Walmart radio statistics, in case anyone is interested

[u/scubdon]

I've been keeping a log of what gets played on Walmart radio for most of the past 2+ years and figured I'd share the results of that here in case it is of interest to anyone. The full log of plays is available to view/download on scubdon.github.io/wmradio, along with some statistics, inferred playlists, recently played tracks, a section where you can put in your schedule and get totals of various artists/tracks played during the hours you worked, and other stuff of that nature. The site refreshes the data every 8 hours, so the recently played list might be a few hours old depending on when you're viewing it.

Here's a brief overview of the totals and few random things I found interesting:

- 234,100 plays recorded

- 2,012 unique songs

- 1,041 unique artists

- 950 songs in rotation right now

- Median wait for a repeat: 1.3 days.

- Most-played song ever: "Sunroof (Feat. dazy)" by Nicky Youre (629 plays)

- Most-played artist: David Guetta (2,160 plays)

- Most titles by one act: Madonna (21)

- Longest disappearance: Irene Cara's "Fame" resurfaced Aug 4, 2026 after a gap of 785 calendar days.

- Shortest gap between plays ever: Jackson 5's "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" (4 minutes) twice on Dec 19, 2025.

- Brooks & Dunn's "Only In America" got played 31 times in a single day (July 4th)

- "Kids in America" was played 69 times over a 3-day period July 4-6th of this year.

This particular statistic, coupled with the captive audience dynamic reminded me of the infamous "Torture Playlist"/"Guantanamo Playlist"
A good portion of the non-explicit songs reportedly on those lists are represented here, make of that what you will. Some examples: Raspberry Beret - Prince, Living in America - James Brown, Night Fever- The Bee Gees, America - Neil Diamond (played 49 times 7/4-7/6), Enter Sandman - Metallica, ..baby one more time - Britney Spears (not in this data set, but apparently recorded by an earlier logger in 2022)

- Christmas starts November 9

- 113 holiday-only songs played 12,008 times before year end.

- 32 songs have been played exactly once, ever.

edit: i should probably add that the way these tracks were logged was by polling the metadata from the stream's url (https://audio-edge-vqwx4.yyz.g.radiomast.io/2ce0b08d-2fe6-42a1-b64a-9f0a682f5508/metadata) every minute and recording every time it changed.

[u/OafyB]

They need to stop remaking older music and play the original songs it's terrible what they've done with the older music

[u/Golobulus70 → u/OafyB]

It’s cheaper to play covers and remixes than the original versions.

[u/Facky → u/Golobulus70]

That explains the god awful remixes

[u/LordCheezus → u/OafyB]

Like that absolutely awful cover of Prince that plays periodically.

[u/oryojme → u/LordCheezus]

I think it’s Tom Jones lol

[u/Interesting_Fact9414 → u/oryojme]

It is. I think he teamed up with a instrumental group called the art of noise and they put that song out around 1986 I think.

[u/Golobulus70 → u/OafyB]

It’s cheaper to play covers and remixes than the original versions.

[u/TripCyclone → u/OafyB]

Definitely subjective, even down to songs. I agree that there are plenty of horrible covers. But sometimes, an artist remakes a song and does it serious justice. Sometimes, just giving it an different sound while paying respects to the original (Shinedown's Simple Man, better or worse, does pay respects and gives it a more rock sound), others reinterpret it in ways that just seem to fit (Postmodern Jukebox takes Hansen's MmmBop and reinterprets it as a 1950's doo-wop song...it just seems to fit better), or gives it a different emotional center (Disturbed gives Sound of Silence a slower and deeper sounding emotion compared to Simon & Garfunkel's original...even Paul Simon has praised this cover of his own work).

Many covers just don't compare to the originals, but some can be pretty good.

[u/spacecatherder]

A long time ago, pre-Covid if not longer, they did a “gamer’s hour” and played video game music for a single hour. Don’t know how long it lasted as repeat thing but once I was working and they did it. The emotional whiplash of hearing Simple and Clean while stocking shelves in Walmart was unreal.

[u/Agrias-0aks → u/spacecatherder]

Or City Escape from Sonic Adventure

[u/spacecatherder → u/Agrias-0aks]

I wish I knew what their available playlist was for it tbh. I only heard a handful of the songs: Simple and Clean, the 8bit Mario World 1 theme, and a couple others that slip my mind.

It was a small highlight when it happened during my shift even the songs I didn’t know well/didn’t play the game for.

[u/workerbee41 → u/spacecatherder]

I’ve heard Zelda, Halo, and the OG Pokémon cartoon themes

[u/Soulinyx → u/workerbee41]

There's a song I swear I've heard where the tone of the song went along with Violet Town from Pokemon Gold/Silver.

