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March 2023: Top Five Testing Male CCM Artists

Every year, Finney Media Research tests library songs from CCM artists with listeners across the USA. Listeners decide this ranking, from the research we’ve gathered across North America.

We thought it would be helpful for you to see the Top Five Male Artists from our research recently. If you’re playing them, terrific! If you’re not, perhaps it’s time for a discussion about playing them:

1. Chris Tomlin
2. Jeremy Camp
3. Zach Williams
4. Matthew West
5. Phil Wickham

If you do music testing, you know that Chris Tomlin’s songs are still testing great! So are Jeremy Camp’s, who is now not all that far from overtaking Tomlin. And Zach Williams has come on strong the past year. Matthew West is no surprise at no. 4, given his amazing 20-year career. His latest songs have been especially strong. Phil Wickham helps show the lean of the CCM fan in the direction of worship.

Coming in April: The Top Five Groups in nationwide CCM Music Research during 2022. Be sure you’re playing these artists to grow your listenership.

READ THE TOP FIVE TESTING FEMALES OF 2022.

Every year, Finney Media Research tests library songs from CCM artists with listeners across the USA. Listeners decide this ranking from research we’ve gathered across North America.   

We thought it might spark new ideas for you to see the Top Five Female Artists from our recent research. If you’re playing them, terrific! If you’re not, perhaps it’s time for a discussion about playing them:   

Top Five Female Artists

1. Lauren Daigle
2. Francesca Battistelli
3. Tasha Layton
4. Kari Jobe
5. Anne Wilson

We’ve seen a resurgence of top testing songs by women in the past few years, including Tasha Layton’s and Anne Wilson’s debuts. Francesca Battistelli and Kari Jobe continue to score well. But the real story in the Top Five is the dominance of Lauren Daigle. The way we do our Artist Scoring rewards artists with lots of high testing songs. Lauren scores are so much higher than the others that her score total – driven by a number of hit songs with high scores – is larger than the three artists right behind her. 

Coming in March: The Top Five Male Artists in nationwide CCM Music Research during 2022. Be sure you’re playing these artists to grow your listenership. 

Every year, Finney Media Research tests library songs from CCM artists with listeners across the United States.  

We thought it would be helpful and fun for you to see the Top Five Tested Songs from our research recently…plus the next five songs! If you’re playing them, terrific! If you’re not, perhaps it’s time for a discussion about playing them.   

Top Five Testing Songs

1. MercyMe, Even If 2016
2. MercyMe, I Can Only Imagine 2001
3. Anne Wilson, My Jesus 2021
4. Newsboys, We Believe 2013
5. Bethel Music, No Longer Slaves 2015

…and the next five:

6. Lauren Daigle, You Say 2018
7. Cory Asbury, Reckless Love 2018
8. Phil Wickham, This Is Amazing Grace 2013
9. For King & Country, God Only Knows 2018
10. (tie) MercyMe, Greater 2014
10. (tie) Josh Baldwin, Stand In Your Love 2018

MercyMe – Three songs in the Top 10! Including I Can Only Imagine. If you’ve continued to test it, you’ve likely seen similar top testing results.  

And half of the Top 10 are from the past five years, including four songs from 2018. That also means half are from more than five years ago. For stations who continued to play these titles, they continue to perform very well. 

Coming in February: The Top Five Artists in nationwide CCM Music Research during 2022. Be sure you’re playing these artists and grow your listenership. 

The 2021 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey included almost 11,000 Christian radio listener respondents from three different formats: all-Music stations, Music/Teaching (Hybrid) stations, All-Teaching stations, and programs.

We asked them about whether or not they give to the ministry that sent them the survey. And to those who give, we asked about what moved them to make a call, go online or write a check to make a gift. The top five responses from CCM listeners are below. These are the percentage who said that reason is “very important” to their decision . . . a reason for their move from listening to giving.

1. Feeling called by God to give 85%
2. I believe in the mission and vision of the ministry 82%
3. Knowing God tells us to support those who ministry to us 60%
4. An emergency need at the ministry 36%
5. A story about someone’s life that was changed through the ministry 32%

The no. 1 and no. 2 responses – “Feeling called by God to give” and “I believe in the mission and vision of the ministry” – tell us something important. So crucial that you communicate clearly and often your mission and vision. Both on air and off air. Your listener/donor is passionate about listening, passionate about helping. Making sure that theme is at the center of your giving communication is crucial.

Help your team understand your why and be able to articulate it quickly.

Coming in January:  The Top Five Artists – and the Top Five Songs – in nationwide CCM Music Research during 2022. Be sure you’re playing these artists and these songs and grow your listenership.

 

The 2021 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey! Almost 11,000 respondents with over one million data points from three different formats, including Music stations, Music/Teaching stations, All-Teaching stations & programs.  

