«A rádio está a portar-se muito bem» (só perdeu 5%...)

«We are in the middle of an exciting expansion of radio's horizon and capability with the digital revolution.  And, despite all the naysayers, radio's doing quite well. With all the new choices available to consumers, radio has lost less than 5% of its total listening.  Radio components  within new devices are expanding our reach.  Did you know that one of the most popular and well received accessories for iPods is the FM tuner?  Did you notice that Microsoft included a radio tuner in its Zune device?  Technology companies have embraced radio; it is high time for radio to embrace the technological tidal wave, rather than swimming against it.   Regardless of the delivery system, radio will always have the unique advantage of being the local content provider.  We've got the facility and the talent; all we lack is the vision to move aggressively into custom, tailored content for these new delivery systems.» ( Peter Smyth, CEO Greater Media, Sending Bold Signals at RAB2008, Fev 08)

 SMYTH, Peter, «Sending Bold Signals at RAB2008» Greater Media,, Fev 08 [http://www.greater-media.com/corner/feb_08.html]

200 milhões de descarregamentos nos podcasts da NPR

«The NPR Podcast Directory, which features hundreds of free podcasts produced by NPR, NPR Member stations and other public radio producers, has now reached the 617-title count with the addition of the new NPR News "In Character" series, seven podcasts from public radio station WYEP/Pittsburgh, and nine more from other station contributors. Furthermore, since launching in August 2005 with 33 titles, NPR reports that its podcasts have generated more than 200 million downloads, and they currently average 12 million downloads per month. In the fourth quarter of 2007, there were 36.5 million downloads of NPR Podcasts, which marks an increase of 19 percent over the previous quarter.»

fonte: FMQB, 11/02/08, NPR Bolsters Podcasts, Tops 200 Million Downloads

Ouvintes que votam e sugerem via SMS

«Premiere Radio Networks’ “Jim Rome Show” has joined forces with mobile marketer HipCricket. Beginning this month the show will become mobile phone-friendly, allowing listeners – known as “Clones” – to take part in polls, contests and other programming via text messages. Rome says his listeners are part of the texting generation, and “As listeners evolve, it’s essential we grow with them.” HipCricket says more than 136 million Americans text on a regular basis.» (Inside Radio, Jim Rome: "txt msg me." 12/02/08)

Música de nichos: A longa Cauda está certa (e os canais de streaming ganham com isso)

«(...) One recent study, conducted and reported by a respected music industry publication, The Lefsetz Letter, compared the overall music sales — both physical and digital — of the calendar year 2000 (the peak sales year to date for the industry) with sales in 2007, and found that the 2007 figures were down about a third (–36%) from the 2000 sales.
Then Lefsetz compared the individual sales of each of the top 10 selling records for those two years with one other (i.e., sales of the #1 record of 2000 compared to the #1 record of 2007, #2 with #2, and so on), which you would expect to approximately reflect the same one-third drop — but they did not.
Instead, the records that occupied each of the top 10 slots for 2007 were off from over 50 percent to nearly 70 percent compared to the sales for the records in those same positions for 2000.
Always in stock
This substantially disproportionate drop for the bestsellers of 2007 indicates that music sales are clearly trending toward greater diversity and choice.
One possible reason is that across that seven-year period, online music stores have made it possible to search, browse, sample and purchase a far wider variety of music than consumers ever could in any physical store.
In other words, a digital inventory allows the complete “Long Tail” to be kept in stock at all times, and as a result, the comet’s head is shrinking and its tail is getting fatter. (See the Sept. 1, 2006 edition of this column at rwonline.com if that reference escapes you.) (...) On the other hand, there are other purveyors of music radio — Internet and satellite broadcasters — that do more closely embrace the trend toward greater choice and diversity with narrower formats.
They can do it because their environments allow them to operate more simultaneous services on a full-time basis. That and other efficiencies of digital processes (automation, etc.) allow them to build a viable aggregate audience with fewer listeners per service than terrestrial radio requires.
Ironically, this is not because these new media operators have more channels per se. The largest terrestrial radio companies actually own a far greater number of channels than any satellite or Internet radio service operates, but because of the geographic distribution of terrestrial channels, the same narrowing (or “niche-ing”) of formats cannot be applied there.» (Skip Pizzi, Toward an Embarrassment of Niches, RWOnline, 2.13.2008)

O conteúdo é de tal maneira importante que...

