The Josh Innes Show - Fascinating Music Streaming Data

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

I was pretty surprised when I learned KISS' most streamed song. This leads me down the 100 most streamed songs wormhole. Radio stations don't really use streaming as a real gauge for what they should be playing..which is odd. Well, they do for more current songs. But, they don't really care about it for formats like classic rock. Have you ever wondered how stations decide what music to play? You're in luck. Also, Taylor is now the odds on favorite to play the Super Bowl. I don't think it's going to happen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Protein without all the work at participating restaurants in Canada. I was fascinated to learn the most streamed Kiss song. So the band, Kiss, you wanted the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the world, Kiss. Because a lot of people would have thought that the most streamed Kiss song would have been, I guess, rock and roll all night, maybe Detroit Rock City. Arguably, they're two most famous songs. Well, as it turns out, that is not the case. And it's not the case by a long shot. More than double that of the second song, which is, in fact, rock and roll all night.

The most streamed Kiss song on Spotify is I Was Made for Loving You. And I Was Made for Loving You has been streamed 1.3 billion times. And I don't know why, but apparently over 800,000 times in one day it was streamed. usually when something like that happens like a new song comes out or something's in a movie i don't know what day or why the most daily streams for i was made for loving you would have been like 850,000 unless it was in a commercial or something but that's the number and that kind of stuff fascinates me let me play a couple commercials and we'll continue reading playing learning steles lenses do more than just correct your child's vision they slow down the progression of my

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Oh, hi, buddy. Who's the best you are? I wish I could spend all day with you instead. Uh, Dave, you're off mute. Hey, happens to the best of us. Enjoy some goldfish cheddar crackers. Goldfish have short memories. Be like goldfish.

I was talking with a guy that was a longtime radio dude here, legendary morning radio host in Detroit. He and I had a phone conversation the other day. His name's Drew Lane. He used to host the Drew and Mike show, which was a big time radio show on WRIF, which is the big rock station here in town. It's like their version of, you know,

I guess Riff, would be, if you're listening in Philly, Riff would be their WMMR, or what Casey was, if Casey would have kept playing new music in St. Louis, you know, that type of thing. And they had a huge morning show up until, I guess, a decade ago or so, a little over a decade ago when they were unceremoniously dumped. But I admire the guy, and I had sent him a text. I said, hey, I enjoy your podcast. I think we have similar sensibilities. It was a much older guy than me. I say much older. He's probably in the 60s. But a cool guy. And he said, I'll call you. So we talked on the phone for like an hour and a half. We talked about music and the

music that radio stations play. And one of the talking points we had is a talking points. We having a conversation. It wasn't a talking point. It doesn't meet the press. It was just two dudes talking on the phone. But he said that it's interesting to him that radio stations don't seem to really care about the number of times a song is streamed to determine whether or not they play it. And he's right. Radio stations usually go by this research where they get a bunch of people together. I say a bunch of people. They get enough people together of different demographics, different ages, different racial makeups, whatever. And they play them a shitload of songs. And, you know, they play them the first X number of minutes of a song or whatever. And you say

whether you like that song or not. And you, I've never been part of one of these so I don't fully know how it works. But like you grade it on a scale of one to ten. Or if you like that song, there's a couple of different categories. And then they rank those songs based on score. They tabulate a score for those songs. Then they rank those songs like one to four. 500 or however many songs you have on your playlist, and the songs that get like a high square, I think they're usually one to five. So the closer you are to five, the better. But I don't always believe that those things are real. For example, when I was in Nashville, the most popular song, when I first got there, the most, as they call it, the highest testing

song, the highest scored song, was damn Yankees high enough, which I think is a wonderful song. It's almost indisputable that it's a wonderful song. It's a great song. It's an amazing song. The Damn Yankees. It's a great song. I don't believe that the most popular song that would play on a classic rock radio station in Nashville would have been damn Yankees high enough. But that's what the test said.

The score came back and it tested through the roof, as they would put it. So it played like top of the hour all the time, right? There'd be songs that you think are great. Like when I got to St. Louis, I thought that Van Hagar and Sammy Hagar would be high testing songs. Turns out they'd start testing lower, so that's why you didn't hear as much Sammy Hagar and Van Hagar as I would have thought in St. Louis, which is a huge Sammy town and a huge Van Hagar and Van Halen town. But it's just, that's how people determine this. Like, I got a text from a guy during the show that said, well, do you have the guts to play no repeats for a whole week? I'm like, well, it ain't my call, Chief, but sure, I'd give it a shot.

Why not? It'd be a fun little wacky bit. Could be a fun time. Maybe I'll do that. On Kishi, they would do a no repeat weekend. And Casey had this broad music, like, because Casey for 50-something years has been playing, you know, like through the years of progressive rock and like shit that's I would consider yacht rock was considered rock in like 1975. So they play a bunch of random shit on there. But I bring this up because I am just fascinated by the number of streams certain songs get.

