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.