... Mark Ramsey volta a desafiar as ideias preestabelecidas (a proposito de ligações piratas que reencaminham os streamings e que começam a ser bloqueadas nos EUA; a ideia é que quando os conteudos são bons devem estar no máximo de lugares possiveis):

«Because the audience doesn't care about what you hate. And you can't keep anything that doesn't want to be kept, so long as those ears have options other than yours. The basic advantage of owning content is that you should spread it around. If the Internet-enabled world is shaping up in such a way as I will be able to hear whatever I want from wherever I want it, are you sure you want to erect your own particular barrier and force me to access your content YOUR way rather than mine? Is your content really that unique to the world that I can't get a fair facsimile from someone else with a more open access policy? Are we learning nothing from the stupidity of the music labels? Get this straight: Hijackers are your friends. Should you share in their revenue from your content? Of course you should! And should you incentivize them to spread your content around? you bet. Should you be so stupid as to block their ability to promote and publicize what you have? Absolutely not.»

Fazer chegarv a rádio a todos os LAD, PDA ou telemóveis em cinco anos

«Radio Advertising Bureau president Jeff Haley unveiled a bold industry mission to put radio receivers "on every mobile phone, PDA and MP3 player within the next five years" during his keynote speech at the RAB 2008 conference here Tuesday.

Haley didn't elaborate on specifics for the ambitious plan to help move the industry forward by expanding radio's availability. However RAB chairman and Greater Media president/CEO Peter Smyth told Radio & Records, a sister title of MarketingyMedios.com, that broadcasters are having discussions with device makers who are attracted to the idea because it would increase the menu of entertainment choices available to their customers.

Making radio available on every mobile phone could bring the radio industry an additional $3 billion in incremental revenue, Haley said in his second keynote appearance since replacing Gary Fries in the RAB top spot in September 2006. "We need to be everywhere there is a speaker and headphones," he said.» fonte: RAB's Haley Sees Radio's Future in Mobile Devices  February 13, 2008By Paul Heine, Marketing y Medios

A internet em Portugal

«A Internet em Portugal está em situação semelhante. Começou por ser utilizada e promovida pelos ‘early adopters’, mas 15 anos depois apenas 20% da população se agarrou a essa coisa nova e útil. Muitos, porque precisam de outras coisas básicas anteriores à Internet, outros porque sofrem de iliteracia multimédia (não sabem ou não querem saber utilizar o computador), e outros ainda porque são analfabetos – uns inacreditáveis quase 10%!
Nos últimos cinco anos a utilização da Internet pelos portugueses pouco cresceu. Segundo alexa.com, um sítio que mede a utilização da Internet, em 2007 houve uma diminuição importante no número de  ‘page views’ de todos os ‘sites’ mais visitados, desde Hi5, Google a YouTube. Sapo.pt, o maior ‘site’ português, tem hoje cerca de metade dos ‘page views’ dos que tinha em 2002.  
Aumentou o tempo dedicado a ver menos páginas? Será  efeito dispersivo ‘long tail’? Diminuiu o interesse? É necessário um esforço conjunto das empresas, da sociedade civil e do Estado num trabalho complexo, de longo prazo, requerendo recursos e muita imaginação para convencer muitas mais pessoas sobre os benefícios da ‘web’.»

fonte: Nuno Cintra Torres, «Coisa nova e útil», Diário Económico, 15/02/08 

Recomendações para a rádio, a partir do iPod/iTunes

«(...) Radio operators could go to school on this generation and deliver things that they would like where they live -- which is not near a radio.

1. Intelligent people picking their own music (and maybe even talking about it).

2. Programs that can be time-delayed -- shifted forward, reversed and paused.

3. A way to get their hands on it -- mash it up -- and send it along to others.

4, No commercials, no pre-rolls (that they don't watch anyway), but links to discovery that they may eventually pay for.

The iPod is the most successful portable entertainment device since the Walkman. It has taught a new generation how to avoid the things they loath about traditional media.»