We asked about topics you might talk about on your stations and how interested your listener is in those topics. The list below is focused on the 3,000+ respondents who came from Music stations. These are the percentages who indicated they are “very interested”:

1. A word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today 83%
2. Information on a local Christian concert 52%
3. Bible studies on topics such as prophecy, spiritual gifts, marriage, etc. 49%
4. Stories about how people helped a neighbor after a tragedy 47%
5. A prayer of thanksgiving from a local pastor 42%

SPIRITUAL ENCOURAGEMENT! 

In whatever form or forum we ask, our Christian radio listener is attracted to spiritual encouragement. Notice just how far ahead of every other answer “A Word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today” shows up! 

What topics score lowest?  

Second to last is “the latest decisions of politicians” at 11 percent “very interested”. Dead last – run quickly away from this – is “the latest news from Hollywood” at 2 percent “very interested”.    

Coming in December: The Top Five Reasons Christian Radio Listeners Give To Your Station. The Why Listen? Survey includes a lot (what percentage were donors?) of donors, so we’re asking the folks who support you now. 

…and how Music Station Listeners are different from Music/Teaching Stations and All-Teaching Station Listeners

In the Finney Media 2021 Why Listen?® Survey there were almost 11,000 respondents from three different formats : Music stations, Music/Teaching stations, and all-Teaching stations & programs.

The centerpiece of the survey was the reasons Christian radio listeners listen. It turns out, in some cases, that listeners who came from CCM stations listen for reasons similar to listeners  from Music/Teaching stations and all-Teaching stations . . . and then there are a few reasons that are different. Here are the percentages, by format, of the Main Reasons respondents gave as to why they listen:

(Move to before the list to reduce confusion.) Note: The answers in bold are the ones not common to all three formats. The ones not in bold made the Top Five Main Reasons for each of the formats.

Music Station Respondents:

1. I like the worshipful Christian music 92%
2. It helps me worship God throughout the day 91%
3. I want to be encouraged 83%
4. It helps me grow spiritually 78%
5. I want to get away from negativity on other stations 67%

Music/Teaching Station Respondents:

1. It helps me worship God throughout the day 86%
2. It helps me grow spiritually 85%
3. I like the worshipful Christian music 80%
4. I want to be encouraged 76%
5. It helps me understand the Bible better 68%

All-Teaching Station Respondents:

1. It helps me grow spiritually 87%
2. It helps me worship God throughout the day 81%
3. It helps me understand the Bible better 79%
4. I want to help spread Truth 72%
5. I want to be encouraged 70%

 A few observations:

  • It’s fascinating to us that “It helps me worship God throughout the day” shows up strongly even among the Teaching station listeners who play no music. Christian radio listeners, it would appear, identify not only the songs but what happens between the songs as helping with their worship experience from radio. Your songs help them worship. So do the breaks you do between the songs. Definitely something to pray about as you plan your content.
  • Notice the Bible-focused and evangelism reasons that showed up higher for the stations that lean toward Teaching programs – “It helps me understand the Bible better” and “I want to help spread Truth” showing up much more strongly than those reasons did with music listeners.
  • We believe that the biggest headline is this: When you look at the Main Reasons that are common to all three formats, “It helps me worship God throughout the day”, “It helps me grow spiritually” and “I want to be encouraged”, it is as if our listener is saying “I’m coming to you for SPIRITUAL ENCOURAGEMENT”.

Coming in November: The Top Five Most Interesting On-Air Topics. There is one that is much bigger than all the others.  You won’t want to miss it!

The Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey includes almost 11,000 respondents from three different formats: Music stations, Music and Teaching stations, and all-Teaching stations and programs. If you take the time to dive into the data, there are amazing stories from our listeners.

One of our big questions for these listeners is about tuneouts: things she perceives you might do that would cause her to tune away of turn off the radio. The list below is focused on just the respondents who came from all-Music stations. The percentages are the total of “very likely to turn off” and “somewhat likely to turn off”:

1. They have a negative, angry, judgmental tone 85%
2. An announcer talks too much 45%
3. They play commercials 44%
4. They talk about a topic I’m not interested in 41%
5. They play songs you’re tired of 36%

We discussed in this column last month (READ IT HERE) how the main reasons for listening to Christian radio could be summed up in two words – spiritual encouragement. Our top tuneout confirms this. The no.1 tuneout – and it isn’t even close – is a negative, angry judgmental tone.

Your listener is looking for spiritual encouragement without negativity, without anger, without judgment.

We believe that doesn’t just mean we take out things that are negative, angry, judgmental, but also that we’re proactive about including “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”*

The other tuneouts are important (“talking too much about something that’s not interesting” comes to mind), but none quite as important as your station or program being the loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, self-controlled channel in an increasingly negative, angry, judgmental world.

Coming in October:  Another look at The Top Five Main Reasons Listeners of Christian Radio Listen. This time, we review all the formats in the survey and discover the Main Reasons Music stations are similar, as well as, different from listeners to Hybrid stations and Teaching stations and programs.

*”The Fruits Of The Spirit” – Galatians 5:22 ESV

…plus the next five.

