A criatividade (talento) será a solução?

Notícias como esta («Universal to allow free music downloads») podem querer significar duas coisas - que se trata de uma experiencia (e, por exemplo, uma moda) ou que a música tendencialmente será grátis. E legal. A rádio musical é a mais atingida por esta situação: que lugará estará reservado para a rádio musical quando todos estivermos em rede (ligados) e encontrarmos toda a música de que gostamos (incluindo a nova, que não conhecemos...) na rede (com uma infinidade de recursos, como listas personalizadas, e «transportáveis/embedded»)?

Quanto maior for a oferta, quanto maior for a escolha, mais necessidade de que alguém (ou algo - pode ser um computador ou o chip do iPod...) faça a selecção. Podemos ser nós próprios, podemos entregar à maqúina (de acordo com coordenadas dadas por nós ou em 'roda livre') ou podemos confiar em alguém. Que, com talento e criatividade, o faça por nós.

Mas não bastará apresentar um fluxo de emissão (musical), ainda que com muito talento e criatividade. A rádio ter-se-á de fazer acompanhar de ferramentas (que já existem fora da rádio) para competir com vantagem; por exemplo permitir o download das musicas que passaram (ainda que com publiciddade ou a um preço 'competitivo'), além de muitas outras opções de consumo activo.

A tendência para a música ser grátis (e a rádio...)

(intro - os desafios que se colocam à rádio musical)

Notícias como esta («Universal to allow free music downloads») podem querer significar duas coisas - que se trata de uma experiencia (e, por exemplo, uma moda) ou que a música tendencialmente será grátis. E legal. A rádio musical é a mais atingida por esta situação: que lugará estará reservado para a rádio musical quando todos estivermos em rede (ligados) e encontrarmos toda a música de que gostamos (incluindo a nova, que não conhecemos...) na rede (com uma infinidade de recursos, como listas personalizadas, e «transportáveis/embedded»)?

Não haverá reposição de novos ouvintes (questão)

«Once the present economic downturn ends -- still a long way off -- there won't be enough new young listeners to help radio continue to grow. It becomes a losing proposition. More radio listeners die and fewer new radio listeners use traditional radio»

Distinguir duas gerações diferentes na relação com a rádio

«I agree with Dan that the idea that new technologies will replace radio is -- to use his word -- "absurd" if you're talking about older Gen X'ers and baby boomers. This group loves radio and will appreciate receiving something they already like on their computers or mobile devices.» (Jerry del Colliano)

A rádio será substituída por uma máquina? (intro)

«(...) no human connection, will ever replace radio is absurd.»

Esta geração é diferente - multitaskers

«"This generation functions differently. They’re able to multitask and bounce around," (...) Millennials are accustomed to collaborating; remember, these are the kids who even went to school dances in groups rather than one-on-one dates. They’re used to working on group projects and approach new technologies with confidence rather than anxiety, Kang told conference participants. This age group is at ease with the constant communication afforded by e-mail, instant messaging, cell phones and BlackBerries/Palm Pilots. They also expect computers to facilitate daily life, both personal and professional, in a way that’s still a little off-putting to other generations. Boomers wore book bags or backpacks to school, while Millennials, wearing iPods and carrying cell phones, lugged laptops.» The Attention Span Problem  Inside Music media, 6/05/08 

Editoras permitem downloads legais? (modelo de negócio)