Jerry Del Colliano, iPod, I quit, Inside Music Media, 15/02/08

Algum cansaço com o iPod, mas o fascínio pelo iTunes

«(...) Many have taken action already. Some said they wanted to listen to their iPods less because hearing is compromised by not only loud play but length of time listening -- even at acceptable levels. These students are right on with that. Some have invested in ear buds or even ear phones that will cancel noise and allow for lower levels of playback.

About a year ago I shared my observation that iPod fatigue had settled in. In fact the term is theirs (my students) not mine. They weren't saying they'd give up their iPods -- just that some were bored with them. Even students with tens of thousands of songs on them (most obtained illegally) wanted something new.(...) The radio industry has often blamed iPod use for some of its problems. Of course, they would be wrong. When I suggested to these same young people that they might be willing to return to radio for music, the laughter was loud and sustained. They meant no insult. It's just that the idea of radio being useful in their lives is -- well, laughable. My experience is that they don't like commercial radio. (...) Don't misunderstand me. Young people are not ready to let their iPod batteries die out. They still want portable music that they can control. But, there is growing evidence I have observed that they are beginning to disconnect from their portable music devices in a way that was unthinkable a few years ago. (...) One thing they really like and are addicted to is iTunes -- the ability to create playlists, shuffle songs and control their entertainment. I'm almost thinking that iTunes is more magical than the actual portable device. iTunes is the record store. It can replace the radio station as a source of new music. It is an archive. (...) Radio appears to be left out of the future. (...)» Jerry Del Colliano, iPod, I quit, Inside Music Media, 15/02/08

O erro da aposta no HD (como meio digital)

«Here’s how it looks to me:

• (1) The public has shown little interest in HD Radio. HD Radio was the biggest radio advertiser in 2007 and roughly 350,000 units were sold. By comparison, Sirius added over 900,000 in Q4 of 2006 alone, with a far less advertising support. At the rate HD Radio was adopted in 2007, it would take over 15 years to equal the current critical mass of Satellite radio.

• (2) There is no apparent revenue model for HD Radio. How many HD radios would have been sold if the channels included advertising? Well, certainly not more.

• (3) The Radio industry is embarrassing itself with its public support for HD Radio. Whether perceived as backing a loser or profoundly ineffective as an advertising vehicle, Radio isn’t representing itself well as a marketing vehicle or partner with its public support for this failing product.»

fonte: by Bob Bellin Guest editorial: Consumers, Wall Street not buying HD RAIN 15/02/08

12 serviços de musica personalizada em revista

Jango, TheSixtyOne, Musicovery, BoomShuffle, finetune, last.fm, Pandora, Slacker, Skreemr, Songza, MySpace, and imeem.

«Free, legal music has existed forever—or at least since the invention of the radio (...) These days, a good radio station is hard to come by and CDs are $20 a pop. So, what's a music lover to do? Turn to the Internet, of course, where you can find music-streaming services that are not only free and legal (like all radio) but customizable. There are plenty of services out there that offer either loose customization or full-blown playlist building. Services like Pandora, Slacker, and Jango let you enter the name of an artist or artists and listen to a stream of songs tailored specifically to your tastes. Other music sites like BoomShuffle and finetune allow you to pick the actual songs you'll hear; once you've added X number of songs, your playlist is treated as a full-fledged Web radio station and you can listen to it as often as you like, pass it around the Web, and embed it on a blog or social network. As with anything free, there are some caveats. In order to get the blessing of the music industry, these music sites can't just let you play any old song you want, whenever you want. The playlists you build and the streams you customize need to be considered Web radio stations. Here are some of the conditions that have to be met to be considered Web radio:

• Any playlist you build must include songs from at least 15 different artists
• The playlist order is randomized
• The listener can only skip a certain number of songs per listening session
• The site—not the user—must make royalty payments

 

These are minor hang-ups—after all, the payoff is that you get to listen to free music legally—but they're worth mentioning. These sites are a perfect match for a certain type of music listener: the kind who wants a little more control than typical Web radio affords, but who also wants to listen to new music that might not be in his or her iTunes folder. They're also perfect for office workers who can't store their personal music libraries on work machines but go crazy in their cubicles without tunes. Even better, they're all free, and you won't get sued for using any of them. So what are you waiting for?»