And I think the point that my guy I was talking to, Drew brought up that was fair, is why we as a radio station don't look at streaming numbers more. Like my PD in St. Louis did, like he would look at streaming numbers and go, how can we dispute like this song? He also programmed, you know, like an adult hit station. They would occasionally throw in like a new-ish song. Most of the songs were 2000s and 90s based, but every now and then you'd get like if there was a really hot song that was just blowing up on top 40 like six months ago. He'd drop that in there as well. Like I'm trying to think of an example of it. There was, I forgot which one it was.

But point being, he would look at streaming data a lot and use that. It's at times more than he would the test. But I'm just intrigued by the most streamed songs. So the most streamed song on Spotify ever is blinding lights by the weekend. Like, I'd be curious to see how far down you have to go to get a song that would even be considered playing on one of the music stations I've worked for. And I've worked technically for three classic rock stations, although this one's far less of a, classic rocker than the others. Yes, the music is older, so it is technically a classic rock, but it's not a true blue classic rock like Kashi was or a true blue classic rock like the rock

in Nashville was. We're a little less of that. But I'd like to know how far down this list of the top 100 most stream songs you'd have to get to even get like a certified rock song. Because as it stands now, the most streamed song ever is blinding lights by the weekend with 4.992 billion streams. So think about this. The thing that started this conversation was the fact that KISS has 1.3 billion streams on I Was Made for Loving You. This thing is almost five times that, okay? Then Ed Sheeran's Shape of You, Starboy the Weekend, Lewis Capaldi, someone you loved, Harry Stiles, Post Malone, Drake, the Kid Leroy, Glass Animals, Imagine Dragons. I guess you would consider Imagine Dragons or Rocks. I mean, they're a rock band, but they're a current rock band.

and Believers a rock song. But for the most part, these are pop songs. What is the oldest song you get on here? I mean, there are songs dating back to 2013. Like, you get, like, 2013 ripped tied by Vance Joy is in the $3 billion range. Hozier, if you want to consider him like an alt-rocky type, okay, with Take Me to Church. That was 2013. 2010, you get Bruno Mars just the way you are.

All right, here we go. Queen. Queen has the most streamed classic rock song of all of them. And I think that the obvious, it's obvious when you hear it, but it is Bohemian Rhapsody, which I feel like I've heard every day of my life, and I am so sick of Queen. I look, if you like Queen, you like Queen, that's all well and good. I have nothing against Queen. I am sick of Queen.

But Queen has the highest streamed or the most streamed classic rock song of all time. According to this, on Spotify, Bohemian Rhapson. 2.889 billion, and I bet a lot of that has to do with just the release of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. Well, is that six, seven years ago, every many years ago that was. I'm sure that helped. Like, you know, back in the day, before they were streaming, when Wayne's World used Bohemian Rhapsody, it recharted back in 92 whenever that movie came out. So the highest classic rock song is Bohemian Rhapsody, 2.889 billion. Let's see. Dom, in the 5th,000. and don't see anything.

Let's see. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls from 1998 is up there, too. That's number 64. Nirvana, if you want to consider Nirvana, classic rock smells like teen spirit. Journey, okay, so Journey, don't stop believing. That would be an obvious one.

That has 2.5 billion streams. oasis wonderwall if you want to consider that classic rock that's that's more of a classic alt but that's at 2.4 billion queens on there again with don't stop me now that that feels like a random one at 2.4 billion but it's also been in commercials and then guns and rose is at 100 with sweet child of mine at 2.3 billion Bruno mars has six songs on the top 100 most streamed of all time for what it's worth that's the most of course to this list. But I don't know, that just fast, I'm fascinated by that how these numbers work and how these numbers don't seem to matter. And that was the whole gist of that conversation

I was having this. Like, this is real life shit. Now, these people could just be streaming this for the hell of it. That doesn't mean they like it. I think that's also an important note. Like, there's no gauge on whether or not you like a song that you stream. You might stream it just because you heard it on a commercial and you want to hear the whole thing. Or you shazammed it in a store and you want to hear the whole thing. It may mean absolutely. nothing, right? But it's just kind of a, so we don't know if you like that song, really like it. I guess that's the difference between the testing versus, you know, using streaming data is you don't get a full-on breakdown of how much you like the song, whereas in the testing that

the radio people use, it's like, did you like that song, like on a scale of one to five? How much did you like it? One, two, three, four, five. Did you enjoy listening to it or whatever? So I guess that's the one difference in it. So you can't just trust raw streaming data. You know, a lot of people watch Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. Like, she said a record, by the way, talking about streaming records. Concurrently, 1.3 million people were watching the Taylor Swift, Travis Kelsey interview. That is the most for a podcast of all time for concurrent streaming. Like, I would look at the numbers that Pat McAfee was getting with, like, Aaron Rogers on some of those wacky days of, like, talking about the Rona and masks and all the drama and shit.

