Metro Radio/Streaming: Build Airplay reports

Metro Radio/Streaming: Build Airplay reports

Narrow your Airplay analysis with Metro Radio/Streaming (MRS) Reports, which generate deep, detailed song rankings at the radio station and format level.


Navigation

Open   Report Builder from the CONNECT sidebar menu and choose Metro Radio/Streaming.






Back to Report Builder 

Back to User Guide  

Metro Radio/Streaming report types 

Trend Reports and Ranking Reports already include Airplay metrics. But MRS Reports can return deeper and more focused rankings of songs filtered by Airplay format, CRG status, by radio station or within a specific U.S. or Canada market.


The Metro Radio/Streaming Report Builder also works differently. It generates dynamic, scrollable Airplay rankings directly onscreen in the CONNECT interface, so you can browse results or fine-tune your filters in-app without exporting. 
Sample Metro Radio/Streaming Report
Here's how an Airplay Format Report looks in the Metro Radio/Streaming interface. All MRS Reports appear directly in the UI as a scrollable list. 

Click any entry to visit its Song Dashboard. 


 
There are three Metro Radio/Streaming report types: Airplay Format, Station and Streaming Contrast.


Airplay Format

Rank songs by Airplay performance within a single format at a nationwide or market level. Airplay Format reports can help contextualize Billboard Airplay Charts and even Airplay-based Ranking Reports by presenting Airplay Spins and Audience alongside Streams. 


Station

See a radio station’s entire playlist ranked by Spins and/or Audience within your time frame. Station Reports can provide additional insight into what’s driving Airplay trends at the market level or within a format panel. You may also run a Station Report with market-level filtering to isolate cross-border Airplay activity for a particular station.


Streaming Contrast

Compare streams, spins and sales for trending songs each week. Streaming Contrast Reports rank songs by streaming consumption, but with Airplay and Song Sale data included side by side. Streaming Contrast helps identify songs that are gaining traction on streaming, but may still be underplayed on the radio (and vice versa). 






Build an MRS Report 

From the CONNECT sidebar menu, select Report Builder > Metro Radio/Streaming to open the blank MRS Report Builder. 



All three MRS report types—Airplay Format, Station and Streaming Contrast—use a standard template and require (most of) the same inputs. Follow steps 1-3 below to set a report type and make report-dependent selections. Steps 4-7 are the same for all MRS report types. 




  1. Choose a report type

Select Airplay Format, Station or Streaming Contrast from the top row of tabs. You may notice that some of the default fields change when you choose a different report. 






  1. Set depth 

Format and Station Reports are fixed at a maximum depth of up to 1,500 songs. (Some formats, stations and/or filtering options may return fewer than 1,500 list items). 


Streaming Contrast Reports can rank 1,500, 5,000 or 10,000 songs. Deeper rankings can take more time to generate. This field is mandatory: you must select a depth to proceed with a Streaming Contrast Report.


Streaming Contrast Depth selection
Make a selection from the Depth menu to proceed with a Streaming Contrast Report.


Custom depths are not supported.


 


  1. Choose a Format, Station or Activity

Set essential parameters for each MRS report type. Airplay Format ranks within one format at a time; Station Reports track Airplay on individual radio stations; Streaming Contrast displays streaming and Airplay data side by side. 


These fields are mandatory. You cannot generate a report until you’ve made a selection. 



Airplay Format: Choose one format

Select from the list of Billboard and Luminate formats. Available formats differ between the U.S. and Canada. 




Station: Choose one radio station

Select a station from the list or search by city, state or province.

Search for stations by location
Find a specific station by entering its callsign or search by location to browse stations and markets.

Start typing the name of a city or market designation to see all stations within that market. You may also search by U.S. or Canada* state (2-letter abbreviation).





*Entering "CA" will return results from both Canada and California. To search within California only, type a comma and a space first (", CA"). 





 

Streaming Contrast: Set Activity filters

Refine your ranking of top-streamed songs with options to include or exclude certain types of streaming activity.







The remaining steps are the same for all three Metro Radio/Streaming report types. 

  1. Set Time Frame

Choose Current Week (the week in progress) or Last Week. Current Week is selected by default. 

MRS Time Frame selection
For the time being, MRS Report default Time Frame options are restricted to Current Week or Last Week. 



The calendar shows the most recent date for which CONNECT has data available. If you choose Current Week, your report will reflect data up to the last bold date (in this example, August 9).

 



  1. Set Location and Market 

Open the Location field to choose between the United States (default) and Canada. (CONNECT only tracks Airplay within those two countries). 



If desired, click the Market field to narrow your report to a single U.S. or Canada market. 






  1. Filter by CRG status (optional) 

Apply Current / Recurrent / Gold (CRG) filters to narrow down Airplay activity by release age. CRG status can be contextual depending on format. 

