Is it the quality of the music? The opinions of the people listening?
Probably not.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/radio-stations-hit-pay-for-play-867825/
It adds a detail that might explain why there are so many country music stations in a genre which maybe isn’t that popular.
Do you think rolling Stone takes cash to promote music?
Do you think Google takes cash to promote websites?
Think about it.
I'm tentatively going to say yes, and I have a $300,000 Google Beach towl to prove it
I say I get scared whenever I visit SRG – it is a dangerous site. Once I started a stream and the programming I heard was different because the SRG had incorrect programming data. It can cause car accidents as people find alternate streams while driving. Someone should tell Google know about this being dangerous to our health!
https://fee.org/articles/google-is-burying-alternative-health-sites-to-protect-people-from-dangerous-medical-advice/
No need to intervene. Traffic from Google has slowed to a trickle.
There is a change to the advanced search page
https://streamingradioguide.com/streaming-radio.php
There is the ability to search by syndicator, but up until now that really only meant for talk radio. Now, for instance you could say show me stations that are using Jack FM for their music selection. However, the syndicated music part of radio is somewhat obfuscated. Most radio stations probably do not want to educate their listeners to the fact that they have no local employees for most of the day, they are using voice tracking and just milk the revenue stream, and pretend to be a local station.
I think what passes today for music is not really music. To me it’s just caterwauling. Some lyrics are totally meaningless and it requires a psychologist to translate it (21 Pilots, for example). Personally all I listen is talk radio. The oldies bring memories I much rather forget.
I like that auto racing great Roger Penske now owns Rolling Stone.
Why is that important to you?
Not especially important to me, but I like it because that bastion of far left liberal thought is now owned by a guy who made his mark in the very All-American auto racing business. Capitalism strikes again!