Audoo

Performance Royalty Distribution In The Grassroots Sector: UK Music Venue Trust & Audoo Share Initial

Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:24:39 +0000

Read the full article on Pollstar News.

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Inside the music royalty black hole: Why artists are still missing payments & how Audoo is changing it

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 09:45:00 +0000

Read the full article on headlinerhub.com.

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“There will never be a normal moment” - music entrepreneur on building a business backed by global icons like Paul McCartney and Elton John

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:31:00 +0000

Read the full article on Insider Media Ltd.

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UK Chart Comparison for January to June 2026

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 08:30:00 +0000

Introduction

A year ago we did something that had never been done before: we put a UK Public Performance Top 40 side-by-side with the Official Chart and radio airplay, and asked how much the three actually had in common. The answer was: less than anyone expected.

The UK Official Charts Company has now published their chart for the most-streamed and best-selling tracks of 2026 so far, covering January to the end of June. It remains the definitive picture of what people listen to privately - on headphones, at home, or on the go.

So now we can run the comparison a second time - one year of data tells you what public listening looks like; two tells you whether it's a quirk or a pattern. We can also look at whether the gap between private and public listening is closing or widening.

Our Audio Meters are in more UK venues than they were twelve months ago, which makes this the largest and most accurate dataset of public performance plays ever compiled - the music actually playing in the bars, cafés, shops, gyms, hotels and restaurants around us.

Here's the headline: it wasn't a quirk, and the gap got wider!

Overlaps

Line the three charts up and the overlaps are smaller than last year across the board.

Fewer than half of the songs in our Public Performance Top 40 appear in the UK Official Chart (17 out of 40, down from 22) or the UK Radio chart (15 out of 40, down from 21).

Even the two charts you'd expect to agree have drifted apart: the UK Official Chart and the Radio chart now share 23 out of 40 songs, down from 26.

Only 12 songs managed to appear in all three Top 40s. It takes 77 different songs to fill three charts of forty:

Put the two years next to each other and every single overlap has shrunk:

You might reasonably assume that as streaming becomes more dominant, everything converges on it. The data says the opposite: public listening isn't a slower version of the streaming or radio charts, it's an entirely different ecosystem.

Recent vs Classic songs

As we found last year, the clearest indicator is in the release dates. Venue playlists are built for mood, atmosphere and familiarity, not for novelty, so they reach further back in time.

The Top 40 UK Radio Chart is almost entirely a chart of the 2020s - 38 of its 40 songs.

The Top 40 Official Streaming and Download Chart is a little broader, with 33 songs from the 2020s and a scattering of older tracks - one each from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, two from the 2000s and two from the 2010s:

Public performance is, once again, by far the most varied. Thirteen of its forty songs were released before 2020, spread across every decade from the 1970s onwards:

The same gap shows up if you ask a simpler question - how much of each chart is genuinely new music? 30 of the 40 radio songs and 27 of the 40 Official Chart songs were released in 2025 or 2026. In Public Performance it's just 14 out of 40:

That balance between fresh hits and enduring favourites was the story last year and we're seeing the same things this year.

Trends

The interesting cases are the songs that are huge in one world and barely register in another.

Bella Kay's iloveitiloveitiloveit is the seventh biggest song of the year on the Official Chart and reached number 33 on radio, yet in Public Performance it sits at number 316.

Even starker, Just The Way You Are by Milky, a 2002 dance record given a second life on TikTok, is number 17 on radio and number 27 on the Official Chart - but number 2,029 in Public Performance.

The same is true of streaming revivals - Zara Larsson's Lush Life at number 10 on the Official Chart eleven years after release, yet only reaches number 359 in Public Performance.

The reverse is also true - Fleetwood Mac's Dreams was already high in the Public Performance chart last year at number 37, well before it appeared anywhere else. This year it's at number 6 and has now arrived in the Official Chart at number 34. The Chain joins it at number 29 in Public Performance. We're not going to claim we predicted it, but public spaces were playing that track long before the streaming chart noticed!

None of this looks like Public Performance "catching up" with streaming and radio. It's following its own path and occasionally getting somewhere first.

Classics

You'll hear loads more classic songs played in pubs, bars, hotels, restaurants and other premises that simply aren't represented by streaming or radio playback. Twenty of the Public Performance Top 40 appear in neither of the other two charts at all - among them Tears for Fears (Everybody Wants To Rule The World, 1985), Luther Vandross (Never Too Much, 1981), Whitney Houston (I Wanna Dance with Somebody, 1987), Journey (Don't Stop Believin', 1981) and Franz Ferdinand (Take Me Out, 2004).

As with last year, our Public Performance Top 40 accounts for just a small amount of the plays we've recognised in the first half of the year. This year it's only 1.8% - down from last year's 2.2%. Ninety-eight percent of public listening happens below the chart - millions of plays for smaller artists and back-catalogue tracks that no other measurement picks up.

Without our Audio Meter data, that long tail of music would remain completely invisible - and the artists behind those songs wouldn't get the recognition or royalties they deserve.

The Charts

Now, without further ado, here are the songs that made up the first half of 2026 across the UK Official Charts, radio and Public Performance plays. You can click the column headers to sort by the chart positions and explore the relative positions across the charts. A handful of songs can't be placed in every chart - the Official and radio charts only publish a Top 40, so anything outside theirs is marked N/A...

Summary

For years, music charts have been defined by streaming, physical and digital sales, and radio play. Public performance - the soundtrack to our shared spaces - never had a seat at the table, because nobody could measure it.

Two years of comparisons in, we can say something we couldn't say last year with only one. This isn't a rounding error or a one-off: public listening has its own logic, its own classics and its own hits, and over the past twelve months it has drifted further from streaming and radio rather than closer.

I hope you've enjoyed digging into these charts. It turns out that public performance, streaming, radio play and physical sales are still really nothing alike - and the distance between them is growing.

Steve Robbins, CTO

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Fixing Music Royalties: Ryan Edwards, CEO of Audoo, on Data, Hardware and Building the Industry Standard

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0000

What happens when you hear your own hit song playing in public, but never receive the royalty? In this episode of Riding Unicorns, James sits down with Ryan Edwards, Founder & CEO of Audoo, the music technology company rebuilding how public performance royalties are measured and distributed. The idea for Audoo came from Ryan’s own experience as a musician.

Paying for Precision—The New Economics of Music Usage Data for Royalty Distribution

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 20:15:28 +0000

Read the full article on Digital Music News.

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Revealing BusinessCloud’s MediaTech 50 for 2026

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:11:55 +0000

Read the full article on BusinessCloud.

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Why Is the Music Industry Still Estimating Public Performance Plays? New Research Explores the Hidden Resistance to Better Tracking

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 06:28:24 +0000

Read the full article on Digital Music News

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Music Everywhere: A Data-Led Review of 2025 Public Plays

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:02:00 +0000

Launched in January, Audoo Recap brought together a full year of music played across public premises – automatically captured via our Audio Meter™ – and turned it into a personalised snapshot of how music lived in our shared spaces.

