Why do radio stations play the same songs repetitively?

[monthefish]

This is not specific to any radio station (they all seem to do it), and I'm talking about songs at least a year old (or much older) which long have dropped out of 'chart'.

Is it a lack of imagination? or some contractual thing?

[monthefish]

Radio 1 is the worst culprit (there is DEFINITELY some deals being done to promote certain artists/songs there), but all of the others seem to be nearly as bad.

[monthefish]

Thanks for all the useful replies

I get the bit about 'wanting to stick to what's popular', but I think what I'm struggling with is that there are so many popular songs they could select from and why they stick to particular song by a particular artist (especially when that song didn't chart particularly highly in the first place).

It's almost like the station has a bag of 33rpm vinyl singles and that's all they can choose from, whereas obviously in the digital age we know that's not the case (and therefore not the reason for the restriction).

This is particularly relevant for a station like Smooth FM which has effectively got around 50 years worth of smooth & popular songs to choose from, but still play the same 20-30 songs repeatedly.

[monthefish]

MitchT said:

. Much prefer R2 with no adverts and music that doesn't make me feel like I'm stuck in a timewarp, even if it does mean the odd track being played a few times a day.

Again, given the range of songs R2 can play, there's no reason why they need to play the same song twice in any 3 month (or even 6 month/1 year?) period, but why do they? It's not like they're playing chart stuff....

[monthefish]

egor110 said:

MitchT said:

But instead you get the same set of adverts on repeat all day instead. They had it on in the office before lockdown meant WFH. Drove me mad! Plus, Absolute seems to be disproportionately fixated on 90s Indie music, like they think that obsessively playing Nirvana makes them cool... and this isn't even Absolute 90s. Much prefer R2 with no adverts and music that doesn't make me feel like I'm stuck in a timewarp, even if it does mean the odd track being played a few times a day.

I'm late 40's and i think absolute is aimed at people in there 40's .

nirvana , pearl jam , pixies , placebo , oasis, , shed 7 that'll do nicely .
.

That sounds like Virgin to a tee.
...but they're afflicted by the same issue - it's the same single songs by these artists that get played over and over.

[monthefish]

StevieBee said:

All of the main stations use a centralised playlist constructed to appeal to the type of listener the station is aiming at. This is carefully considered because what the stations want to avoid is having a song played and people thinking.... "what the hell's this?" and switching over because once they've switched, that's them lost for the rest of the day. Because the most people only listen to the radio for half an hour to an hour at a time, the songs get put onto a daily playlist. The choice of songs is based on a combination of genre of the station, streaming figures and those 'pushed' by labels (new releases).

Good insight - thanks. Think that pretty much explains it.

monthefish said:

.

It's almost like the station has a bag of 33rpm vinyl singles....

So I was pretty much right then (except for the speed )

[monthefish]

Louis Balfour said:

Randy Winkman said:

I listen the Radio X in the car where I dont have digital radio. At home I'd always have 6-Music on. Up until recent months, in the car I'd have flicked back and forth between X and Absolute. But now the latter is digital only.

Anyway, Radio X seems to be getting worse for repeatedly playing the same "old favourites" from the last 5 years. Some I've now heard over and over and over and over again. Tedious.

I used to listen to Radio X and it was becoming horrendous, that is going back perhaps 3 years. Endless Oasis.

This is my frustration - they have such a large 'pool' of songs to choose from that are 'on brand' for the radio station, and would be perfectly familiar to their target audience, but they seem to still play the same handful of songs.