One night when I was three, my dad brought me home a little black transistor radio. It was the waning days of AM Top 40 radio. I tuned to Atlanta’s legendary 79/WQXI.

I was hooked.

Hey there! I’m Matt Bailey.

After living my on-air dream in markets large and tiny, I spent my most recent 15 years overseeing America’s leading callout research firm. During that time, I observed streaming grow from tech nerds to young Hip Hop fans to the majority of 18- to 49-year-old Americans.

I knew people were playing the same hits they heard on the radio. There had to be a way to separate the songs just a few rabid fans were streaming incessantly from the songs that lots of listeners know and love, right?  After analyzing streaming patterns of thousands of songs. I discovered “Momentum:”

It turns out how big a song is this week is a poor predictor of a song that will have strong familiarity and passion in callout. What really matters is how much listeners keep streaming a song week after week. You may never see these songs topping the streaming charts, but you will see them topping your callout. 

I also spend my free time analyzing all kinds of hit music. Check out Graphs About Songs, where I take the most important songs in your life and turn them into PowerPoint charts.