• by February 12, 2002

The MeasureCast Internet Radio Listening Index for the week of January 28 to February 3 rose 10% to an index value of 515, meaning the total time spent listening to streaming radio broadcasters measured by MeasureCast has increased 129% since December 30, 2001. During the last week of January, 19 of the MeasureCast Top 25 stations experienced an increase in the total number of hours streamed, and 16 stations saw an increase in audience size.

Virgin Radio held on to the top spot by streaming more hours of music than any of the 1,120 stations measured by MeasureCast. The British broadcaster streamed 18,247 more hours of music than it did the week before, and attracted 2,000 more listeners. WARP Radio and StreamAudio were the week's top two networks of streaming AM and FM stations, streaming 649,999 hours and 587,985 hours respectively. Radio Free Virgin was the top network of Internet-only/digital radio stations, streaming 510,199 hours of music.

Most people listening to Internet radio were in the 25-34 year-old age group (28%). 56% of listeners were under age 35, 28% were younger than 25, and 7% were older than 55. 69% of listeners were men, while 31% were women. Countries with the largest number of Internet radio listeners included the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and Mexico. In the U.S., 34% of Web radio listeners were in the South, 28% were in the West, 20% were in the Northeast, and 18% were in the Midwest.

Measurecast says that 79% of all listening occurred between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific. The peak listening day was Wednesday, Jan. 30, with 19% of all listening occurring on this day. The peak listening hour was 11 a.m. Pacific, with 8% of the day's listening. 11% of the week's Internet radio listening took place over the weekend.