And those would get huge numbers. You'd be into the hundreds of thousands of people watching, right? you'd go, wow, that's amazing. And it is. But Taylor drew 1.3 million concurrently and now has over 20 million actual views on that. It's ridiculous, which fine. Look, I don't hate her. I don't fault her at all. Like, I got a guy that listens to the show in St. Louis that so follows the show and is just amazed by how people hate Taylor Swift. Now, it's important to note that I think this guy is extremely liberal, and I think that he likes Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift because he thinks that there's just hated by right-wing people. This is the same guy that sent me a message today that was like, what are all these whiny-ass right-wing people getting the logo of Cracker Barrel changed? So he clearly is a guy that hates right-wing people, or at least does not lean with them politically.

Thus, he has a disdain for them. Like, I guarantee you if it was the other way around, and it felt like basically what it comes down to is if right-wing people really like Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift, this guy probably wouldn't. But his point was like, why do people hate them so much? And I'm like, well, they're probably sick of fucking seeing them. That's just human nature. That's how people operate.

But people are fascinated by it. Like, I saw a story that said that Taylor Swift is now the odds-on favorite to perform at the Super Bowl for halftime. I don't believe that. But if there were a time to do it, I guess now would be it. Like, her new album comes out in October. So by then, like, the album will have come and gone. So that doesn't really matter. But she's hot right now, again, with Travis, because they're engaged.

I don't think that's going to be the case. Because if I were Taylor, I'm not playing halftime until I need to play halftime. It's not about money. I don't think they pay you. I don't think you get paid at all to do the halftime show. It's about the exposure. So Taylor doesn't need the exposure. The NFL would benefit more from Taylor doing the halftime show than she would benefit from doing it.

So I guess she is the top of the zeitgeist right now, so maybe. And the other issue I run into with this is if you look at the other candidates, the other people on this list that could fall into that category of play. playing halftime? None of them are a big enough star, right? Like Metallica is on here. They're not putting Metallica on the Super Bowl. They're not putting a metal band on for the Super Bowl. That is not mainstream appeal to everybody enough. Metallica is not playing the halftime show. You can say, well, Josh, they play all of their music in the stadium. They do. They are not playing halftime. Post Malone may. Like to me, Post Malone, if there's a bet on this and he'd probably be an underdog to Taylor Swift, Post Malone may be the best bet.

He crosses genres, so he's a guy that can give you the rap type of thing. I don't think rap people take him all that seriously because he's now more of a country pop guy. But I could see him doing it. Morgan Wallen is on here too. They're not going to put Morgan Wallin on there because Morgan Wallen said the inward one time. So I doubt they're going to put him on the Super Bowl and want to deal with that. Now, Jay Z is at 6%. Jay Z has said the inward one billion times, and he probably has a much, much better shot of playing halftime.

Although I feel like Jay-Z's been out of sight, out of mind. Like, what does Jay-Z do other than age in a really weird way and just look strange? Sabrina Carpenter could be, but Sabrina Carpenter, while she's big with the people that like Sabrina Carpenter and she's big on pop radio, like someone's sitting at home, like the average Joe probably doesn't know or give a shit about Sabrina Carpenter. Billy Elish is not going to be it. Chapel Roan is not going to be it. Chapel Roan's already come and gone. Chapel Roan had that moment where it was like, wow, she's the hottest thing on the planet for five minutes. minutes. Then she wasn't. Drake is probably not, although could be a little outsider, a little underdog, because Drake may want to get out there after Kendrick Lamar did the whole, you know,

you know, A minor thing. Maybe Drake wants to go back out and do that. Little Wayne is not going to be it. Foo fighters, I'd say, have an outside shot. They're mainstream enough, but probably not. Oasis will not. Doja Cat will not. Miley Cyrus will not. So, like, it is weird that we're in an era where there's no obvious choices to play the Super Bowl. I talked about this on the show, and you know how I feel about this. I would much rather see some old has-beens. Like, that'd be a funny goof. Give me an old has-been halftime show.

Give me a docking half-time show. Give me, you know, a hair metal halftime show. Give me the new kids on the block half-time show. Like, give me something like that that, like, people are, like, not even new kids, because new kids can still fill up arenas. I'm looking for groups and bands and artists that are, like, out of sight, out of mind. That's what I'm looking for in this. That's what I want to see. I want something wacky. I want something like it's a top secret. Nobody knows what it is. And then the moment it happens, you're like, holy shit, this is bizarre. Like here's Tesla. Like that would be fun to me. But anyway, more to come.