From standout tracks to unexpected patterns, it reflected the sound of public premises in a way that’s never previously been possible. Public performance tells a very different story to radio, streaming, background music suppliers and physical sales - it’s more varied, more contextual, and often more surprising.

This blog post will delve into our play data for 2025, highlighting the huge difference between public performance data and streaming charts; the difference between venue types and even the differences within multi-site organisations, where you may have expected very similar music across the group.

Comparing UK Public Performance to the UK Official Charts Company streaming / download chart

In summer last year, I compared the UK Official Charts Company half-year chart to the songs we’d seen in Public Performance, which brought to light the huge disparity between the charts and public performance plays. I thought it was worth starting this blog by sharing how 2025 ended up compared to the UK Official Chart 2025.

Following on from the half-year charts, the overlap between Public Performance and the streaming chart remains small - in fact it has decreased from 22 out of 40 in the half-year chart to only 17 songs in common.

The release decade of songs again differs hugely between Audoo’s Public Performance Chart and the Official Chart – the end of year Official Chart only has 3 non-2020’s songs in it, favouring recently releases tracks. Whereas the Public Performance chart remains diverse to the half-year point with 17 non-2020’s songs, demonstrating public performance venues prefer an eclectic mix of songs across multiple decades.

The following table shows the songs that make up 2025 across the UK Official Charts and Public Performance plays. You can click the column headers to sort by the chart positions and explore the relative positions between the charts. You’ll see some huge differences with the song positions – the starkest example is the K-Pop Demon Hunters song Soda Pop that came in at number 36 on the UK Official Chart, but is way down at 8,682 in the public performance chart with just over a hundred plays in the year.

Comparing How Different Industries Play Music

We have Audio Meters installed in all sorts of venues, even less common places such as climbing gyms, car garages, spas or launderettes. In this section we’ll let you explore how music was played in our top five industries: Pubs, Clubs and Bars; Retail, Food and Drink; Fitness and Personal Care.

We’ve done the work to get the top ten songs played in 2025 across these industry types, going down to position 5000, so if the song was not in the top 5000 songs, you’ll see > 5000 in the cell. By clicking the headers, you can sort by the chart position for the industry to compare between them.

You’ll see, for example, that songs that are popular in pubs are never used in fitness or personal care and that retail has some big differences to restaurants.

This chart shows the how small the overlap between the industry types is:

Comparing plays within a specific chain

So, we’ve seen that different types of venues play very diverse music – which might seem obvious, but the extent of the differences is eye-opening. How about looking at diversity within a single chain of venues? Are they all playing the same music or are there different vibes more under the control of the local team?

One of our partners, True Pub Co, have kindly let us share some of their data. We’ve taken their top five pubs that played the most music last year and compare what they played. Each True Pub Co venue had its own musical identity, shaped by neighbourhoods, staff, and customers. From indie and post-punk to Americana rock, soul classics and 2000s dance-pop. No two venues sounded the same - you’ll see 44 songs below, meaning out of the top ten charts songs for each pub that only 6 songs overlapped!

As before, feel free to sort the table to compare between the pubs.

Wrapping Up

We hope you’ve enjoyed looking through the songs we’ve heard during 2025, investigating the differences between streaming and Public Performance charts; differences between how industries use music and uniqueness within a chain of pubs.

Finally, we’ve made Spotify Playlists for each of the 2025 charts for you to take a listen to…

Audoo Top Songs 2025

Audoo Top Songs for Pubs, Clubs, and Bars 2025

Audoo Top Songs for Retail 2025

Audoo Top Songs for Food and Drink 2025

Audoo Top Songs for Fitness 2025

Audoo Top Songs for Personal Care 2025

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Audoo is a mission-led business – we’re not focused on exit

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 15:19:00 +0000

Audoo is changing how the music industry approaches royalty payments – and founder Ryan Edwards says this mission remains his core focus.

Edwards founded the business in 2018 to provide a solution to the challenges faced in public performance royalty data collection and payment distribution via its Audoo Audio Meter device and insights platform.

So impressive is the growth of the London firm – which counts legends including Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus among its investors – that it has topped our last two MediaTech 50 rankings.

However, despite substantial interest, he says they “do not have an exit strategy for the time being”. “And that’s quite intentional,” he adds. “Audoo is a mission-led business and we’re focused on long-term impact rather than a quick exit. “Of course, we’re consistently approached, and we explore every conversation, just as we do with funding. But the reality is we love working on this company. “We get to spend time with our heroes, solve a problem that’s affected creators for generations, and genuinely change how the industry works. That’s what motivates us, not an exit timeline.”

As a child the entrepreneur would practise drumming along to songs from famous bands in his bedroom. Later, as part of The Lines, he would find himself opening for these heroes – including The Killers, The Charlatans, Jack Peñate and Supergrass.

After The Lines, Edwards focused his career on technology and data, leading teams in creating mobile apps for world football governing body FIFA, B&Q and Barclays; rolling out complex retail data solutions at Visa; and bringing Best Buy to the UK.

In 2018 he was shopping in a department store when he heard his former band’s song Domino Effect playing over the speakers – and wondered whether they were being paid royalties they were due. The idea for Audoo was born. Its Audio Meter – which Edwards says remains true to the original vision sketched out sitting at his kitchen table – has been specifically designed to cut through environmental noise and recognise the music played within commercial premises.

It has now been rolled out around the world. “Commercially, we’ve expanded major partnerships with APRA in Australia and New Zealand, IMRO in Ireland, and BUMA in the Netherlands [in the last 12 months],” Edwards says. “All of those organisations are seeing the positive impact of real-world monitoring and are increasing their deployment of Audio Meters. We’ve also entered the US market, which is a huge step for us. “My own role has become incredibly global. I’m rarely in the UK now because there are so many PROs (performing rights organisations) and industry bodies around the world that want to meet and understand how this technology can finally bring accuracy to royalty distributions.”

However, the UK has been slower on the uptake than other countries.“What we’ve learned is that some markets are true trailblazers. Organisations like APRA and IMRO are deeply committed to accuracy and doing the best for their members, and they’ve embraced technology as the way to achieve that,” says Edwards. “Unfortunately, in our home market we haven’t seen the same level of commitment.

That led us to launch Every Play Counts, our direct-to-venue strategy where we provide Audio Meters at no cost to venues. “Rather than waiting for change, we decided to empower businesses to be part of the solution themselves – and we’ve seen a hugely positive response from venue owners and managers.