Os doze sites em revista

fonte: Get Free Music! PC Mag, Kyle Monson 02.15.08

Sobre a aliança rádio-carro

«(...) The marriage of automobile and radio seems so logical, one can only wonder why it took the intervention of entrepreneurs to make it happen. Happen it did; and nearly 80 years later, radio and the auto remain joined at the hip.
The seminal year was 1929. After failing twice in the storage battery business, Paul Galvin was encouraged to try to put a workable car radio into volume production, an idea that had pretty much been ignored by auto manufacturers.
(...) Choices on the listening side are changing as well, thanks to satellite radio and HD2 channels, which can deliver traffic reports and information focused on commuters and provide more options and useful data to drivers than ever imagined possible.
But no matter how high tech, the simple joy of a pleasant audio companion in the car, a pleasure that stimulated radio sales at their introduction 80 years ago, is still there.»

(fonte: «Radio Has a Special Place in the Car, RWOnline, Charles S. Fitch, 2.01.2008)

A rádio está a chegar aos novos ouvintes?

«"Are you getting the new audience? The iPod generation?" Wired magazine author Chris Anderson and "Long Tail" author Chris Anderson starts an effective keynote speech explaining radio’s creation of "the notion of a common culture" that was "suddenly synchronized around this top-down delivery" of content, starting in the 1920s. That template of a mass medium – a homogeneous culture created by relatively few sources of content – ended in the late 1990s. That’s because "the Internet allows you to reach everybody with an infinite amount of content for free." (Anderson’s forthcoming book is titled "Free", about how content creators need to create ways to get paid for their free content.) Anderson answers a question about who’s responding best to the new imperative to narrowcast or even "slivercast", and he says it’s "advertising." Though not his own business of magazines, or books, or broadcasting. As for radio, "this is the only medium that’s translated to online virtually unchanged. The core product – free music and spoken word – is undiminished in popularity, and vastly increased in reach." But radio’s no longer got anything like a monopoly on supplying either music or talk. Anderson concludes "the business model must change."

fonte: "Are you getting the new audience? The iPod generation?", Taylor On Radio-Info, 13/02/08

«O futuro dos LAD depende da rádio» (e da múisca nova)

«(...) MP3 players' future depend on radio.

"The Zune has an FM receiver because a Microsoft product study found that 46 percent of Zune owners listen to the radio receiver function at least once a week," he [CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau, Jeff Haley ]said. "And the radio feature has higher-than-average importance to Zune owners, scoring 8 out of 9 points." Haley also noted that in a product feasibility study, Microsoft found that 74 percent of respondents listed radio as their primary source for new music, leading online (31 percent) and in-store (8 percent). "The long-term success of an MP3 player requires users to continue to source and use new music," he said. "Without new music, the player becomes stale and irrelevant, relegating the MP3 to just one more fad. FM radio will definitely drive the success of the MP3 player."

He noted, however, that radio's future is also linked to MP3 players, over 100 million of which are in U.S. consumers' hands. "What would it mean for our business if all of those players featured access to radio content?"»

fonte: 'Audio Content Is Expanding Everywhere You Look', Radio Ink, 13/02/08

MAIS: «Also the FM adapter for Apple’s iPod ("it’s the #1-selling accessory").»

«A rádio é o único meio que não muda de forma com o digital»(?)

ATENÇÃO A ESTA IDEIA: the experience of AM/FM listening can be delivered perfectly and unchanged via the Internet.??? 

«New distribution channels expand radio's ability to meet consumer demand for our content where they want it, and when they want it," Haley said. "Radio is uniquely positioned to do this because radio is the only medium that does not change its form when you move from channel to channel. Print and video are different experiences when they move from digital -- radio is not. The Rolling Stones still sound like the Rolling Stones, no matter the channel."» (CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau, Jeff Haley)

