Katy Perry’s Prism Truck outside the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2013 (photo: Techfaster)
While Apple’s iTunes Radio is hoping to dethrone Pandora as the king of internet radio, another i-radio continues to follow the internet radio giant very closely. Clear Channel Media and Entertainment’s iHeartRadio recently reported more explosive growth.
The popular music app that lets users listen to streaming radio from hundreds of Clear Channel, Cumulus and independent radio stations, as well as let’s listeners build custom stations, consistently ranks second behind Pandora in the Triton DIgital Radio monthly ratings. While Triton doesn’t publicly disclose the listenership numbers in the rankings they often point out the highlights of each monthly report.
Clear Channel also sent out a release on Friday giving everyone an inside look at how well the app is doing.
Their big news is that they’ve surpassed 40 million registered users and over 260 million downloads. The discrepancy comes from their a la carte offerings which allow users to customize their “own” stations across Clear Channel’s vast library stretching every format of radio they have available on their terrestrial radio stations along with formats that they only offer digitally like EDM, trance, house and even some jazz and classical music. Users that use iHearRadio’s customization service must have a registered account. Users who just want to listen to one of the over 1500 terrestrial radio stations available on the app need not register.
The success that iHeartRadio continues to achieve indicates its increasing popularity as a one-stop-shop for music, news and entertainment. In addition to its overall growth in registered users, the entire iHeartRadio network has surpassed 68 million digital unique visitors in October, the highest figure across its network since its launch. iHeartRadio is available through a variety of platforms including the web, mobile phones (iOS, Android, Windows, BlackBerry), tablets, automotive, smart TVs, gaming consoles and more, accounting for more than 260 million app downloads.
iHeartRadio’s growth mirrors a general industry trend of consumer-listening patterns. As mobile devices become more and more ingrained in everyday life, consumers are seeking out free and easy-to-use applications that offer a fully integrated, all-in-one digital product — and iHeartRadio has responded to consumer needs by introducing a variety of new services. Its Custom Station feature brings the popularity of user-generated music stations to users by allowing them to create their own stations, spanning more than 450,000 artists and 18 million songs. In July, iHeartRadio launched its Talk feature, the first audio platform to offer on-demand, listener-created talk content alongside popular news and entertainment audiosodes. It has also launched partnerships with a broad spectrum of popular consumer brands, including partnerships with Turner Broadcasting to expand its audio content on the iHeartRadio Talk feature; with Nissan to extend the availability of its in-dash auto experience; and most recently, with Nickelodeon to launch a branded, kid-friendly digital radio station.
“The 40 million user mark is an indication of the type of platforms and content consumers want to access digitally,” said Brian Lakamp, President of Digital for Clear Channel Media and Entertainment. “The strides we’ve made this past year in our offerings have paid off and we plan to increase both the availability and breadth of our product in the months to come.”
iHeartRadio offers listeners instant access to more than 1,500 of the nation’s most popular live broadcast and digital-only radio stations from across the country, mood-related stations “Perfect For” any activity, user-created Custom Stations inspired by favorite artists and songs, and the best on-demand news, talk and entertainment content available today.
iHeartRadio is also the brand that Clear Channel is using across their terrestrial radio stations for company wide or multi station events and promotions like the iHeartRadio Music Festival held every September in Las Vegas Nevada, and the iHeartRadio Jingle Jam concert tour which is touring Clear Channel’s largest markets this holiday season.
You can find out more about iHeartRadio here.