“What’s been fascinating is how that has opened up a completely new customer base. Labels, publishers and managers now want access to this data to understand where their music is actually being played in the real world. “That insight simply hasn’t existed before, so Audoo is creating a new layer of intelligence for the entire ecosystem.” Edwards says the huge and fragmented US market is a “very different landscape to anywhere else”. “There are multiple rights organisations, artists move between them, and the market has gone through significant structural change – including one organisation moving from a not-for-profit model to a private-equity-backed business,” he explains. “That creates new behaviours and new incentives, but what we’re already seeing from the first cities we’ve launched in is incredibly clear: real-world public performance data looks nothing like streaming, radio or playlist proxies. “That reinforces why Audoo exists. The industry has been relying on approximations for decades, and the US is proving just as strongly as Europe and Australia that those approximations don’t reflect reality.”

Over the last couple of years, Audoo has moved from being a promising technology into something genuinely transformational for the music industry, Edwards says. “We delivered the world’s first live music monitoring at festivals, which was a huge technical milestone and proved that our Audio Meter can work in even the most complex, high-volume environments. “We also launched Audoo Recap, which for the first time gives venues meaningful data back about the music they play.

That has completely changed the dynamic between venues and PROs – it turns licensing from a cost into a relationship built on transparency and value.”

As for what’s coming next, he says Audoo is in advanced conversations with several new markets that weren’t even on its original roadmap. “The wider ambition hasn’t changed: we want Audoo to become the global standard for how public performance music is measured and how royalties are distributed. “Every additional meter, venue and territory takes us closer to a world where creators are paid based on real data rather than estimates.” Edwards says there hasn’t been a week in the last five years where he hasn’t met someone to discuss ideas, partnerships or the future of the business. “We’re a technology company with big global ambitions, so we’re always exploring options around funding,” he continues. “That said, we don’t currently have an official round open. We’re focused on execution and growth, and we’ll look at the right partners at the right time rather than raising capital for the sake of it.”

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IMRO Partners with Audoo to Modernize and Elevate Music Monitoring in Ireland

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 14:35:15 +0000

The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) is modernizing how music played in public is tracked, reported and used for royalty distributions through its expanded partnership with technology provider Audoo.

Following the successful launch of the collaboration in May 2024, IMRO and Audoo have strengthened their work together to bring greater transparency, accuracy and ease to how background music usage is reported across Ireland. Live music reporting was also deployed across a number of music festivals in Ireland throughout 2025. IMRO is an early adopter of music recognition technology, integrating anonymised data collected through Audoo’s systems directly into its royalty processing operations.

At the centre of this innovation is the Audoo Audio Meter™, a discreet, plug-in device that automatically identifies and securely reports music played in public environments. This real-world data helps ensure that royalties are distributed accurately and fairly to rightsholders.

Expansion across Ireland

Since the partnership launched in 2024, an increasing number of Irish businesses have installed Audoo Audio Meters™, supporting IMRO’s commitment to transparency and stronger engagement with its licence holders. Recently, Starbucks, Hard Rock Cafe and Leisureplex became the latest major businesses to install the devices across their premises in Ireland.

Ryan Edwards, Founder and CEO of Audoo, said:
“Real-world music data is transforming the way royalties are understood and distributed. IMRO’s continued leadership in this space, including wide-scale venue engagement, demonstrates what’s possible when technology and transparency come together. Our goal is simple: ensure creators are paid fairly, businesses feel supported and the industry benefits from accurate data. We’re delighted to deepen our work with IMRO as they drive the next chapter of digital transformation in Ireland.”

Supporting IMRO’s digital transformation

Eamonn Murray, Chief Technology Officer at IMRO, said:
“The rollout of Audoo devices forms part of IMRO’s wider digital transformation strategy, which also includes the recent launch of its online self-licensing platform, making it easier than ever for businesses to obtain a music licence. Together, these innovations are improving how royalties are licensed and distributed, setting a new standard for transparency, accuracy and fairness across the industry while adding value to music licensing for business owners.”

Strengthening IMRO’s relationship with Irish businesses
The partnership is enhancing IMRO’s engagement with licence holders by providing clearer insights, reduced administrative burden and greater confidence that licence fees are distributed accurately. For venues across hospitality, retail and leisure, Audoo offers a transparent, modern and mutually beneficial approach to music licensing.

How it works

The Audoo Audio Meter™ plugs into a standard wall socket and automatically identifies songs played within a business premise. All data is encrypted, anonymised and securely transmitted to IMRO, ensuring full GDPR compliance and complete privacy for business owners, staff and customers.

Benefits for business owners and IMRO members

For licence holders:
• Simplifies music reporting
• Reduces administrative workload
• Provides transparency on how licence fees support music creators For IMRO members:
• Enables more precise, timely royalty payments
• Delivers real-world, real-time usage data If you play music publicly in your business, you must hold a music licence under Irish copyright law. To purchase your licence, visit www.imro.ie/paynow. To request an Audio Meter for your venue, contact: everyplaycounts@audoo.com.

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It’s the Most Wonderful Time of year!

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 12:30:00 +0000

Following on from our Halloween post, we thought it would be interesting to share what we’ve seen during the festive period in public performance over the last few years.

We’ll answer all the questions you didn’t know you had such as:

When does the festive season start in public performance?
Which types of places play the most Christmas music?
Which country plays the most Christmas music?
Which decades are the most popular Christmas songs from?
Which Christmas songs are played all year around? (I was surprised to see there were quite a few!)

We’ll also reveal our first ever Public Performance Christmas Charts and compare our data with the UK Official Chart Company 2024 Christmas Chart that covers streaming and downloads.

When does the festive season start in public performance?

…or when is it acceptable to start playing Christmas music?

Over the last few years, we’ve seen that Christmas music accounts for up to 8% of all plays during December, but in Public Performance, we can say that the Christmas period officially starts on the 1st of November.

Which types of places play the most Christmas music?

…or where should I avoid if I’m a scrooge?

It’s not going to be a massive surprise if you’ve been out at this time of year to see that the retail sector tops the festive plays, with pubs, restaurants and accommodation close behind – again, it’s good to see this backed up by real-world data. An unexpected sector in the top five was healthcare (e.g. doctor surgeries and dentists) – they’re also getting into the festive spirit… in summary, you’re not going to avoid it I’m afraid!

Which country plays the most Christmas music?

As we have different numbers of Audio Meters installed in each country, we normalised the data across each country to allow a comparison, giving an average number of plays per premises we’re installed in.

We searched and asked ChatGPT – it cited various articles such as this that concluded that the UK is the most Christmassy country for streamed music. We’re pleased to say that we see the same trend in Public Performance with an average of 50% more plays per installation than other countries!

Which decades are the most popular Christmas songs from?

2025 has seen a big change in the top ten; whilst four of the ten are from the 60s/70s/80s, the remaining six are from the 2000s. So, this year it feels like premises are wanting to change things up a bit.

2024 had a different picture favouring older songs - only two of the top ten were from the 2000s:

Which Christmas songs are played all year around?

