Chartmetric currently keeps detailed records of one of the sites with the highest payouts in the music industry.
We wrote about Chartmetric’s substantial “version 2” upgrade—which includes essential TikTok monitoring capabilities—last month. But the business’ most recent acquisition involves a platform that was imagined before TikTok was essentially unthinkable.
A toggle for SiriusXM Satellite Radio may be found in the freshly introduced Airplay monitoring area of Chartmetric. Although SiriusXM doesn’t typically make headlines, it consistently outperforms competitors in terms of per-stream royalties and promotional impact. Alongside traditional broadcast radio monitoring, which covers significant radio stations on all five continents and in more than 30 countries, Chartmetric now tracks SiriusXM.
This includes the US, where SiriusXM receives the majority of its subscribers (the satellite radio provider is available in the US and Canada). But SiriusXM pays royalties for both publishing and recording streams, unlike US-based broadcast radio stations who only do so for composers and publishers.
For musicians getting frequent spins on Sirius stations, that makes a discernible difference. The soulful classic “What You Won’t Do for Love” by Bobby Caldwell is frequently played on radio stations like Yacht Rock and The Blend. Bobby Caldwell’s wife and manager, Mary Beth Caldwell, told Digital Songs News that “Sirius undoubtedly plays a lot of Bobby’s music.” They frequently feature him on Yacht Rock.
Caldwell admits that it’s still difficult to validate every game, but this translates into notable salaries. “I wonder: Is it all a play? “
Chartmetric’s tracking functionality was developed with this problem in mind. Recently, DMN also joined an effort to promote this solution. Sirius paid for admission through SoundExchange, and Caldwell shared that SoundExchange checks arrive monthly. The next step is to compare the Chartmetric tabulated number of streams with the monthly breakdown. This is a check that was previously difficult to perform.
In the future, substantial differences may result in significant royalty increases. Mary Beth shared that Bobby’s Spotify payout is significantly higher due to the large difference in streaming volumes between the two platforms. However, in Pound for Pound, Sirius gets a loyalty cake for each stream.
According to a recent report, one game of hers on SiriusXM can earn you up to $44. By contrast, Apple Music pays him 1 cent per play, while Spotify pays well below 0.5 cents.
Tracking every platform that is relevant to an artist or song is Chartmetric’s aim. Even though the SiriusXM Satellite Radio dashboard is quite straightforward, that creates a complicated interplay.
This is a somewhat constrained platform in comparison to SiriusXM’s network of satellite, streaming, and app-based platforms, which includes hundreds of stations. Given that SiriusXM’s service is only available in North America, the dial is filled with talk-only channels like Howard Stern and sports programming. On the musical side, there are only a few stations that play music particular to certain genres.
As a result, Chartmetric’s analysis of a particular song concentrates on plays across pertinent stations. Total plays are divided amongst these stations, making it simple for anyone following the action to take a quick glimpse.
As an illustration, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey, unquestionably one of the season’s biggest songs is now being played on eight distinct SiriusXM stations. The fact that “TikTok Radio” is the biggest station speaks much about how integrated platforms have grown in the music business. It’s also a significant factor in why Chartmetric offers extensive coverage of both platforms.
The fact that no platform is an island and that Chartmetric has begun to map relationships are proof of this.
Every SiriusXM channel and its associated followers are also listed by the corporation on TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and even SoundCloud. Some stations are more connected to social media sites than others since they are larger than others.
34.17 million paid customers were announced by SiriusXM at its most recent quarterly investor call. That is a modest decline from the previous year and is insignificant when compared to services like Spotify, which most recently announced 195 million paying customers. Despite this disparity, SiriusXM has a solid base of loyal listeners and, in some ways, a more effective platform for artists. With the new integration of Chartmetric, artist marketing strategies and analytics tracking are now much more easily available on SiriusXM.