«Some of the biggest music labels could soon allow free legal downloads, after an ambitious ad-funded file-sharing service, Qtrax, signed a deal with Universal, the world's largest record label and home to U2, Kanye West and Mariah Carey. (...) When it emerged that several deals were not yet fully in place or had lapsed, analysts expected the service to disappear in the ensuing backlash. But it has since signed deals with Beggars, the UK's largest independent label, home to Dizzee Rascal and the White Stripes, and the publishing arms of EMI and Sony/ATV.The contract with Universal is the first with a major label to cover both publishing and recording rights, meaning that it should be able to offer music by its artists within the next month or so. The Universal deal is initially understood to cover only the US. Qtrax is just one of several sites trying to make money from the concept of free, ad-funded downloads and streaming. Earlier this year We7, backed by Peter Gabriel, began offering downloads with embedded audio adverts and signed a deal with Sony BMG to offer its catalogue on a streaming basis. Other sites such as Imeem and Last.fm have also signed deals with leading labels to offer streaming services that act as vast, ad-supported online jukeboxes. Adverts are displayed during the search and downloading processes. Spiralfrog, a New York-based site that has been striving for two years to establish a user base in the US and Canada, also has a deal with Universal. Qtrax has promised that tracks downloaded through its browser can be kept by users for ever as long as they regularly log in to renew the rights management software. It will also enable iPod users to transfer the tracks to their audio players, which could hit sales of downloads through Apple's iTunes Music Store. In addition to sites offering ad-funded music, labels are also exploring new licensing models for subscription-based or bundled offerings such as Nokia's Comes With Music and MusicStation and beginning tentative discussions with internet service providers about packaging music downloads into monthly broadband subscriptions» (fonte: Universal to allow free music downloads, Owen Gibson, The Guardian, Thursday May 8 2008»)

 

 

MOG, um serviço de música e social networking...

«Welcome to MOG, your personalized gateway for music discovery. With MOG, you can find, share, and talk about the music you’re into, from Abba to Zappa. Whether you’re a die-hard music junkie, or just looking for inspiration for your latest party playlist, MOG is your essential online music source. Created by a passionate community of music lovers and powered by cutting edge music discovery technology, MOG makes it ridiculously easy to find new music, watch music videos, and read news and reviews that match your personal taste in music. (...)Completely free, anyone can create a MOG page and browse posts, MP3s and videos by visiting www.mog.com.  One of the first online communities built exclusively for music lovers, MOG was founded in June 2005 by CEO David Hyman. David is a veteran entrepreneur, digital music pioneer, and self-proclaimed music freak, who has held key executive positions at Gracenote, MTV, and Addicted to Noise. MOG has been funded to date by Angel investors and is headquartered in Berkeley, CA»

http://mog.com/about

 

Um modelo que funciona acima dos 30 anos (intro)

«If the equation of "music + brief personality + we pick for you + having to sit through commercials" still works best for listeners above age 30, it may be because they were the ones who were most likely to hear that type of radio done right. And because the programmers who are still inclined to offer it to them are the ones who grew up hearing radio well executed. It has been in the last 10 years that our relationship with listeners has been repeatedly breached by stations too many commercials, too much repetition, and either obtrusive companionship or none at all. And while you can't be sure that the generation that would rather text than talk will respond to that formula, you can say that it has rarely been offered to them, and that the WCBS-FM experience shows it is not inherently inferior.»

Um equívoco chamado 'personalized radio station'

«You type in an artist or song title, and the engine plays that song, or one similar, and then sets the bar for all upcoming tracks based on an analysis of your original pick’s “music genome.” As the songs play you have the option to give a yea or nay in order to perfect your personalized radio station» (se se pode escolher o que se ouve, já não é rádio...)

O DAB também é portátil

The ongoing success of DAB has continued to drive a resurgence in the UK Portable Radio market. Since the launch of DAB, approximately 9.4 million Portable Radios, of all types, have been sold. This has resulted in the yearly market value growing from a consistent annual turnover of around £30m (2000-2002) to just under £78m in 2007.   

In the first quarter of 2008, sales of DAB compatible models accounted for 81% of the value of the Portable Radio market. With the average price of a DAB radio now dropping below £50 (March 2008), it is the continued unit growth of DAB Portable radios that has resulted in the sectors' current value performance.

A rádio tem medo da canibalização (da net)

«David Goodman, president of the digital media group, tried to make the case that CBS radio was in the wireless business 80 years and therefore, has seen all kinds of challenges meant to bury radio. But he insisted that internet radio is more friend than foe and hopes CBS can tout the ad advantages over other platforms. "Internet radio is more popular than mobile audio streaming or satellite. Initially, we were nervous about cannibalization. What we found was it amplifies our listenership. People go from their car to their office and put on their media player. They're listening more and for longer periods."»

