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January 16, 2005
The Future of Radio
A friend and I were exchanging emails on aging rock stars, and the generally poor quality of commerical radio. After some give and take, I sent out my characteristically optimistic take on this particular piece of the world. Sure, if you have an iPod or use one of these services, this isn't news. However, for a lot of people this is an unknown or unexplored realm. Those of you who do marketing have a lot of work yet to do.
Commerical Radio has been replaced by a couple of things. Basically, relying on radio for music is like relying on the horse as the only means of getting from point A to B. It is fine for some purposes, but not for others. Here are some of the reasons I see a bright future for music. This is all going on now, so we are not talking
about potential anymore.
1) Satellite Radio (sirius and xmsr). These provide zillions of stations in all genres. Most are commercial free. You need to buy a radio, and then the fee is around $10 a month. Cheap considering what people will pay for cable, and the right to watch reruns on TVLand.
2) Digital services (Rhapsody, Itunes, Napster) - Many of these provide a combination of a) thousands of radio stations like the satellite services b) On demand access to zillions of albums, many by unfamiliar artists and c) the ability to download songs for a fee. The pricing for radio is usually $2.99 a month for the ad free, full version (provided gratis, by optonline) and $9.99 for the on demand (which I have and is worth every penny.) version. Songs usually cost between $0.89 and $0.99 each, which is cheaper than a 45 rpm and can be copied onto a cd or other device.
3) Internet: More and more people are going to upstart internet music sites, starting their own radio statios (check out live365.com) or their own companies. You can become a dj yourself. Some have bulletin boards and places to chat.
These things are serving, indirectly, to actually boost the sales of CDs and the growth of the download services via the iPod etc is astounding. The bottom line is that new music is really thriving and it isn't hard to find. All you need to do is recognize that it is not on the radio anymore, and the way it is delivered is different. Sure, there is a fee - - but it is pennies a day and a steal compared to the cost of TV. You should check them out. Also, interestingly, the growth of iTunes means the "rebirth of the single," but that is another story.
Posted by apc at January 16, 2005 01:12 AM