to get your song on the radio, data is no longer optional. It helps you understand where your music is gaining traction, which stations to target, and when to scale your efforts. Verified airplay data builds credibility, justifies investment, and enables smarter decisions.

Comparing the Top Tools for Radio Airplay Monitoring

To successfully apply a data-driven strategy, you need to monitor airplay with reliable analytics platforms. Three leading options stand out: Viberate, Chartmetric, and Songstats.

Viberate: Best UX and Price/Performance Ratio

Viberate offers a comprehensive and user-friendly dashboard that breaks down your entire radio presence. The Career Health module assesses overall performance and ranks you both globally and by genre, while showing artists you directly compete with in radio airplay. The 12-Month Overview summarizes total spins, the number of stations playing your tracks, countries reached, and which songs are performing best.

Spins Through Time presents this information in an interactive graph, allowing you to spot trends, identify peaks, and track which stations drive the most plays month-by-month. The Most Spinned Tracks section shows your top songs and where they get played the most, with filtering options for short- and long-term analysis. Spins by Country and City provide a detailed breakdown of where your music is being heard, supported by an interactive world map with detailed pop-ups.

The platform also includes radio station segmentation by subgenres, and lists artists that appear frequently on the same stations as you. It identifies your top-performing radio stations, with insights into trends and track performance at the station level. Airtime Distribution shows which hours and days your music is played, helping you understand peak and low-activity times. Finally, the Latest Radio Spins module delivers a real-time feed of airplay data, complete with timestamps, station info, and export options.

Overall, Viberate offers a complete package—ideal for both high-level strategy and real-time reaction.

Chartmetric: Strong for Global and Historical Context

Chartmetric’s radio analytics dashboard is built for artists who want to track global trends and benchmark historical data. The Summary Stats module gives a top-line view of how many cities, countries, and stations have played your music, visualized with a global map highlighting top-performing regions.

The Total Plays Breakdown module presents airplay data in stacked bar charts, broken down by tracks, stations, countries, or cities. Hovering over each bar reveals detailed performance insights, and a side panel lists the most active entities based on total plays and percentage share. Chartmetric also offers time range filters, comparisons with other artists, and exporting tools.

The Top Tracks module ranks your songs by total airplay, showing week-over-week trends, 28-day performance summaries, and timestamps for first and last radio plays. These features are ideal for understanding longer-term performance patterns and tracking the lifecycle of a radio single.

While it excels in trend analysis and competitive benchmarking, Chartmetric is less focused on real-time responsiveness than Viberate.

Songstats: Track-Level and Royalties-Oriented

Songstats is well-suited for artists focused on individual song performance and royalty monitoring. The Performance Overview module shows core stats such as total plays, number of supporting stations, SiriusXM airplay, and estimated royalties. It even includes a “Collect your Royalties” button, indicating integration with monetization tools.

The Radio Airplay Trend Chart visualizes daily, weekly, or monthly performance over time and allows users to zoom into specific date ranges. The Stations and Locations module lists all stations that have played a track and where those stations are based.

The Most Played Tracks section ranks your top-performing songs and includes artwork, track titles, and artist names. The Recently Played module gives a snapshot of tracks that just received airplay, while the Individual Track Airplay Analytics section provides detailed data about performance trends and station support for each song.

Although Songstats offers valuable track-level insight and royalty features, it lacks the broader strategic context offered by Viberate or the deep comparison tools found in Chartmetric.

Why Viberate Stands Out

Among the platforms reviewed, Viberate stands out for its comprehensive functionality, ease of use, and competitive pricing. Its real-time data updates help you act quickly after a spin, while deep geographic and subgenre insights make your targeting much more precise. Key features like the interactive spin charts, airtime breakdown, and direct artist comparisons are available without extra paywalls.

If you're serious about using data to get your song on the radio and expand your radio footprint, Viberate delivers the best value. It supports both tactical execution and high-level planning, giving artists and teams everything they need to scale with confidence.

Closing Thoughts

Access to verified airplay data is no longer limited to major labels or experienced radio pluggers. Platforms like Viberate, Chartmetric, and Songstats put these tools in your hands.

When used right, these services allow you to identify traction early, make data-informed decisions, and prove your value to stakeholders. If your goal is to get your song on the radio and sustain its momentum, then using data is no longer optional—it’s your most powerful asset.