SoundExchange Reporting Blog

Thanks to all who attended my session Digital Media Metrics at the Public Radio Programming Conference here in Baltimore today. Also, big thanks to Mike Reszler of APM/MPR for, in actuality, graciously letting me horn in on what was originally his session, so I could present some streaming usage metrics that we’ve gleaned all that there SoundExchange data you guys send us each quarter.

Here, as promised, is my slide deck for your downloading pleasure: SoundExchange Reporting – PRPD 2011

As always, I’m greatly enjoying the PRPD conference and, in particular, meeting many of you in person. I’ll be here for the rest of the conference, often times hanging out at the NPR Digital Services booth, so please introduce yourself if you see me

Just wanted to remind y’all (or, as we said it back in my native and beloved Pittsburgh, yinz) of a couple of important events and items. Namely:

1. I’ll be traveling to Baltimore next week to speak at the annual Public Radio Programming Conference. Be sure to stop by my session or the NPR Digital Services booth and say hello!

2. The deadline for submitting your Q3 SoundExchange data to us is starting to get uncomfortably close (close enough to start raising my blood pressure, at least): it’s a little over three weeks away: Friday, October 7, 2011.

3. Finally, while more and more syndicated shows are submitting playlist data to NPR Digital Services, many still do not. If you stream one that doesn’t, you (unfortunately) are responsible for getting the required data and uploading to us along with your local playlists. If you produce a syndicated show that is not currently sending playlist data to us, then please start!

I hope to see many of you next week in Baltimore!

As I continue digging through the Q2 2011 SoundExchange reporting data in preparation for my talk at the upcoming Public Radio Programming Conference, I thought I ‘d share some findings about the songs reported in this last quarter.

First, though, a definition. When compiling the data you supply to us for your quarterly SoundExchange reports, one of the statistics we calculate for each song you report is the total (or actual) number of performances. That’s not the same as the number of plays or spins; instead, it’s a count of the number of people that heard the song, which we calculate using your streaming access logs.

Anyhow, using that measure, here, then, are the 10 most performed songs (across all channel formats) on station streams covered by the CPB-SoundExchange webcasting agreement in Q2 2011:

1. Gonzaghuinha “Tanacara”
2. Death Cab for Cutie “You are a Tourist”
3. Gomez “Options”
4. Fleet Foxes “Helplessness Blues”
5. TV On the Radio “Will Do”
6. Foster the People “Pumped Up Kicks”
7. Dawes “Time Spent in Los Angeles”
8. Lykke Li “I Follow Rivers”
9. My Morning Jacket “Circuital”
10. Bon Iver “Calgary”

What do think? Any of these songs in your station’s rotation?

Here’s another preview of the information I’ll be sharing at next month’s Public Radio Programming Conference in Baltimore.

Each content channel that we report on to SoundExchange each quarter must be identified as one of the following formats:

• Classical
• Jazz
• Music Mix
• News and Information
• News/Classical
• News/Jazz
• News/Music Mix
• Adult Album Alternative

The recently filed Q2 2011 reports covered 503 content channels streamed by 316 public radio stations and here’s how they break down by format:

So, almost a third of all reporting channels are of the News/Music Mix variety, while only a small (but feisty!) 5% of channels are News/Jazz.

If this sort of information floats your boat, and you’ll be in Baltimore for the conference, be sure to drop by my session on 9/21 for more such goodies!

Attention fans of metrics and crab cakes: I’ll be speaking at the PRPD‘s upcoming Public Radio Programming Conference in Baltimore. Specifically, I’ll be taking part in the following session:

Digital Media Metrics: Making Sense of it All

In the digital world we can count almost anything, and in many cases the numbers can be overwhelming: page views, visits, visitors, time on site, bounce rates, click paths and the list goes on. So where do you focus? Where do you put energy? This session will look at smart metrics vs. dumb metrics, and it will focus on the most important question: what should you count and why? More than just a primer on digital metrics, this session will help you devise a strategy to move from tracking digital metrics to being a digital analyst. And learn fascinating streaming trends from SoundExchange reporting.

