This analysis is based on hundreds of millions of anonymized radio listening sessions from vehicles in the U.S. equipped with DTS AutoStage, Xperi’s global in-car entertainment platform.
DTS AutoStage combines traditional broadcast radio with digital metadata, allowing listening activity to be measured at scale across the United States while protecting individual privacy.
Every song heard on the radio is matched against TiVo Music Metadata, an industry-standard music catalog. This ensures that tracks, artists, remixes and alternate versions are accurately identified and grouped.
Listening activity is aggregated into geographic areas rather than tracking individual vehicles. Sessions are then mapped to cities, states and metro areas to show where music was actually heard, not simply where a station broadcasts from.
Top artists and top songs are ranked by listens: the artist or song with the most in-car radio listening in a state during the month is that state’s leader, based on anonymized listening data from vehicles in the U.S. equipped with DTS AutoStage. Rankings are based on total listening activity, weighted by local audience engagement. Rankings are available at the city, metro area and state levels. The analysis also considers how widely songs were played across stations, helping distinguish broad regional popularity from isolated airplay.
All data is aggregated and anonymized. No individual listener or vehicle can be identified.