@ CBS Radio Presentation: New Play.It Media Player Offers Personalization, Contextual Ads»,  David Kaplan paidContent.org Monday, May 5, 2008

O famoso optimismo

«Dan Mason, CBS Radio’s president and CEO, claimed that "$1 billion in ad dollars were telling you that the iPod and satellite radio will lead to the death of radio. That’s a myth. Like when you were told the eight-track tapes, cassettes and the CD would sign radio’s death warrant. To say that an iPod or satellite radio, with little or no human connection will ever replace radio is absurd." Mason’s second goal was to call attention to CBS Radio’s intention to make use of digital distribution, even as CBS Radio and its peers struggle to cope with the additional competition from those platforms»

@ CBS Radio Presentation: New Play.It Media Player Offers Personalization, Contextual Ads»,  David Kaplan paidContent.org Monday, May 5, 2008

Programar para multitaskers

«Play to multitaskers. Everyone seems to be a multitasker today even older demographics. So content should be created with that in mind. Broadcast to them and ask them to do something else -- pick up a Blackberry and text in to win a mortgage payment. This cooperates with the inevitable. Too frequently radio programming is created under the misguided belief that the station has the full attention of their listeners. They don't. They won't.»

Reduzir o tempo dos programas, para captar novos ouvintes

«When public radio has to consider making its programs shorter because young listeners won’t listen, we officially have a documented attention span problem.
Of course, it doesn’t take any more than a few minutes in the company of the next generation before you realize that the number one problem going forward isn’t too many commercials or too little new music or stupid djs or lack of social networking. That, too. (...) In NPR’s case listening is up but for shorter periods. NPR is the last frontier of taking the time to do it right. If NPR is feeling the heat, commercial stations have a big problem they may not care to know they have. Break the programming down into smaller chunks. That is, one hour of music is fine if you're in the mood to listen for an hour. You'll rarely find a young person doing that. (...) One more thing -- you win the short attention span battle one minute at a time -- not one show at a time.This is something we definitely can do.»

Mesmo em casa a escuta está a passar para o computador

(e isso tem consequências ao nivel do consumo activo «The latest Internet & Multimedia study, conducted among people who are employed fulltime or parttime and who listen at work, shows a clear up-and-down trend. Arbitron says “the portion of people who listen most often to radio stations through a computer over the Internet has grown from 12% to 20% in one year’s time.” Want to bet what’s happening to that old GE/Motorola portable with the antenna taped to the wall near the plants? “The portion who listen most often via a regular radio has declined from 88% to 80%.” That’s a real swing in just 12 months. And Arbitron says when you control for education, “among college graduates, 30% say they listen most often to radio stations over the Internet.” That’s contrasted to a figure of 12% for non-college grads. Edison’s Larry Rosin says “the findings suggest that broadcasters need to think about the quality of their streams, and promote the ability to listen to radio online.” And here’s the Hammer of Doom, if you didn’t see it coming: “After all, on the Internet, the competition is not just the other stations in town. The possibilities are essentially infinite.”» fonte: “The boss says, Turn down that computer”, taylor on radio-info, 6/05/08; o original está aqui

Pandora: a maior rádio do mundo...

«"We want to be the greatest radio all around the world, broadcast or online," he said. "We think eventually that Clear Channel's ownership is going to be ours. We believe we can be there."

«The Daily: Do you worry that the end of traditional radio could also bring the end of the radio DJ personality?

TW: Yeah, but I would like to find a way to bring them into Pandora, frankly. I think those people are really important as well, and we're certainly not helping their cause.

The Daily: Does every single artist featured on Pandora get paid when their song pops up on someone's station?

TW: Yes, it's a percent of the revenue. We pay a fraction of a penny per song for publishing and performance, to the songwriters and the performers. And once our revenue grows enough, we will be paying artists whichever is higher - a certain minimum or a percent of the revenue.

The Daily: Right now Pandora is illegal to use outside of the U.S. What stands in the way of Pandora being legal everywhere?

