Streaming Audience vs Radio Audience

I spend a LOT of time with the weekly streaming and sales/consumption data in Christian music every day. Data tells a story. Right now, the story that the data is telling in our genre is very compelling.

In August, 2022 there were 7 songs in the Christian music genre with more than 1,000,000 weekly streams. As of this past week’s data, there are 9 songs with more than 2,000,000 weekly streams and 55 songs with more than 1,000,000 weekly streams. We’ve never seen a song in Christian music streamed as much as “Hard Fought Hallelujah” and “Your Way’s Better” is RIGHT behind it. Check the data…

What does it mean? It means the appetite for this music is bigger than ever and the people who love it are discovering it more and more every day. 

Often when I share this data with radio programmers I get hesitation and a consistent question: “How do I know if these are MY listeners?”

I get why there’s hesitation—it feels like streaming listeners are in a totally different world than our current radio audience. But honestly, they’re not as far apart as we think. These are people who still care deeply about their faith and music… they’re just discovering it in new ways.

What’s cool is that the songs taking off on platforms like Spotify or TikTok are giving us real-time feedback on what’s connecting with people. It’s not just about going viral—it’s showing us what expressing faith through music sounds like to the next generation. And if we don’t pay attention to that in our radio bubble, we risk missing the future of Christian music.

We don’t have to flip our playlist upside down or chase trends. But we can start being more intentional about making space for songs that are already proving they matter. When we find the ones that speak to both audiences? That’s where the real magic happens. It’s not about losing what we’ve built—it’s about building on it in a way that keeps us relevant for years to come.

If you’re curious about the weekly data and what it looks like, bounce over to our Fact Check page to grab the latest updates.