I found it surprising that during January to October we still see Christmas music getting played… If we zoom in on that period for 2025, you’ll see 0.01% – 0.04% of plays are Christmas music. The spike in July comes from Australia during their winter and it turns out some folk celebrate Christmas twice there, so again it’s fantastic to see that backed up by our data.

With that in mind, it’s not a surprise that Australia supplies nearly half of the Christmas plays outside of November and December.

The top Christmas songs played January – October 2025 were as follows - there are some classics, but a clear emphasis on dance and recent releases…

Rank	Name	Artist	Release Decade
1	I'm the Santa Claoz	AronChupa, Little Sis Nora	2020s
2	Can't Wait 'Til Christmas	Utada Hikaru	2010s
3	Once Upon a December	Christy Altomare	2010s
4	Fairytale of New York	Kirsty MacColl, The Pogues	1980s
5	Snowman	Sia	2010s
6	Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me) (Santa Baby Remix)	LISA	2020s
7	All I Want For Christmas Vs Limbo	Dj Ksa Officialx	2020s
8	A Nonsense Christmas	Sabrina Carpenter	2020s
9	You Make It Feel Like Christmas	Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani	2010s
10	Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town	Jessie J	2010s

The Public Performance Christmas Charts

For the first time, we can now reveal the Audoo Public Performance Christmas charts for 2025…

Top Ten Christmas Artists 2025

Rank	Artist	2024 Rank
1	Michael Bublé	↔️ 1
2	Kelly Clarkson	⬆️ 6
3	Ariana Grande	⬆️ 5
4	The Ronettes	⬆️ 9
5	Mariah Carey	⬇️ 2
6	Sia	⬆️ 8
7	Darlene Love	↔️ 7
8	Frank Sinatra	⬆️ 10
9	Sabrina Carpenter	⬆️ 38
10	Wham!	⬇️ 3

As you can see, some big movements this year but once again, Mickey Bubbles is number one... the man is relentless with his Christmas cheer!

Top Ten Christmas Songs 2025

The big movements in the artist chart are of course underpinned by the song charts - every song in the top ten has moved up this year!

Rank	Name	Artist	Release Decade	2024 Rank
1	Underneath the Tree	Kelly Clarkson	2010s	⬆️ 3
2	Sleigh Ride	The Ronettes	1960s	⬆️ 7
3	Santa Tell Me	Ariana Grande	2010s	⬆️ 4
4	Holly Jolly Christmas	Michael Bublé	2010s	⬆️ 19
5	Feliz Navidad	Jose Felivciano	1970s	⬆️ 17
6	A Nonsense Christmas	Sabrina Carpenter	2020s	⬆️ 53
7	Snowman	Sia	2010s	⬆️ 14
8	Last Christmas	Wham!	1980s	⬆️ 9
9	Mary's Boy Child	Boney M.	1970s	⬆️ 147
10	Merry Christmas	Ed Sheeran, Elton John	2020s	⬆️ 11

This year has been a bit different - what’s happened to Mariah? All I Want For Christmas Is You is sitting at number 17 in our charts! 😱

Despite publishing this exactly one week before Christmas, we’re confident the positions won’t change dramatically now – Kelly Clarkson has been the clear leader from the start…

UK Official Charts 2024

Finally, as a bonus and because the 2025 charts have not been published yet, we thought it would be interesting to compare our 2024 chart to the UK Official Chart Company 2024 Christmas Chart that covers streaming and download music services. While eight out of the top ten are the same, the popularity is different and we can see a couple of older songs in our top ten. As we see all year-round, catalogue songs are popular and generate considerable commercial value in Public Performance.

Rank	Name	Artist	Release Decade	Streaming Chart Rank
1	All I Want For Christmas Is You	Mariah Carey	1990s	2
2	Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree	Brenda Lee	1960s	4
3	Underneath the Tree	Kelly Clarkson	2010s	7
4	Santa Tell Me	Ariana Grande	2010s	8
5	Do They Know It's Christmas?	Band Aid	1980s	9
6	Driving Home For Christmas	Chris Rea	1980s	19
7	Sleigh Ride	The Ronettes	1960s	15
8	Fairytale of New York	Kirsty MacColl, The Pogues	1980s	6
9	Last Christmas	Wham!	1980s	1
10	Jingle Bell Rock	Bobby Helms	1950s	5

Merry Christmas!

That's it... we hope you've enjoyed a look into our Public Performance Christmas data and how it differs from streaming charts. We'll be back in the new year with more data stories.

All that remains is for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas from us all at Audoo!

Cheers!

Steve Robbins, CTO

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Halloween Song Popularity

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:22:00 +0000

As Halloween nears, we thought it would be fun to look at our public performance data and see how the top Halloween songs are played throughout the year… are they consistently played or are they only played in October?

We couldn’t find a canonical Halloween song chart, so what we asked a friendly neighbourhood AI chatbot to work its magic and give us a top ten. We’ve added the public performance ranking for the song as well.

Rank	Name	Artist	Pub Perf #
1	Thriller	Michael Jackson	2
2	Monster Mash	Bobby "Boris" Pickett	9
3	Ghostbusters	Ray Parker Jr.	5
4	Spooky, Scary Skeletons	Andrew Gold	10
5	Somebody's Watching Me	Rockwell	4
6	This Is Halloween	Disney Characters	8
7	I Put a Spell On You	Screamin' Jay Hawkins	7
8	Werewolves of London	Warren Zevon	3
9	Pet Sematary	The Ramones	6
10	Zombie	The Cranberries	1

We have a few ways to look at the play data over time. There are some simple metrics like number of plays or listeners per day, but we also track derivative data - one of which we call “Hotness”. Hotness measures how much activity the song is generating each week, so can also indicate recent popularity. To gauge how much the songs are played year-round, we will use this metric.

Let’s take a look at our Hotness metric for each of the songs in the chart and see whether these songs are played in public performance all year long or just around Halloween...

1. Thriller - Michael Jackson

Public Performance Rank: 2

Looking at Hotness, we can see the song has a huge peak at the end of October last year, but does have playback throughout the year:

Verdict: 🗓 Perennial Pop

2. Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Pickett

Public Performance Rank: 9

As this song is far less popular in public performance settings than Thriller, we have less data and therefore don’t see such a defined spike:

Verdict: 🎃 Ghastly Groove

3. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.