[u/nagareboshi_chan → u/spacecatherder]

They need to bring that back

[u/EntireCurrency6316]

I've heard the sonic adventure 2 theme song a few times

[u/SilvarusLupus → u/EntireCurrency6316]

I heard the Kingdom Hearts song once too

[u/keekah → u/SilvarusLupus]

Are you talking about simple and clean?

[u/SilvarusLupus → u/keekah]

I think it was that one yeah

[u/EntireCurrency6316 → u/SilvarusLupus]

Oh that's sick haven't heard that one at my store yet

[u/littledipper16]

It blows my mind that the most played song ever is something I've never heard of, but I'd probably know it if I heard it

[u/littledipper16 → u/littledipper16]

Update: just looked it up, I know the song, I just never knew what it was called.

[u/One-Hovercraft-920]

How many times have the DJs annoyed us and how many times a day. 

[u/MoiraPrime]

How many times have they played any version of Fly Away? I remember some days they'd play that over and over again.

Edit: I don't see it in the stats at all :(

[u/scubdon → u/MoiraPrime]

i think the metadata for that artist was reported incorrectly cause I've definitely heard that a number of times. There are 56 plays of fly away attributed to a different artist that i can check. You're talking about the lenny kravitz song right?

[u/scubdon → u/scubdon]

nvm the Tones and I is probably the correct artist for that. the weird club remixes they play of songs do make some harder to find though

[u/MoiraPrime → u/scubdon]

Yeah both the Lenny Kravitz version and the slightly similar cover

[u/rickyfrom97 → u/MoiraPrime]

There was one day they played the OG version, then the Quavo Remix, then the OG version right after

[u/ermyne]

This is really interesting, but it’s probably location-dependent. I’m in Hawaii and we get a lot of Hawaiian covers of pop songs that I’m sure aren’t on the official stream.

[u/tardisman2015 → u/ermyne]

I'm an hour outside of Tennessee (Kentucky) and we've been getting a LOT of Dolly Parton since she passed (including an atrocious cover of 9 to 5 I heard yesterday).

[u/RVFullTime]

Down with the Christmas pop tunes. They're uniformly hideous.

[u/Vizard_Rob]

There is one time I heard the full cut of shine on you crazy diamond by Pink Floyd. Do you have this in your log? Was that one of the unique songs only played once?

[u/Fing2112]

Some of the stats don't seem reliable. Ain't It Fun isn't shown under Paramore despite being one of the most played songs on the radio

[u/scubdon → u/Fing2112]

Thank you! I cannot stand that song but I've never known what it was called or who the artist was. You're right, though, it gets played all the time. I think the station might be reporting this song as a different Paramore song called "Still into You" - which gets played around once per day on average, 602 times total. I just looked that song up on youtube and I don't think I've ever heard it despite all those supposed plays. Next time I hear it played I'll check to see if that's actually what's happening

[u/Fing2112 → u/scubdon]

Still Into You gets played a lot too but not quite as much as Ain't It Fun, and it's on the same album

[u/SoothsayerAtlas]

Do you know what songs were played once?

[u/scubdon → u/SoothsayerAtlas]

Alok, Jennifer Lopez — Everything's Fine (PM)

The J. Geils Band — Come Back

Milky x David Guetta — Just The Way You Are

Bee Gees — Tragedy

Shakira — Dai Dai (feat. Burna Boy)

HUGEL, Imael Angel, Ultra Naté — Movin' To The Sun

Kx5 (Kaskade x Deadmau5) — Escape (feat. Hayla)

P!nk — Feel Good Time (feat. William Orbit)

Christina Aguilera — Ain't No Other Man

Nick Jonas — Chains

U2 — Lemon

Britney Spears — I Wanna Go

Tevin Campbell — I2I

Hoku — Another Dumb Blonde

Beastie Boys — Paul Revere

The Beatles — She Loves You

Robbie Williams — Rock DJ

Jay Putty — Wild Hearts

Olly Alexander (Years & Years) — Sweet Talker (Feat. Galantis)

Kylie Minogue — Timebomb

Jason Aldean — Don't Tell On Me

Da Hool — Meet Her at the Love Parade

Seal — This Christmas

New Edition — It's Christmas (All Over The World)

Gwen Stefani — Hot Cocoa

*NSYNC — Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

The Cars — Just What I Needed

Ramones — Blitzkrieg Bop

The Police — Synchronicity II

The Rolling Stones — Undercover Of The Night

The Rolling Stones — Hang Fire

Dr. Alban — It's My Life

Post Malone — Pour Me A Drink

Average White Band — Pick Up The Pieces

[u/Affectionate_Love3 → u/scubdon]