Current / Recurrent / Gold filters
Check or uncheck the boxes to include and exclude Current, Recurrent and/or Gold songs.


CRG status is linked to station and format. Depending on the format, a song's status might change from Current to Recurrent based on length of time since release, Airplay chart position or a combination of factors. 


 




  1. Finalize and view report 

If you’re satisfied with your selections, click Build Report to generate a scrollable ranking below. 



            Hit Reset Settings to start over with defaults. 

Sample Airplay Format report: Adult Pop
Airplay Format: Billboard Adult Pop, Last Week, United States - National, Current and Recurrent. 


Sample Station Report: KIIS (Los Angeles, CA)
Station: KIIS (102.7 FM) in Los Angeles, CA: Last Week, Current, Recurrent and Gold.


Note that Location is still set to United States - National, but it can be assumed that little (if any) of the consumption data shown here comes from outside the station's physical location in the Los Angeles, CA market.

In some cases, filtering by market in addition to station will eliminate some consumption from the totals. This can also reveal cross-market and cross-border consumption (ex. a Canada station with U.S. location filtering applied or vice versa). 

Why can’t I see all entries at once? / Partial loading
MRS report displays are dynamic and interactive; they don't load all entries right away.

Scroll to the bottom of your ranking to load the next few entries. You may need to do this a few times to see all entries in a deep ranking. 




 
     8. Export a Metro Radio/Streaming Report

Click the three dots icon at top right to export a finished MRS Report in CSV or Excel format.


MRS exports may take a few minutes to prepare. (Streaming Contrast Reports may take up to 15 minutes).

A pop-up blue banner indicates that an export is still in progress; it will download automatically when complete.


You can navigate away from the MRS Report Builder while you wait, but do not refresh the page or log out of CONNECT while an MRS export is in progress. If you refresh Report Builder or log out, you'll lose the export. 

Can I revisit MRS Reports in the Reports Manager?
No. At this time, completed Metro Radio/Streaming Reports won't show up in the Management tool. The Reports History table only lists completed Ranking and Trend Reports. 

We will add MRS Reports to the Reports Manager in the future. For now, export your report (see below) to preserve the data. 

What's included in an MRS export?
MRS Reports export in grid format (CSV or Excel). CONNECT automatically generates a file name with the report type, week number and a unique ID code to help differentiate your exports. 

            Ex. MRS-Airplay_Format_WK202533_1756333621418.csv

For each song listed in the report, the exported grid contains several rows of data: 
  1. Airplay Spins / This week (i.e. your selected week, which could be the Current Week or Last Week)
  2. Airplay Spins / Last week (i.e. the week immediately preceding the report time frame) 
  3. Airplay Audience / This week
  4. Airplay Audience / Last week
  5. Streams / This week
  6. Streams / Last week 

Example CSV export:



How do I change the layout or format of an MRS export?
Exported MRS Reports don't look like the in-platform displays. Consumption data is broken out into single rows (see above). These unformatted exports are more flexible; our users can analyze the raw data using other tools. 

If you just want to see an Airplay-based song ranking, try a Ranking Report instead. Ranking exports combine data into columns and can be scheduled in advance. To recreate the in-platform MRS Report layout more closely, you can build your own pivot tables or use macros/scripts to transform your exports. 

Use our add-ons to transform MRS exports

We built simple add-ons for Excel and Google Sheets to transform MRS exports into a standard columnar format. 

First, export your completed MRS report. If you'd like the final product in Excel format, export to .xlsx. For Google Sheets, you can use .xlsx or CSV. 

Then, follow the steps below to install our add-ons and transform your report. 


Excel
  1. Download the "MRS_Data_Transform_V10.xlam" file at the bottom of this page. 
  2. Install the file as an Excel add-in. See instructions for activating Excel add-ins here (Microsoft Support).
  3. Open your MRS Export .xlsx file and click "Enable Macros" when prompted.
  4. You should see a new "MRS Transform" menu in the Excel ribbon.
  5. Click "Transform Data" to re-format the report.
  6. A new "Formatted Report" tab will be added to your worksheet.

AlertYou must follow the steps to install and activate the Excel add-in (Step 2). 


Google Sheets
  1. Download the attached “Code.gs” file at the bottom of this page. 
  2. Open your MRS export (CSV or .xlsx) in Google Sheets.
  3. Go to "Extensions > Apps Script."
  4. Delete any existing code in the editor.
  5. Open the "Code.gs" file you downloaded in Step one and copy the entire contents into the Apps Script editor.
  6. Save the project (Ctrl+S or Cmd+S).
  7. Refresh your Google Sheet.
  8. You should see a new menu item: "MRS Transform."
  9. Click "Run Transform Data" to re-format the report.
  10. A new "Formatted Report" tab will be added to your worksheet.


​



More to know

Build a Ranking Report

Activity Types: Tracking music consumption methods



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