O futuro da rádio é a rádio personalizada?

«Radio's got a problem. Although some 200 million people tune in each week to hear their favorite overcaffeinated DJ or catch those crucial rush-hour traffic updates, it's getting tougher to hold listeners' attention. Facing flat revenues and competition ranging from iPods to music phones, the 87-year-old industry is scrambling to reinvent itself. But not even satellite radio or the new HD format addresses this analog medium's fundamental flaw: it doesn't give people any say in which songs they hear. If you don't like a track or a DJ, your only option is to turn the dial--or turn it off.

That could change if the pioneers behind personalized radio continue to win over music lovers who are burned out on regular radio but can't be bothered to constantly refresh their iPods with 99¢ iTunes. On websites such as Last.fm, Pandora.com and the new Slacker.com personalized radio lets you train it to understand your tastes. You can, of course, just listen to the music passively as it plays on your computer. But it's even better when you make it your own, by marking each song as a favorite, skipping past it or banishing it from the station's playlist altogether. (See chart below for more details on how personalized radio works.) And despite growing concern about how proposed new royalty fees for Internet radio stations could hamper the industry's growth, on May 23 Sprint became the first wireless carrier to offer personalized radio on its phones.»

fonte: «Learning to Love Radio Again», By Anita Hamilton, Time Magazine, 29/05/07