Public Performance Rank: 5

Verdict: 🗓️ Nonstop Knockout

4. Spooky, Scary Skeletons - Andrew Gold

Public Performance Rank: 10

Verdict: 🎃 Bone-Rattling Ballad

5. Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell

Public Performance Rank: 4

Verdict: 🎃 Monster Melody

6. This Is Halloween - Disney Characters

Public Performance Rank: 8

Verdict: 🎃 Graveyard Groove

7. I Put a Spell On You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Public Performance Rank: 7

Verdict: 🎃 Bone-Rattling Ballad

8. Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon

Public Performance Rank: 7

We can see that this song is played all year around, more than the other songs so far

Verdict: 🗓️ Everyday Earworm

9. Pet Sematary - The Ramones

Public Performance Rank: 6

This is the first song on the chart which is played consistently all-year-around. There is a spike at the end of October, but it’s not that pronounced…

Verdict: 🗓️ Nonstop Knockout

10. Zombie - The Cranberries

Public Performance Rank: 1

As might be expected for the top-ranking public performance song, we can see lots of plays all year around!

Verdict: 🗓️ All-Season Smash

So... despite the title, is this even a Halloween song? 😱

Steve Robbins, CTO

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Let’s Compare the TikTok Songs of the Summer 2025 UK and US Charts with What We've Seen in the Largest Ever Set of Public Performance Data

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 10:51:00 +0000

Introduction

TikTok recently released their Songs of the Summer 2025, so following the interest in our last post comparing public performance to the UK Radio and Official Charts, we wanted to see how TikTok’s charts stack up against our public performance data.

Huge Differences

Starting at a high-level, the comparison is a little limited since TikTok have only released a top ten chart for certain countries. For this analysis we're concentrating on the UK and US as two major music markets. The TikTok Songs of the Summer charts define ‘summer’ as May to August, so we've use that same timeframe.

I expected the differences to be noticeable - after all, TikTok fuels viral moments while businesses curate a soundtrack to create their sound. But the gap was even bigger than expected: not a single song in TikTok’s UK or US top ten appeared in our respective public performance charts!

In fact, you'll see below that I had to search our top 100,000 tracks to find some of the TikTok songs and even then I couldn't find playback for one of them. So unfortunately, I couldn’t even make a nice overlap chart as it would just have zeros on it 😆.

As with the comparison to streaming and radio charts, this again tells us that public listening is its own ecosystem. It's great to see that this statement holds up in the US as well as the UK.

UK Charts

When comparing the Top 40 UK data for the first half of 2025, we found that public performance had a diverse range of release decades, with 40% of songs originating from previous decades, though the top ten was entirely from the 2020’s.

Sadly, since TikTok has only released a top ten for these charts, we couldn’t dig as deeply into the differences. But we can say that outside of the top ten, we do see older songs getting a huge numbers of plays.

The TikTok top ten for the UK features five songs from the 2020s, followed by three from 2010s, then one from each of the 2000s and 1990s:

The Public performance top ten for the UK is all from the 2020s:

US Charts

Next up, something new - a first look at our US data and how that compares to TikTok.

The data here shows a very different picture to the UK - and although we only looked at the top ten, we can see a stronger preference for older songs than the UK during this period.

The TikTok top ten for the US features five decades of music with the 2010s coming out on top:

The Public performance top ten for the US shows a mix from this century and some classics from the 1970s that we saw in the UK Top 40 analysis - Dreams by Fleetwood Mac and Lovely Day by Bill Withers:

The Charts

As there was no overlap between the TikTok and Public Performance top ten charts, it felt like the best way to present the data was as side-by-side charts.

UK Top Ten

Position	Public Performance	Release Year	TikTok	Release Year	Public Performance Position
1	Pink Pony Club - Chappell Roan	2023	Hold My Hand - Jess Glynne	2015	933
2	Ordinary - Alex Warren	2025	Soul Survivor ft. Akon - Jeezy	2005	58,126
3	Nice To Meet You - Myles Smith	2024	Let Down - Radiohead	1997	15,147
4	Stargazing - Myles Smith	2024	Rock That Body - Black Eyed Peas	2010	6,320
5	I Had Some Help - Morgan Wallen, Post Malone	2024	Tyrant - Beyoncé & Dolly Parton	2024	25,102
6	Bad Dreams - Teddy Swims	2024	Your Love Is My Drug - Kesha	2010	5,492
7	A Bar Song (Tipsy) - Shaboozey	2024	Illegal - PinkPantheress	2025	491
8	The Door - Teddy Swims	2023	Shake It To The Max (Fly) - Moliy, Shenseea, Skillibeng, Silent Addy	2024	4,092
9	Love Me Not - Ravyn Lenae	2024	Manchild - Sabrina Carpenter	2025	44
10	Beautiful Things - Benson Boone	2024	Dior ft. Chrystal - MK	2025	163

US Top Ten

Position	Public Performance	Release Year	TikTok	Release Year	Public Performance Position
1	Too Sweet - Hozier	2024	Hold My Hand - Jess Glynne	2015	410
2	Lovely Day - Bill Withers	1977	Soul Survivor ft. Akon - Jeezy	2005	9,289
3	Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers	2002	Rock That Body - Black Eyed Peas	2010	7,467
4	Float On - Modest Mouse	2004	Let Down - Radiohead	1997	16,480
5	Tieduprightnow - Parcels	2018	Whim Whamiee - Pluto & Ykniece	2025	10,978
6	Feel It Still - Portugal. The Man	2017	Pretty Little Baby - Connie Francis	1962	22,591
7	Dreams - Fleetwood Mac	1977	You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift	2008	8,226
8	back to friends - Sombr	2024	My Main ft. Ty Dolla $ign - Mila J	2014	98,362
9	Mr. Brightside - The Killers	2007	Your Love Is My Drug - Kesha	2010	1,890
10	Cinderella - Remi Wolf	2024	Mad Again - BunnaB	2025	No plays

In Summary

The takeaway? TikTok hits and public performance favourites are worlds apart. When comparing TikTok to Public Performance, we can see that the songs played are completely different. We can also see that at least during the summer months, the US and UK Public Performance plays are wildly different as well.

Steve Robbins, CTO

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UK Chart Comparison for January to June 2025

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 12:31:00 +0000

Introduction

The UK Official Charts company recently released their chart for "the most-streamed and best-selling tracks of 2025 so far in the UK" covering January to end of June 2025. It’s the definitive view of what people have been listening to privately - on headphones, at home, or on the go.

But until now, there’s been a major gap in our understanding of music consumption when it comes to what people are actually listening to in public.

Historically, accurately tracking public performance plays at scale - the music played in bars, cafés, shops, gyms, hotels, and other public venues - has been near impossible. Without precise data, a true public performance “chart” simply didn’t exist. Trends could only be estimated, based on anecdote or proxy measures like radio plays.

That’s all changed. Thanks to our Audio Meters – now installed across UK venues, we’ve created the largest (and growing), most accurate dataset of public performance plays ever compiled. For the first time, it’s possible to map out what’s soundtracking our shared public spaces and compare it directly to streaming and radio consumption.