fonte: 'Audio Content Is Expanding Everywhere You Look', Radio Ink, 13/02/08

A afirmação já provocou polémica: para Mark Ramsey, «This is not just wrong, but shockingly so. Jeff, any time you move from one medium to another you change the message. This is Marshall McLuhan 101. The issue is not whether the Rolling Stones sound like the Rolling Stones across media (although it’s interesting that you picked a band best known for its output in the 60’s and 70’s), the issue is what it means to be “radio” when you exist across media and where each medium has different potentialities that extend well beyond audio alone.» Para Kurt Hansen, «What Jeff was saying was that the experience of AM/FM listening can be delivered perfectly and unchanged via the Internet. And that is absolutely correct. For sitting on your sofa listening to the local Smooth Jazz station, it doesn’t matter if the radio in the room is an FM radio or a PC playing the station’s stream. The listening experience is identical. Close your eyes, and you can’t tell the difference. This is not true for print. If one wants to curl up the sofa with one’s sweetie, drink coffee together, and read the Sunday New York Times, flipping through some sections quickly, savoring others, etc., you can’t replicate that experience using NYT.com.  Similarly, watching TV is a much different experience online. You’re not going to be watching an HD picture in surround sound on your 54” plasma TV — at least not in 2008.»

 

A nova 'revolução' dos sites de musica online

«There's a new music revolution brewing, and it's social. Social music sites Imeem and Last.fm — which offer on-demand, ad-supported free music — have grown rapidly to 20 million monthly users each. Their success has the music industry seriously exploring the viability of ad-supported, free music as the next big business model for online music. (...) The latest trend is ad-supported, on-demand online music streaming, most notably, Imeem and Last.fm.  The old negative for such Web-only services — that you can listen to a song, but can't download it — no longer appears to be an issue. In the age of always-on, high-speed connections, "Who cares?" says Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive, which bought Last.fm for $280 million in 2007.

Imeem and Last.fm are positioned as music communities, where friends tell each other about what songs and artists they like. Since the sites have licensing agreements with the four major labels, fans can share songs and playlists with each other. Last.fm restricts users to listening to a song just three times, while Imeem has no restrictions. Both services are online radio stations, but they are different from competitors Pandora or Slacker, which create personalized stations based on your musical tastes. Here, you pick the songs and the artists, or choose music based on recommendations from peers. "Friends pay a lot more attention to what their peers say than music reviewers," says Mike McGuire, an analyst with Gartner.  The sites also differ from social networks like MySpace and Facebook in that "our audience isn't looking for dates," says Steve Jang, Imeem's chief marketing officer.» (fonte: «Music websites are fighting to be free, 5/02/08, USA Today)

«There’s now a bevy of free, ad-supported music services emerging, including CBS' Last.fm, Spiralfrog, imeem and Qtrax. The message to consumers is clear: Music is an add-on; it has no retail value of its own. With each new service, the $0 price point is reinforced and music becomes swag – like logo embossed ballpoint pens or branded refrigerator magnets.   

Maybe this evolution is natural – after all, it’s often been pointed out that recorded music has a zero marginal cost to produce (meaning that every additional MP3 produced by a record label costs no more than the original recorded track.)  Proof of exactly how cheap it is to produce music is the billion MP3 files each month that are created via P2P sites, mostly illegal.  How can consumers really be expected to pay $1 for a product they know costs nothing to produce?» (The Brooding Savage, 7/02/08)  

Uma revista digital que tem ligações para o iTunes e MySpace

«Spin magazine has struck deals with MySpace and iTunes to promote its first digital issue, making music and information available to members of MySpace Music… The digital version hews close to the print magazine itself, unlike Spin.com, where the magazine’s editorial staff posts breaking news and updates. Spin Digital includes links that take readers to musician profiles on MySpace as well as the iTunes Store, where they’re able to buy songs mentioned in the magazine.The digital edition also includes audio samples, video footage, and interactive ads that can, for example, take them to a company’s official Web site…» fonte: SPIN partners with MySpace on first digital issue Feb 8, 12:33 PM  Posted by: Paul Maloney

A rádio pública, os podcasts e novos hábitos de escuta

«certain things are clear to me:

1. Listeners will increasingly prefer to pay for programs, not stations. Just as music buyers want individual songs, not entire albums. It doesn't make sense for me to subsidize a station for a podcast I can hear without that station. Nor does it make sense to pay for a station that mixes in lots of stuff you don't like with exactly what you love.

