A rádio deve esperar para ver?

«Consider how the industry is currently moving towards deprecation of subscription music services, or tossing out DRM-protected music downloads. Even satellite radio’s future hangs in the balance, as lawsuits, increased music royalty rates and possible rejection of a proposed merger all loom on its horizon.

One thing satellite radio has done right in this analysis is to make itself a relatively simple consumer proposition — in fact, it attempts to model the familiar operation of local radio as much as possible. In this respect satellite radio differentiates itself quite well from Internet radio, but its service availability and robustness still lag a bit behind local radio, and of course its cost is significantly higher. So on balance, even satellite radio has an uncertain future in this analysis.

Next up is wide deployment of wireless broadband (WiMax, etc.), which brings substantial portability and otherwise increased availability (i.e., higher Convenience) to Internet radio. It is unlikely that wireless Internet radio will ever match local radio’s user friendliness, however, particularly in terms of one-button, instant access.

Yet wireless Internet radio’s proliferation of portable, narrow music formats may actually hurt satellite radio more than it does local radio. Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?

Ultimately, the fragmentation and complexity of the new media marketplace could become local radio’s strongest unintentional allies. Being old school isn’t necessarily bad here. This is not to say that radio should not explore and embrace change where it makes sense, but while doing so it should always remember the fundamental values of simplicity and stability that put it where it is today»

fonte: «Will Radio’s Inertia Be Its Savior?», Radio World, by Skip Pizzi, 11.07.2007