This is ground-breaking work, and the results are fascinating. Public Performance has its own rhythm, shaped by the atmosphere venues want to create and the audiences they serve. Some differences are obvious when you consider them - funnily enough, far less parental-advisory content is played in public places compared to streaming, and way more timeless "classics" from decades past. Others are surprising, revealing how cultural moments, live tours, and viral trends seep into the music we hear around us.

So, we decided to do something that’s never been done before: put the UK’s first public performance Top 40 side-by-side with the Official UK Charts and Radio airplay rankings – and see just how different the worlds of streaming, radio, and public listening really are.

Overlaps

Starting at a high-level, the differences are clear. When we line up the three charts, the overlaps are far smaller than you might expect:

Just over half of the songs from public performance appear in the UK Official Chart (22 out of 40) or UK Radio charts (21 out of 40).

When comparing the UK Official Chart and Radio chart, 26 out of 40 songs are the same:

This tells us something important: public listening is not just a slower version of the streaming or radio charts - it’s an entirely different ecosystem.

Recent vs Classic songs

One of the clearest differences comes from looking at release dates. As hinted above, part of the reason for the small overlap is the playing of more "classic" songs, reflecting the fact that venue playlists are often built for mood and familiarity as much as novelty.

This can be seen if we take a look at the release dates in the charts: The Top 40 UK Radio Chart content is 100% from the 2020s:

The Top 40 Official Streaming and Download Chart content is almost entirely from the 2020s, with one song from the 2000s and one from the 1990s:

Public performance content is far more diverse with only 60% (24 songs) from the 2020s, and the rest stretching back across every decade from the 1960s onwards:

Digging a bit deeper, we see that 87% of the Radio Chart (35 songs) and 82% of the Official Chart (33 songs) are from the last year alone, compared to only 34% of the public performance data (17 songs):

That balance, between fresh hits and enduring favourites, is part of what makes the public performance chart so unique, and why it’s never looked like anything we’ve seen before.

Trends

That isn't to say that the good folk selecting their tunes for public performance are not keeping an eye on trends - Bruce Springsteen made it into the public performance Top 30 with Dancing in the Dark, where we can see more plays around May ahead of the concerts he played in the UK.

At the other end of the scale for generational trends, 90s hit There She Goes by The La's topped this TikTok chart and we can see it features at number 34 in the public performance data. Similarly, Dreams by Fleetwood Mac has been big on TikTok over the last year and came in at number 37.

None of these songs are in the Official Streaming or Radio charts, proving that public performance charts are not simply “catching up” to other platforms but following their own distinct path.

Classics

You'll see that there are loads more classic songs played in pubs, bars, hotels, restaurants and other premises that just aren't represented by streaming or radio playback. The public performance Top 40 includes some big artists as they are played more, but there is always huge long-tail of songs we recognise.

But here’s the groundbreaking part: even these chart-toppers are just the tip of the iceberg. Our public performance Top 40 songs only represent 2.2% of all the plays we saw during the first half of the year - meaning there are millions of plays for smaller artists that just wouldn't be recognised without our Audio Meters!

Without our Audio Meter data, this long-tail of music would remain completely invisible – and the artists behind those songs wouldn’t get the recognition or royalties they deserve.

The Charts

Now, without further ado, here are the songs that made up the first half of 2025 across the UK Official Charts, Radio and public performance plays. You can click the column headers to sort by the chart positions and explore the relative positions across the charts...

Summary

For years, music charts have been defined by streaming, physical/digital sales, & radio play. Public performance - the soundtrack to our shared spaces - has never had a seat at the table.

Now, for the first time in history, we can measure it accurately. And as these charts show, it’s a world all of its own: a blend of current hits, cultural touchpoints, and enduring classics that you won’t find replicated anywhere else.

I hope you've enjoyed digging into these charts…It turns out that public performance, streaming, radio play and physical sales are really nothing alike!

Steve Robbins, CTO

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Privacy and Security at Audoo

Thu, 29 May 2025 17:14:59 +0000

Following up from the Architecture Overview post, this post goes into more detail on how our Audio Meters securely recognise music whilst respecting the privacy of the venues we're installed in. Given the Audio Meter has microphones front and centre of its design, it's a question we often get asked far too often!

Privacy

Hopefully you are familiar with smart speakers such as Amazon Echo, Google Home and the associated technologies built into televisions where you can ask that your lights to be turned on or favourite playlist played. With the convenience of these devices came privacy concerns once people realised that the microphones are always listening for voice commands. The speakers typically have a small amount of processing on the speaker that detects the "wake words" (i.e. "Hey Google...", or "Alexa..."), but once those words are detected, the recorded audio is typically sent to the vendor's cloud to determine what action to take. As smart speakers are interested in what has been spoken so they can take the appropriate action, they actively work to remove echos, music and other background noise to isolate voice frequencies.

Our Audio Meters, on the other hand, operate in the opposite way to smart speakers. They are not interested in conversations – in fact, conversations can actually get in the way of music recognition! We've designed the Audio Meter with privacy at its core and as part of that, it actively works to remove conversational noise (e.g. think loud talking or singing in a busy bar or restaurant) to get to the underlying music.

The Audio Meter also does not continuously use the microphones – instead, we take a short sample every few seconds for music identification. A further key difference is that no audio is sent to our cloud - we do all the audio processing on the Audio Meter. We then run machine learning models on the sound to reduce noise and isolate the music before we perform the final step of creating an acoustic fingerprint. The fingerprint is a short representation of the acoustic characteristics within the audio that is sent securely to our cloud for recognition. In summary, we have no way of hearing what is happening in the venues where we are installed.

Security

One key principle of security is to operate "defence in depth" - this essentially means having multiple layers of security to prevent, detect and respond to threats. Our Audio Meters and cloud platform were designed and built with industry-leading security standards in mind. We've implemented robust development processes and ongoing measures to ensure their integrity, and we continue to regularly review and strengthen these systems.

Here are some of the practical outcomes for our Audio Meters:

The Audio Meters are locked down so they cannot be connected to by an attacker to allow them access to the memory storing the audio - either on a local network or through a cable.
They only connect to our cloud platform and use industry-standard secure communications to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks or other spoofing.
The software on Audio Meters is securely controlled by Audoo and locked with private keys that are stored on the Audio Meter in our factory, so rogue software can never be accepted and installed during over the air upgrades or through direct access.

In our cloud platform, we get many security advantages from hosting with Amazon Web Services (AWS) such as physical data centre security, ISO27001 certification for key infrastructure and many services to develop with. Without getting too technical about it, here are the key features we use in our cloud platform to ensure security of the data we gather:

Audit logging providing compliance and risk auditing
Identity and access control – lock down access to defined user accounts and roles
Secure networking and firewalls locking down network traffic and logging access
Data segregation and end-user roles ensuring access to data is restricted
Data Encryption – all data is transmitted over encrypted connections and all data stored is encrypted on disk

We made a short video that shows our approach to privacy and security:

I hope this post helped explain how our Audio Meters operate while respecting the privacy of venues we're installed in.