2. The definition of a "public radio listener" will have to be reconsidered when such a listener may - in some cases - listen to public radio podcasts but never to a radio station that airs them. If I never listen to a station but do hear numerous public radio podcasts, how can I support my favorite shows without supporting a station I ignore?

3. Public radio will have to significantly enhance their ability to solicit and encourage donations from podcast listeners for podcasts. A passive "please pledge" will not do the trick. At the very least there should be a "walled garden" that listeners elect to pay for, behind which are all kinds of goodies for premium podcast subscribers only. This is no different from the premium items stations use in their solicitation efforts now - except it's program based and online. It's not about blocking free distribution, rather it's about offering premium access to a deeper experience of the program. But we're a long way from that now: If you go to the page for NPR's Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me, it's not even possible to support the program directly from this web page!

4. Stations will have to recognize that their value is related to the manner in which they mix public radio programs and add original local content that is a magnet in and of itself. To expect support for the station simply because it airs Car Talk will no longer be reason enough to expect support.

5. Revenue models will have to change. Revenue can and should shift to web-based models for program sponsorship, with the station affiliates sharing in those proceeds. In the long run, the stations will be supported by the programs, not vice versa.

6. More funding for public radio programs will have to come from corporate or other non-listener sponsorship.

A banda larga nunca será tão ubíqua como o FM/AM?

«(...) Internet radio. Today, it’s just as easy to listen to WFUV on my laptop as it is on my car radio. The sound quality is the same if I have a broadband connection to my laptop. If I live in NYC, then I can get that broadband connection almost anywhere by borrowing someone’s WiFi connection. With the right software, a WiFi enabled PDA can be as good or better than a car radio in most parts of NYC today.

This doesn’t mean that the radio industry doesn’t have a better product today and will for a long time to come. Every car comes with a radio that is simple to use. WiFi isn’t ubiquitous and free outside of the most dense major metropolitan areas. And it isn’t clear that WiFi or any other form of bandwidth will ever really be free and ubiquitous the way the radio spectrum is. But the trendline is going in a clear direction. High bandwidth IP is going to be everywhere someday pretty soon. In that world, the radio industry’s spectrum is not the proprietary advantage that it is today.» ,fonte: «Radio in 2010 July 12, 2004 in Venture Capital and Technology

O DAB em retrocesso na GB?

« (...) Even as the future of Digital One, owned by GCap and the infrastructure provider Arqiva, is under scrutiny, plans are being drawn up for a second national “multiplex” for the commercial sector, headed by Channel 4 Radio. (...) All the uncertainty and a vortex of conflicting interests have simply amplified a debate on the future of digital radio – a technology that is being taken up much later in the day by consumers than digital television – and whether it is now at the brink of a “Freeview” moment of immense growth, or a “Betamax” moment of consumer abnegation. Some industry experts such as Richard Wheatley, chief executive of The Local Radio Company, see Digitial Audio Broadcasting (DAB) as radio’s equivalent of Betamax, a failed technology in the face of a mass of better alternatives»

Não, diz a BBC: «Following yesterday's news from GCap Media, the BBC and 4 Digital Group have joined forces to confirm their commitment to develop digital radio in the UK. Both parties will look at ways to encourage more rapid consumer take-up of the technology ahead of 4 Digital's launch in the next 12 months»

«Millions of people who have invested in new digital radios were yesterday wondering whether they would be left with little more than expensive ornaments after Britain's biggest commercial radio group all but abandoned the medium. The owner of Capital Radio, Classic FM and Xfm was an enthusiastic champion of digital audio broadcasting (DAB) under its previous management, spending an estimated £80m on new transmitters and stations.»

«Ms Hazlitt, the former Virgin Radio chief, said GCap had spent around £8m a year on digital radio, but had failed to recoup the investment. It is a marked change in strategy for GCap, which under its former chief executive Ralph Bernard, championed DAB. Ms Haz-litt said: "We believe the future for the new GCap is on FM and broadband. FM remains the backbone of the radio industry and on quality compares favourably to any other platform." The latest Rajar figures show that DAB accounts for 9 per cent of all listening, digital radio alone for 4 per cent and online – in which GCap is now placing its faith – for just 1.9 per cent, even though many more households have broadband than have DAB radio sets.»