Mike Reszler – Managing Director of Digital Strategies & Content, APM &MPR

Phil Johnson – SoundExchange Reporting Project Manager, NPR Digital Services

This session will be during the first set of breakout sessions, on Wednesday, September 21 at 11:00am (consult the conference schedule for exact location). It should be an interesting and informative session; in addition to all of the great info that Mike will be sharing, I’ll be presenting some streaming metrics based on all that data you’ve generated and submitted for quarterly SoundExchange reporting.

NPR Digital Services will also have a booth at the conference, where I’ll be hanging out between sessions, so be sure to stop by to say hello, ask questions and enjoy our usual stellar offering of free candy! I hope to see many of you there.

While we’re on the topic, don’t forget, the deadline to submit your Q3 2011 SoundExchange data (covering July 1 through September 30) to us at NPR DS is Friday, October 7.

Now that the Q2 SoundExchange reports have been submitted (and since Q3 data collection won’t heat up for a while yet), I’m spending some time looking at what else the reporting data can tell us about our online audiences. I’ll be digging into the data for the next couple of weeks (around taking the family on summer vacation!) and will be presenting a number of findings at the upcoming Public Radio Program Directors conference in Baltimore. I’ll be participating in a session on digital media metrics led by Mike Reszler of American Public Media.

To whet your appetite, here’s a chart showing the percent of public radio’s online audience that comes from outside the United States for the past year:

These numbers are based on the reporting data supplied to NPR Digital Services by stations that are covered by the CPB-SoundExchange webcasting agreement. An international session is defined as any stream request that comes from an IP address outside the United States. These numbers include all sessions, regardless of duration or start time (e.g. includes overnights, weekends etc.).

As you can see, the percentage of online audience outside the US has hovered around 20% pretty consistently for the past year.

I’ll be sharing more information like this in Baltimore and on this here blog, so stayed tuned!

Have you noticed a chill in the air? It could be because Fall has arrived – or because, like Halloween, the Q3 data submission deadline is almost upon us!

Boo!

That deadline again, in case you don’t recall, is a little over a week away – Friday, October 8, 2010. It covers the period July 1 – September 30, 2010. All the gory details are here.

Couple of other juicy reporting tidbits:

1. We’ve added some new syndicated shows to the list of those providing us with playlist data. Be sure to keep an eye on the list of such shows here and make sure that your program guide in Composer Basic or Pro properly reflects when you streamed these syndicated shows during your reporting weeks.

2. While we’re on the topic of syndicated shows, I’m sure everyone knows of the name change for Speaking of Faith to Being. Many folks have already asked what this means for SoundExchange reporting and whether stations need to do anything on their end to ensure those playlists continue to get integrated into their reports. The answer is stations don’t need to do anything! PI will change the name of the show in Composer Basic and Pro to reflect the change.

3. PI has been in discussions with WFMT about obtaining playlists for their syndicated offerings (e.g., the Beethoven Satellite Network, the Jazz Satellite Network, etc.). They assured us they will be providing the data to PI in the near future. I’ll let everyone know when that’s the case – or if, for some reason, they don’t, in which case stations would need to get the data directly from WFMT themselves.

We’re also working with our buddies at PRX, to get playlists for their offerings.

4. Some of you may have noticed that we’ve added a new check to detect song overlaps in playlist files (i.e., songs that are identified as having been played at the same time).

If you upload a playlist file with song overlaps, a warning explaining this will be written to the error file, which you can view by clicking on the View link in the Error File column on the Upload Playlists/Streaming Logs screen.

You can see which songs overlap by opening the processed file, which you can review by clicking on the View link in the Processed File column on the same screen. Search for Song overlap in this file and you’ll the instances of overlap.

Song overlaps only lead to a warning, not an error, meaning they won’t prevent us from generating a report for you. It does mean, however, that some over counting of listening will occur due to the overlap.

Why should anyone care about over counting? Because over counting leads to inflated Music Aggregate Tuning Hours which can lead to higher royalty payments for the entire system. Not good.

Occasional overlaps of a few seconds here and there are no big deal, although, ideally, no overlapping is what everyone should be striving for. If your overlaps are more than a few seconds – or are something persistent your file – please take the time to review and fix them as best you can. It’s for the common good. Honest.

OK, that’s more than enough for now. Good luck, and thanks for all the hard work, everyone!