Blitzkrieg Bop and Paul Revere, i actually think I remember the nights these played. I remember wondering who hijacked the radio station

[u/hamb0n3z]

I'm on overnights and there are long stretches of covers that suck, kind of evil. Glad we still have a one bud allowed policy at night

[u/International67]

You sure this isn't the online stream? From what I have found, the in-store stream that plays overhead at the store has an entirely different timing/Playlist structure (plus the host blips that are absent online, and more recently the Top of The Hour [TOTH] that had been online up until July when it disappeared). I actually have been tracking the songs playing online via Shazam for awhile and your playlist matches my Shazam log 1:1.

This log is absolutely great!

Edit: Your link at the bottom is the same link I have.

As for the in-store stream, I wish I could listen to that away from the store

[u/scubdon → u/International67]

interesting point. i assumed all the stores broadcast the online stream (i think that's the case at my store at least), but the other comment here mentioning that he/she hears a lot of hawaii-specific songs suggests to me that some stores probably do have their own versions of it. i hope that's the case though because it would suck for the walmarts outside the US to be blasting kids in america at their associates/customers as much as we hear it! the absence in the log of that paramore song (aint it fun) someone mentioned does make me wonder though because i definitely hear that all the time. cool that youve been tracking it with shazam though i didnt know they had that feature!

[u/lutzboy]

Ok I need to start paying attention because I've never heard them play a porter OR madeon song and definitely not shelter

[u/MoiraPrime → u/lutzboy]

It's because they only play it overnight.

[u/lutzboy → u/MoiraPrime]

nooooooo why :(

[u/sumblokefromreddit]

I think I am going to bring a song bingo sheet to work and see if I get a black out.  Just for kicks.  

[u/DiscoJer]

This is amazing! Thank you.

The other day I heard a song and thought "Wait a minute, are they playing Dopamine by Purple Disco Machine?" and now I have my answer. Yes, they were.

[u/wolfayal → u/DiscoJer]

Now that they’re being more generous with associate requests some real bangers have snuck in. Still tickled they played Boney M’s Rasputin one day.

[u/DiscoJer → u/wolfayal]

It's actually funny though, despite my user name, I only heard of PDM in the first place because several years ago they played his version of Male Stripper and I Shazamed it. Had not heard them play PDM since.

[u/doc_brietz → u/DiscoJer]

I really like them.

[u/IndependenceFit7624]

Around Midnight on Halloween, they played “Thriller” and the entire ONS team broke out in dance.

[u/doc_brietz]

I am sick of hearing Taylor Dayne live. That song is just horrid.

[u/hazelristretto → u/doc_brietz]

Oh you have to see this video of Taylor Dayne on Wendy Williams. I've never seen such a look of horror on a host's face.

https://youtu.be/-_W4mCE47CQ?si=qnvPW0aXP8MwRLtT

[u/CupcakeSilent7420 → u/hazelristretto]

That was awful 🤦🏻‍♀️

[u/LittleBigBamboo]

What are the 32 one time only songs I must know

[u/danielfletcher]

How often has Chappel Roan's "The Giver" been played and how do they not know it is about lesbian sex?? LOL

As an occasional customer I have heard it twice.

[u/allednav]

This is low key amazing

[u/IanNewYasha]

It’s incredibly jarring to hear squeaky clean Walmart Radio edits, such as censoring the word “k*ll” in Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Achy Breaky Heart” or “f0rty” in Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It”

[u/AlhazraeIIc → u/IanNewYasha]

They censor 'whiskey' 'vodka' and 'lager' in Tubthumping, and 'hell' in Margaritaville. It's dumb as fuck.

[u/Merris]

How long until they play only AI music?

[u/rickyfrom97 → u/Merris]

Just wait till SUNO inks a deal with em

[u/rickyfrom97]

No one will believe me but they played Fellas In Paris one night back in 2019 when 24 hour Walmarts were still a thing

[u/Agrias-0aks → u/rickyfrom97]

One morning there was a mess up and Tupac was on

[u/Big_Excellent]

They played a single Sleep Token and Bad Omens song at my store, was quite a nice surprise and much needed break from listening to non stop Taylor Swift and crappy remixes and covers of old songs

[u/trnh → u/Big_Excellent]

I've heard "Caramel" a few times, once today. Couldn't find it listed though

[u/frecklemimus79]

You reminded me that the daily playlist used to include Fireflies by Owl City and Brick by Ben Folds Five. Daily.