TW: Licensing, licensing. We operate in the U.S. under a statutory law, and that is not available in any other country. So no other country has actually put that one-stop licensing in place. So as soon as they do that, we are going to be able to jump right in, hopefully this year.»

As rádios da CBS (EUA) na net

«Another radio giant -- CBS Radio -- also is establishing an online foothold on several fronts. This summer, CBS will launch play.it, a music streaming service where users can indicate who their favorite artists are and get a customized playlist of similar music they may like. Play.it users will be able to choose from a selection of icons representing different artists. By dragging the icons to their playlist, they’ll hear a lot of songs by that artist, as well as other music influenced by or similar to it. It’s similar to online music site Pandora, which has been successful at matching its users’ tastes in music with new content. In March, CBS Radio and AOL announced a partnership in which CBS will power AOL’s online radio network, replacing XM Satellite Radio. And CBS is planning to stream its HD channels, making that programming accessible to online users.» (Clear Channel mixes it up on new music site)

« CBS Radio plans to launch a custom internet radio site, similar to Pandora.com and Last.fm, where users can stream music that sounds like a given musician. The company is currently talking to advertisers about the site, called Play.it, and says it will open it to the public in the next few months. Screen grabs from an early version of the site are after the jump. Aspects of Play.it sound cool. Users will drag and drop favorite artists into a grid, weighting them by preference, to create the style of music they want to hear. And they’ll be able to add news reports, traffic updates, and celebrity interviews from local CBS affiliates. The site will then assemble and stream a radio station like one on the FM dial. Big surprise, that will include commercial breaks. But CBS Radio’s David Goodman says the frequency of breaks will be “a lot lower,” than on terrestrial radio, and that the ads will be “in context” — love songs will generate jewelry or flower advertisements, for instance. I’m eager to check it out, but I’m also skeptical CBS can keep up with the competition. Right now, Pandora and Last.fm have deep libraries of musicians and sophisticated recommendation technology (Play.it will use its own system, called “The Brain”). New services, meanwhile, keep popping up. Just last week we heard about another one, Chilirec, which records songs as they stream online, like a TiVo (via TechCrunch, or Go2Web20). Who knows where we’ll be when Play.it opens months from now» (CBS Radio Plans its Own Pandora (And It’s Not Last.Fm))

Justiça obriga canais de música a pagar mais direitos

«There's no mistaking who benefited from a federal-court decision to set licensing fees that three top Web services must pay songwriters and publishers for the right to stream their music. But the question left unanswered is whether the losers also include consumers. AOL, RealNetworks, and Yahoo may end up paying the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) $100 million as a result of a decision by a U.S. district judge to set the licensing fee for streaming music at 2.5 percent of adjusted music-use revenue. "(The court's decision) is a victory for songwriters, composers, and publishers, and something they have been looking forward to for a long period," said John LoFrumento, ASCAP's chief executive. "In the past, we've settled with (Internet companies) at low rates. We wanted to encourage the growth of these businesses, but these businesses have matured...they have been using our members' music to attract people to their Web sites...it's time to compensate (our members)." »

A diferença entre serviços de música streamin e a rádio musical

«I’m not a typical listener: nor a typical music fan. Listen to my music choice (that’s my music collection in one big playlist), while looking at my most-played tracks of the last 3 months, and you’ll see that my most played track in that three months is The Divine Comedy’s “Absent Friends”, which I’ve played just four times. A typical commercial radio station will play their top tracks eight times a day - once every three hours. Assuming I listen to music for a total of two hours a day (in commutes and desk-bound working), commercial radio would have had me listen to that track 60 times in three months.Indeed, over the last week, my 210 different artists, and a total of 323 tracks means that, in just 18 hours, I’ve listened to more tracks than many commercial radio stations play per week. I’m singling out commercial radio here, by the way, not because of a misplaced loyalty to my employer, but that commercial radio’s music choice is, by and large, far more tightly musically formatted - and that, for whatever reason, only commercial radio runs nonstop music services.»

is all about music, James Cridland, 4/05/08)