P.S. It was great to meet so many of you at this past weekend’s Public Radio Programming Directors conference in Denver! Next conference up for me: the Western States Public Radio conference in Las Vegas.

I just booked my flight and hotel for the Public Radio Program Directors annual conference in Denver next month. I was in Cleveland for last year’s conference which I enjoyed quite a bit; I guess Arthur Cohen decided to take the PRPD’s talents to the Mile High City this year.

I’m looking forward to this year’s event, to seeing and meeting lots of you folks responsible for your station’s SoundExchange reporting and to seeing Denver for the first time.

While there won’t be a SoundExchange-specific session this time around, I will be there to answer whatever SX-related questions you have. If you don’t see me milling about the sessions, come look for me at the Public Interactive booth, which will  be manned by our own Joe Orlando and Suzanne Brendle. Be sure to come by and say hello!

While I have you on the line, don’t forget that the data submission deadline for your Q3 SoundExchange reporting data (covering July 1 – September 30) is Friday, October 8, 2010. Please be sure to submit your data to us as soon as your reporting weeks are over and contact me to let me know you have uploaded your data.

Next week I’ll be traveling to beautiful Portland, Oregon for the Western States Public Radio (WSPR) Fall Conference 2009. I’ll be taking part in a session to talk about – what else? – SoundExchange reporting.

It will be similar to the session we had at the PRPD conference in Cleveland last month. I’ll be there to give everyone an update on the Q3 reports we are abut to submit to SoundExchnage, as well as more details on Composer Basic, which we are planning to make available to stations for submitting Q4 data.

The session will be headed up by Melodie Virtue, an attorney well versed on internet music copyright and royalty issues, and will also include Ginny Berson of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Melodie and I will do brief presentations and then we’ll take any and all questions from those in attendance.

The session will be on Wednesday, November 4, from 1:15 – 2:30pm. I will also be around through the rest of the conference on Thursday, so whether you can make our session or not, be sure to say hello if you see me! I’ll keep folks updated on my activities during the conference on my Twitter account.

I will be joined at the conference by Public Interactive’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Joe Orlando, who will be available to answer any and all question you may have about PI’s product offerings.

We’ll also both be available to talk about the current NFL season, if that’s more to your liking.

It used to be that two things in life were certain: death and taxes. For those streaming music on the web, add one more thing: quarterly SoundExchange reporting.

To that end, this is a reminder to you public radio stations that have chosen to be covered by the CPB-SoundExchange agreement that we’re a little more than three weeks away from the deadline to get us at Public Interactive your reporting data on music streaming for the third quarter of 2009. That deadline is Friday, October 16, 2009!

A number of stations have already given us their data for processing (thanks!) and many, many more have told me they are working on it. We’re happy to take your data as soon as you have it ready. But October 16 is really – honestly, truly – the latest that we’ll be able to take your data for inclusion in Q3 reports that will be submitted to SoundExchange. We submit all station reports in one big batch to SX, so we cannot grant extensions.

I won’t rehash the basics of registration and reporting here; you can read about those particulars in this post.

Let me use this space to answer a few common questions and highlight some other things to keep in mind:

1. Your chosen 14 day reporting period must indeed be fully contained within Q3 (July 1 – September 30). SoundExchange will not accept reports containing data outside those three months.

2. Composer Basic (which includes the SoundExchange Reporting Dashboard) – which will be used to transfer your data files to us – is not yet ready for public consumption. For now, data transfers will continue to be done via FTP.

3. Your playlist files must be in the proper file format, described here, or we cannot process them and, hence, will not be able to file reports on your station’s behalf.

4. If you submitted files to us for Q2 in a different format you still need to submit Q3 files (and beyond) in the required format! For Q2 we accepted just about whatever data we could get, due to the time constraints, but we are requiring the new format going forward.

In other matters, last week in Cleveland I took part in an excellent panel discussion (with lengthy Q&A) on SoundExchange reporting at the PRPD conference. You can access the presentation slides and handouts here. I’ll be participating in a similar session at the upcoming WSPR conference in Portland, OR on Wednesday November 4. If you’re going to be there, be sure to drop by and introduce yourself.

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or when you are ready to send us your data files.