Alternative Airplay Chart: How Radio Plays are Measured
AI-generated context summary requested by a Free News Reader user. Sourced via Gemini from publicly available information — no paywalled content was accessed.
You hit a paywall. Here’s the context on this topic based on publicly available information. We did not access any paywalled content. View original article.
Alternative Airplay Chart: How Radio Plays are Measured
- The Alternative Airplay chart ranks the 40 most-played songs on alternative and modern rock radio stations in the U.S., with rankings based on weekly radio spins and audience impressions.
- Luminate, the data company behind these charts, has partnered with Mediabase since December 2022 to fuel its reporting on radio activity.
Full Summary — powered by AI
The Alternative Airplay chart, published weekly, showcases the most popular songs on alternative and modern rock radio stations across the United States. The chart’s rankings are determined by the number of times a song is played (spins) and the estimated audience impressions it receives each week. This means that a play on a larger station or during a peak listening time contributes more significantly to a song’s position.
Luminate, an independent third-party data tracking and analytics provider that powers the charts, gathers its radio airplay data from Mediabase. Mediabase, owned by iHeartMedia, monitors terrestrial and satellite radio stations in both U.S. and Canadian markets. They utilize digital pattern recognition technology to detect when a registered song is broadcast by a radio station, then share these daily detections (spins) and audience figures with Luminate. Artists or their representatives can register their music with Mediabase to ensure their songs are tracked for airplay.
Originally launched as “Modern Rock Tracks” on September 10, 1988, the chart expanded to 40 positions in 1994. It was renamed “Alternative Songs” in June 2009 and then “Alternative Airplay” in June 2020 to better reflect industry terminology and differentiate it from the “Hot Alternative Songs” chart, which incorporates streaming and sales data in addition to airplay.