The 2021 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey includes almost 11,000 respondents from three different formats: Music stations, Music and Teaching stations and Teaching stations and programs. The findings are fascinating!  

We presented listeners about 20 different reasons they might listen to their Christian radio station. Here are the Top Five Main Reasons for Music Station respondents . . . plus the next five. The numbers are the percentage of respondents who indicated that’s a Main Reason they listen: 

1. I like the worshipful Christian music. 92%
2. It helps me worship God throughout the day. 91%
3. I want to be encouraged. 83%
4. It helps me grow spiritually. 78%
5. I want to get away from negativity on other stations. 67%
6. It’s safe for me and my family to listen to. 65%
7. The presentation is calming. 55%
8. I want to help spread Truth. 53%
9. I feel the speakers care when they pray on-air for someone in need. 45%
10. The hosts sometimes add light-hearted humor that’s family-friendly. 44%

The no.1 and no.2 reasons are roughly equal, and really a powerful reason for us to consider the spiritual temperature of our stations. It appears that our biggest fans – the folks who took the 20 minutes or so to complete the survey – continue to want an overtly spiritual focus to our stations.  

Intentionally focus your vision onto the first four reasons. Those are the ones over 75% indicating it’s a main reason they listen. You could boil those four reasons down to two words: Spiritual Encouragement. It leads us to our Action Point for CCM Stations: Talk just enough, with Spiritual Encouragement, about something interesting to your listener …and then play a song she loves. 

Coming in September: From the 2021 Why Listen?®  Survey, The Top Five Listener Tuneouts. 

Year-round, Finney Media tests CCM music across the United States. So, we get a view on how listener tastes change over time. We thought it would be fun and helpful to give you a look at the top Female Artists, which we reviewed in April, Male Artists in MAY, and Top Groups in June. This month, we bring all three of those rankers together into one big Top 10 CCM Artists, based on the latest research of library songs from across the country.* Here they are: 

10. (tied) Elevation Worship
10. (tied) Big Daddy Weave
8. (tied) Newsboys
8. (tied) Zach Williams
7. Third Day
6. Lauren Daigle
5. Toby Mac
4. Jeremy Camp
3. Chris Tomlin
2. MercyMe
1. Casting Crowns

We’ve been doing these rankers for quite a few years, and Chris Tomlin has finished at the top every year for the past ten years or so, often by a wide margin over no. 2. This year, though, we have a new no. 1 CCM Artist: Casting Crowns. 

Chris’s songs still score very well. And we recommend that you make his songs from over the years a part of a rich CCM library.  

This year, though, with almost 20 years of hits, Casting Crowns grabs the top spot! Many of their songs still score really well, from older cuts like Voice Of Truth and Praise You In This Storm to more recent smashes like Nobody.  

And MercyMe, continuing to turn out one great song after another, is a close no. 2. I Can Only Imagine still tests great, so does Greater and a whole lot of other songs from their past 20+ years.    

Next month. The Top Five Reasons CCM Listeners Listen. We do an encore presentation from the 2021 Why Listen Survey, always a great reminder of why listeners listen. If we’ll listen to them, and respond, we’ll achieve more hearts, more deeply.  

*We used a weighted scoring system – higher scoring songs mean higher weighting. All scores come from the past few months of nationwide testing. 

Year-round, Finney Media tests CCM music across the United States so, we get a view on how listener tastes change over time. We thought it would be insightful and helpful to give you a look at the Top Female Artists, which we reviewed in April, Male Artists, which we reviewed in May, Top Groups and then the overall Top Artists (in July) based on the latest research of library songs from across the country. We used a weighted scoring system – higher scoring songs mean higher weighting. All scores come from the past few months of nationwide testing.

We define Groups as an artist comprised of multiple members, like Casting Crowns, MercyMe or Cain. Here are the Top Five CCM Group Artists:

5. (tied) Elevation Worship
5. (tied) Big Daddy Weave
4. Newsboys
3. Third Day
2. MercyMe
1. Casting Crowns

Casting Crowns, is our biggest testing Artist Group now with close to 20 years of hits and with 14 high testing songs, led by Praise You In This Storm.

MercyMe. If you do listener testing, you know that I Can Only Imagine still tests near the top. But they also have over a dozen other songs that still test strong enough for playlist consideration.

Third Day. 13 different high testing songs in our latest research, stretching from 2000’s God of Wonders to 2014’s Soul on Fire.

Newsboys. Like our other groups at the top, they have lots of years of still great testing songs, from He Reigns to We Believe.  

Big Daddy Weave. Again, lots of years of great testing songs, the latest being I Know.

Elevation Worship. If there is a surprise in our Top Five, it’s this group. Their great testing songs are numerous and more recent than our other Top Five artists, beginning with 2016’s O Come to The Altar.

Next month. The Top Ten Artists Overall – We bring together our Top Women, Top Men and Top Groups into one big Overall Top Ten Artists in our most recent testing. A preview…for the first time in years, we have a new no. 1 high-testing artist.

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