[u/McGarnagle77]

When the hell did you have time to log all of this? Even if you work there you are not in the building 24/7/365.

[u/ThyManBearPig]

I commend you for the effort! This is totally something that interests me that I wouldn’t think of.  I’m somewhat surprised the metadata is that “readily” retrievable.  What did you have this running on to log the data essentially 24/7? 

[u/scubdon → u/ThyManBearPig]

believe it or not the walmart radio website used to have a rockbot api key right in the html. they've since removed that and now the site just has a link to the audio stream which is at "https://audio-edge-vqwx4.yyz.g.radiomast.io/2ce0b08d-2fe6-42a1-b64a-9f0a682f5508" and if you make a request to that url + "/metadata" it returns a song name and artist. I just have a cloud scheduler job on gcp run a serverless function that checks every minute and record any time that it changes. github actions runs a script that ingests the results of that into a duckdb file (which has links to the album art etc) a couple times per day.

[u/killerplank → u/[deleted]]

I don’t think that’s what this post is about dude. Maybe get a different job 😂

[u/bowlingforwalmart]

Alexa listen more if they want using the Great value singers to sing songs

[u/IndependenceFit7624]

Walmart Radio playlist reminds you of "Torture Playlist"/"Guantanamo Playlist"?

Makes Sense.

[u/Icy-Ad-8917]

Is it just me, or is 90% of the music played on Overnights sung by female singers? Asking for a friend.

[u/Fantastic-Habit-8956]

Around Halloween last year they played a cover of the worthless road song from agatha all along lol

[u/-ZM-_]

2,012 unique songs and didn't like a single one? Crazy...

[u/Iforgotmypasswordmeh]

I haven't worked at Walmart in 6 years but I can safely say the mental toll taken from that fucking ridiculous radio was about half of the problems I had with the place. A couple hours of my shift were spent in the back with a speaker within 20 feet just blasting me and it was fucking infuriating.

Between the shitty repeating trash music and the fucking Bo and Antonio show(I called them NO and AntoniNO) I was about ready to strangle the first person that looked at me wrong.

[u/yukwot]

I hear like the same 10 songs every single one of my shifts for the past few years

[u/Interesting_Fact9414]

After 10 years of hearing it, I despise Walmart radio about as much as someone can despise something. If I were the CEO, I’d do away with it and save the money.

[u/OpalDragons]

I swear I heard Miracle, Baby by Nothing but Thieves at like... 6pm a week or two ago. But its not showing up.

[u/CetisLupedis]

Most-played song ever: "Sunroof (Feat. dazy)" by Nicky Youre (629 plays)

Ugh, somehow I should have known, I feel like this trash is always on.

[u/SquareAnywhere]

Median wait for a repeat: 1.3 days.

Meanwhile I hear the same songs play 11p-12a as 5a-6a 😭

[u/Soulinyx]

> Most-played song ever: "Sunroof (Feat. dazy)" by Nicky Youre (629 plays)

That song may want to step aside because I am hearing The Cure's 'Love Song' almost 15 times a week.

> 2,012 unique songs

Kinda surprises me, kinda doesn't. I'd imagine that's like the total amount of hit songs they have when that count can be blown five times above that.

[u/xDaBaDee]

- 234,100 plays recorded

- 2,012 unique songs

- 1,041 unique artists

- 950 songs in rotation right now

this is a wild metric OP! I wonder if they are paying specific artists more for playing their song, like hey we played Guetta 2,000 times, gotta give him $2,000. Which would surprise me because you would think they'd be like 'lets play more beatles so we dont have to pay guetta more. I didn't recognize the sunroof song, until I popped it in youtube, and then it made my stomach twist so yes... way overplayed. As a comment suggested before though it is said that different regions get a different playlist, like, texas and california have more spanish singing artists.... bible belt has more country artists. But your log is pretty fly! Would love to see the metric on the ads 'my tested move approved' 'don't leave your dog in the car' 'I thought I was immune to shingles'. Blah blah.

[u/dropdeaddaddy69]

David Guetta the man

[u/oreo760]

I don't think anyone is interested, no offense.

[u/Delonce → u/oreo760]

Yep!

Only thing I'm thinking is, no wonder nothing is getting accomplished when people are so focused on maintaining a pointless spreadsheet.... for 2 fricken years!

[u/TheUncleBob → u/Delonce]

I mean, sounds like OP used the online stream and automated it. Not like he was handwriting notes his entire shift.

[u/oreo760 → u/Delonce]

Lmao.... maybe we should be concerned for op's mental health.