If you have questions, please get in touch...

Cheers,
Steve

Steve Robbins CTO

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Music stars who have invested in UK tech companies

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:27:52 +0000

Many household stars in music have used their influence, platform and wealth to invest in tech companies based in the UK.

From members of the Beatles, ABBA and Muse to KSI and Kylie, a number of world-famous musicians have invested in music tech, FinTechs, religious apps and more.

BusinessCloud looks at some of the most well-known investments.

Muse’s Matt Bellamy

Muse frontman Matt Bellamy is a serial tech investor. Despite putting money into many companies overseas, most notably in San Francisco, the Cambridge-born rock star still has investments closer to home. He invested in London-based startup Bloomsbury AI before exiting when the firm was sold to Facebook in 2018.

The Hysteria singer is also a founding partner of Helium-3 Ventures, which invested in Engineered Arts, a humanoid robotics design and manufacturing company, which was founded in Cornwall.

After a $10m Series A funding round led by Helium-3 in December, Bellamy joined the firm as an ‘observer’ as it restructured to a US entity.

Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart

One half of Eurythmics, Dave Stewart not only has a background in tech investment, but was creative director at mobile platform Ideas Britain. The platform was set up to become a ‘virtual version of Dragons’ Den’, giving professional advice and financial backing to new thinking across a range of sectors, and raised £270,000 on Crowdcube back in 2015. Its website is now dormant.

For the man whose band had hit single Sweet Dreams, it was surprisingly music rights FinTech Salt that gained his backing in February 2024.

Stewart joined ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus in investing in the platform which streamlines music rights and royalties.

ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus

Singer-songwriter Ulvaeus invested in Salt less than a year after his Swedish song data startup Session – founded in 2019 with Swedish songwriters and record producers Max Martin and Niclas Molinder – was acquired by the UK firm.

Legendary late producer Quincy Jones and Canadian songwriter-producer Dan Kurtz are also investors in Salt.

Ulvaeus also co-founded Pophouse Entertainment with EQT founder Conni Jonsson, a Sweden-based music investment firm which raised €1bn for its debut fund in April 2025.

One of the largest first-time private equity funds to be raised in Europe in the last decade, Pophouse said it secured an additional €200m through dedicated co-investment vehicles. The fund will be used to acquire music catalogues and IP.

Sir Elton John & Sir Paul McCartney

Another firm backed by Ulvaeus is music tech company Audoo, which has attracted investment from true UK music royalty in Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney.

Sir Elton’s most famous venture outside of music is arguably when he became chairman of Watford FC – but he has still drifted into different industries, including UK tech.

He followed Beatle Sir Paul in investing in Audoo as part of a £4.1m funding round in October 2023.

The London-based company aims to help artists to receive fairer royalty payments.

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Audoo x Measure of Music 2025

Sun, 16 Mar 2025 14:21:00 +0000

The last weekend in February saw the 5th instalment of Measure of Music, a virtual event celebrating music, tech & data in a weekend long conference and hackathon. The event attracted a diverse group of speakers and participants from a variety of backgrounds, from 71 countries and 17 time-zones around the world - this year was bigger than ever!

Audoo is proud to have sponsored this year’s event, and to kick-off the weekend by speaking about the importance of accurate public performance data within the music industry, and how it enables accurate distribution of performance royalties to artists, writers and rightsholders (watch replay). It was a pleasure to provide real-world data collected from our Audio Meters across four territories and three continents.

A huge thanks goes to our engineering team, who dedicated their weekends to help and mentor participants throughout the weekend wherever possible. It was impressive to see so many participants committed to their projects and delivering the best pitches they could after a gruelling 48 hours. Hearing teams discuss how public performance data can be used to train models and add value to artist marketing/audience development strategies was especially pleasing!

Congratulations to the winning team (Team 6) for their pitch on Gigatlas, a platform for simplified data-driven tour planning. Gigatlas was proposed as a one-stop-shop helping artists plan tours based on audience data, venue location and predicted travel costs. A great initiative for independent and emerging artists, and another example where Audoo public performance data could be used to identify and validate potential audiences.

For example, if Luminate and Chartmetric data help to identify audiences using streaming data, Audoo public performance data can help to validate these audiences and propose new ones based on the traction of track/artist plays by within industry sectors and commercial premises.

Understanding where and when music is consumed in the commercial sector can help to surface data-driven insights, and identify new potential audiences or placements for artists.

Well done again to everyone involved – organisers, participants, mentors and speakers. We look forward to seeing what's in store for next year's event.

If you’re a creator, rightsholder or PRO/CMO interested in hearing how we can support you - head to our solutions pages or reach out for a demo.
If you want a deeper dive into our technology - check out this system architecture blog from our CTO Steve Robbins.

Hash Riaz,

Head of Product

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Audoo partners with GEMA on Music Impact Study

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:09:44 +0000

This utilisation of Audoo Audio Meters™ adds to the tech company's portfolio of international business partners on a mission to revolutionise public performance royalties for music creators, licensees and businesses.

Music technology company Audoo partnered with GEMA, the German performing rights society, on its Music Impact Study as part of the PROs multi-faceted research quantifying the commercial value of background music in gastronomy and retail spaces, with Audoo technology recognising real-time songplay contributing to sales uplift.

Audoo Audio Meters – music recognition hardware – installed in hundreds of venues recognised over 130k tracks contributing to the insights demonstrating that the use of background music increased sales in retail by an average of 8% and in gastronomy by an average of 5.4% – the economic benefits suggesting that a music license is a worthwhile investment.

Overall, the most-played song in the Retail sample was 'Lifeline' by German artist Glockenbach featuring Ella Henderson and in the Gastronomy sample, 'Austin' by US artist Dasha. The other leading track of domestic repertoire was 'Wave' by Fast Boy and Raf (most-played song of the Gastronomy sample) and the top domestic artists overall were Trettmann (Retail sample) and Michael Schulte (Gastronomy sample). Further topline stats are below.

GEMA's Music Impact Study was a large-scale study that took place under the direction of international scientists with the connection between music and sales examined using several methodologies – the empirical field study at the point-of-sale was preceded by extensive literature research, quantitative surveys and expert interviews.

In addition to the trends and insights revealed through Audoo's intelligent client dashboard, the device's simple plug-and-play self-installation process at venues, plus its GDPR-compliance, demonstrates the value of this technology to retail and hospitality businesses.

The success of the Music Impact Study underscores the value of precise music usage tracking and its potential impact on businesses.

Sonja Schoenfeld, Project Manager of the Music Impact Study at GEMA, said: "The real-time dataset we were able to gather and analyse via Audoo technology on this study is great for seeing the overall impact of music in commercial spaces in such detail."

