Friday, November 28, 2014

Modern tastes shift from "On Air" to "Online"

Radio: the transmission and reception of electromagnetic waves of radio frequency, especially those carrying sound messages. The concept, the idea of what radio programming should be is now a romanticized memory of the past. Disc jockeys in small booths at local stations, oozing with personality while being broadcasted live to millions of personal radios is quickly becoming a dying breed. Local stations are being bought out by media giants such as iHeartMedia and and Clear Channel Media, "internet radio" is just a mask for music genome projects of the Pandora cohort. Radio is undergoing a fast change, fearing that it is on its way of becoming the print journalism of the digital broadcasting family, a platform that will cease to exist when its audience does.

In The State of the Media's annual "Audio: By the Numbers" private subscription user only and online radio platforms were  the only forms of radio broadcasting networks showing steady increases in their numbers of listeners. SiriusXM continually grows in numbers as the American consumer becomes more narrow in his or her selection of station, not to mention that the modern consumer is also less inclined to listen to advertisements and that SiriusXM is also available standard in most cars at the time of purchase. Mobile radio also experienced an increase in listeners as radio stations are now available in app form at for both iPhone users and consumers of the Android Marketplace, allowing listeners to catch real-time broadcasts on the go from major networks and cities that normally broadcast thousands of miles away. 

Differing from the satellite radio variety, Internet radio giant, Pandora, crushed both its online competitors and real-time radio competitors during 2014. Pandora mastered the art of catering to specific tastes by matching 400 musical characteristics to one's musical tastes to create custom channels, but it is questionable if that is considered radio or a robotized playlist. Similar to SiriusXM, Pandora or Spotify, its #1 competitor, are also becoming available standard in most cars, where most people recorded listening to the radio while driving. 

The decline in AM/FM listenership is projected to decline further for the next five years. The convergence of ownership with radio stations such as those owned by the aforementioned iHeartMedia group are not helping the AF/FM market, even thought they offer premium HD quality. They fail to sell radio stations chock full of ads or  quote on quote repetitive music  cycles, but listeners ironically ditched them for glorified playlists that are beyond repetitive. The only logical reason could be that consumers have no control over the air time of what they are listening to, by operating radio distribution the old fashion way.

To check out this year's "Audio: By the Numbers" click here

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