Apple Music for Artists now lets you track radio plays from over 40,000 stations around the world. Here's a little peek at what's new:
Apple says it offers radio monitoring of 40,000 radio stations in more than 200 countries and territories. Radio Spins data is integrated throughout the Apple Music for Artists experience, allowing artists to see which stations and territories are playing their songs. The Trends page provides more granular data, such as which stations are playing an artist's music the most and which songs from an artist's catalog are being played the most across all monitored stations.
The radio monitoring is powered by Apple's Shazam music recognition technology, which Apple acquired for a reported $400 million in December 2017.
Radio play data is updated daily, but new data releases or updates allow at least 48 hours for them to appear in the Apple Music for Artists dashboard. Radio Plays in Apple Music for Artists display data from over 40,000 tracked terrestrial and digital radio stations and do not include plays on Apple Music Radio, which are grouped under Plays.
The addition of songs played on radio comes after Apple added real-time analytics to Apple Music for artists last year, giving them an immediate view into their fans' listening habits. The “What's Listening to Now” widget will be added to the service in November 2023, giving artists an in-depth look at trends for their tracks over the past 48 hours. Its features include “Maximum Listeners,” which highlights the top listeners over a 48-hour period, and “Average Listeners,” which highlights the average number of listeners over the same period. The widget also includes a snapshot of the artist's top six most-played songs under “Top Songs.”
These features bring Apple Music for Artists more on par with Spotify for Artists, which is always a good thing.