Johannes Everding, Director of Business Development at GEMA commented: "Audoo's innovative technology ensured a seamless and highly-effective data collection process and the results mark a significant milestone in understanding the commercial value of music with these kinds of insights for the benefit of businesses and rightsholders alike."

Ryan Edwards, CEO and Founder of Audoo added: "Partnering with GEMA on this study is a testament to the power of real-world data in demonstrating the impact of music in public spaces. As we continue to work with like-minded partners who share Audoo values of making public performance recognition and reporting more accurate and transparent, the landscape for all parties evolves and improves."

GEMA Music Impact Study

Overall Top Songs recognised by Audoo

Retail Sample

1. 'Lifeline' by Glockenbach ft. Ella Henderson

2. 'Cynical' by Chris de Sarandy, Safari Duo, twocolours

3. 'The Feeling' by Lost Frequencies

4. 'Angel Eyes' by Ásdís

5. 'Strangers' by Kenya Grace

Gastronomy Sample

1. 'Austin' by Dasha'

2. A Bar Song (Tipsy)' by Shaboozey

3. 'Belong Together' by Mark Ambor

4. 'Wave' by FAST BOY, Raf

5. 'Dancing In The Flames' by The Weeknd

Top Domestic Tracks recognised by Audoo

Retail Sample

1. 'Lifeline' by Glockenbach ft. Ella Henderson

2. 'Cynical' by Chris de Sarandy, Safari Duo, twocolours

3. 'I'll Be There' by Rita Ora, Robin Schulz, Tiago PZK

4. 'Waterfall' by Michael Shulte, R3HAB

5. 'Holding On' by Leony

Gastronomy Sample

1. 'Wave' by FAST BOY, Raf

2. 'Human Being' by Nico Santos

3. 'Friends' by KAMRAD
4. 'Beautiful Reason' by Michael Shulte

5. 'Someday Soon' by ClockClock

Top Domestic Artists recognised by Audoo

Retail Sample

1. Michael Shulte

2. Leony

3. Glockenbach

4. ClockClock

5. Zoe Wees

Gastronomy Sample

1. Trettmann

2. Bläck Fööss

3. Nico Santos

4. Purple Disco Machine

5. FAST BOY

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As PRO Inquiries Continue In Washington, Audoo Shares Some Shocking Song-Tracking Data from Denver

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 14:39:16 +0000

While mega-PROs like ASCAP and BMI do a laudable job of tracking, matching, and distributing royalties on billions of tracks played in the United States, a nagging question is whether these vast systems can be improved. This is more than just an academic musing: the answer to this surprisingly complex question has the potential to reshape the public performance sphere for decades to come.

Enter Audoo CEO Ryan Edwards, who is driven by a mission to count every song played worldwide in public places for years — and is marching towards that goal with backers like Bjorn Ulvaeus and Sir Elton John. Theoretically, the tech exists to count everything with total accuracy, though the details are devilish. Accordingly, Edwards and his team have spent millions developing the ‘Audio Meter’ and deployed it into thousands of venues and public places worldwide to capture the music in action.

That effort is now hitting the United States. Just recently, Audoo concluded a far-reaching first entry to the US in Denver involving hundreds of public places – with nearly 100% of songs played in those establishments tracked. That included restaurants, gyms, bars, and retail establishments across the city.

“The feedback from the license holders was very supportive,” Edwards told DMN. “Many of them have wondered for years how their fees are distributed and were very passionate about the way music sets the tone of their businesses.”

The results of the Audoo pilot, shared with Digital Music News and part of an ongoing partnership, began in late June of 2024 and concluded in February of this year.

Among the most refreshing takeaways is that virtually every song can be successfully detected, logged, and tallied with all key metadata information (including ISRC & ISWC) using the installed Audio Meters, which makes sense. Imagine an industrial-scale, private version of Shazam in every venue, and you’ve captured Audoo’s business approach.

“Music has always been consumed in so many different ways, from business owners creating a ‘mixtape’ CD or playlist, playing the radio, and empowering employees to adjust the music based on the tone they need,” Edwards said. “To us, it’s about what’s been played and then reporting that accurately. Just get the music playing, and we’ll work with the PRO/CMO to do the rest.” But what’s actually getting played? Here’s where things start to get really interesting. The current thinking is that music played in public spaces roughly mirrors popular playlists on media like terrestrial radio and streaming platforms.

But Audoo’s data shows a surprisingly slim overlap with massive DSPs (i.e., Digital Service Providers or streaming platforms) and social media platforms.

Here’s just a quick look at the overlap – or complete lack thereof.

The following breakdown was pulled from a sample week in February (2025) using the top 40 songs tracked throughout the city. It was then compared to the top 40 songs played on other platforms for the same period.

What’s the overlap percentage? Take a look.

Audoo x Apple Music – 0% crossover

Audoo x Billboard – 2.5% crossover

Audoo x Shazam – 5% crossover

Audoo x Spotify – 5 % crossover

Audoo x TikTok – 0% crossover

“The results mirror what we have seen and reports in other markets around the world,” Edwards shared. “The more US cities we launch into, the more diverse [data] we expect to see. This can make a difference in thousands of creators making a living, or sadly, not.”

Also surprising: most of the music played in Denver hails from the United States (more than 50%) and the UK (nearly 15%). Other countries were marginal single-digit contributors, including Australia, France, Germany, and Sweden. Those percentages are likely different in other cities, though Audoo also highlighted some interesting exceptions.

Denver bar and restaurant Señor Bear, for example, plays a blend of Latin-inspired music from Argentina, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Spain. The curated playlist also includes 24% American music sourced from local artists.

That’s a far cry from the top 10 list of most-played artists throughout the city, which includes Tame Impala, Jungle, Hozier, Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Bad Bunny, Zach Bryan, and Neil Frances. Sounds like tried-and-true stuff, though many of the most–played songs aren’t topping the charts on radio or Spotify.

The data also offers a range of other insights, including detailed breakdowns by venue type (restaurant or gym, for example) and the most frequently played songs. Audoo even tracks the level of commonality between different venue types, while identifying unique establishments (for example, a physical therapy clinic that is also a local music champion).

“Business owners know first hand the value of playing music, and of those we have started working with in the US, the feedback has been very positive,” Edwards shared. “Nobody challenges paying for a music license, despite the complexities of multiple PROs in the US. But knowing the hard-earned money is being paid to the artists they play is key.”

“Our technology is there to help PROs: no more manual surveys, proxy data sets, or outdated analogies. The past cannot be changed, but now is the time for accurate reporting for fair and transparent distributions.”

But what does this have to do with Congressional inquiries into PROs currently happening in Washington?

Just recently, the US Copyright Office launched a significant inquiry into PROs in response to Congressional concerns. Among the many questions being examined is how PROs gather performance information and how this impacts rights owners.

For Edwards, it’s a complex question with a surprisingly simple answer: just count everything!

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