Ladies and Gentlemen On The Radio
Who gets played on the radio | 2011-07-14 03:35 | Written By: by AIR
Twitter is awesome. Last week a twitter user (@wraptinmusic) tweeted this to us:
"Does anyone know the stats for % of male vs female artist play on radio in Australia? @triplej @ausindies @fbiradio @homeandhosed"
The question got us thinking. The feeling around the office was that we
hear heaps more male voices on the radio, but perhaps we should find out
for sure?
Sample Size
We got our hands on 'spin' reports from every commercial radio network
in Australia as well as dozens of the highest profile community and
regional stations, Triple J, ABC local radio and Radio National. We
ended up with a list of the 2,000 most played songs across Australia for
June 2011.
Definition of Male And Female Music
We went through every song and identified whether the voice was male or female. This means that an artist like Sneaky Sound System would be considered female despite those hits featuring two males and one female. Oh Mercy have a female bass player amongst their members but the male singer means their songs would be considered male.
Results
Of the 2,000 most played songs in Australian Radio during June 2011:
- 1,634 featured male vocals, that's 81.7%
- Only 366 featured female voices, that's 18.3%
When we adjust the statistics, taking into account the number of spins
each track had (ie Katy Perry and Adele's respective 3040 and 3016 spins
obviously have more impact than Bluejuice's 106 spins) the stats were
still incredibly skewed.
Of the 348,329 separate spins in this study:
- 265043 spins featured male vocalists, that's 76.1%
- 83191 spins featured female vocalists, that's 23.9%
Wow. We're not sure why this trend exists. Is it a result of listener
tastes? Radio music directors? Audience surveys? Less female signings to
labels? Less female participation in the music industry? Any ideas?
Email us at newsletter@air.org.au
Thanks to @wraptinmusic for asking the question and thanks also to our
excellent intern Eddie who came in and spent a day processing the stats.
