Finding the Rhythm

Some people still don’t get it

January 19, 2009 at 3:30 pm 1 comment

I was reading the New York Times online this morning, as I usually do each morning over my first cupper, focusing (also as usual) on business and technology. One of the articles that got my attention was one with the headline, Europe’s Twisted Path Away From AM Radio.

It was interesting reading enough, but I was struck by how most of what I read about radio (whether terrestrial or satellite, analog or digital) simply overlooks what I feel is the real trend, the real threat to traditional radio, and it received one sentence at the bottom of the article: “Many radio stations are streamed over the Internet.”

To that sentence, I’d like to add a few points:

• Yes, many radio stations (in this context, conventional radio stations) are in fact streamed over the Internet. There are thousands of such stations from around the world doing just that, and along with them are thousands more Internet-only radio stations. (I have a vested interest here, since I’m program director at one of them, iDanceRadio.fm.)
• Together, conventional and Internet-only radio stations streaming their content provide something that Sirius XM, terrestrial (AM and FM) radio, and digital radio don’t, and frankly never can: a “radio band” (the Internet) with tens of thousands of “channels,” with every conceivable format, genre of music, and nature, from talk radio to bagpipe music.
• It is possible today to listen to Internet radio, easily and conveniently, with mobile smartphone devices like the BlackBerry and iPhone, and as mobile devices get smarter and more capable, and cellular networks continues to offer greater bandwidth, it’s not unreasonable to expect that this method of listening to “radio” will only expand in the years to come.

It’s true that mobile Internet streaming is a geeky thing at present. You have to have an unlimited data plan to go with your smartphone, and you have to be geeky enough to figure out how to find, install and use the sometimes cumbersome software. But it’s not by any means difficult, and as I can personally attest—I listen to iDanceRadio.fm on my BlackBerry for hours and hours each week during commutes and errands—the experience is quite good. (Yes, the connection drops occasionally, but it’s easily restarted, and it’s a surprisingly rare event on my Sprint network powered BlackBerry Curve.)

In any case, I have yet to see a single article from a major news outlet that even mentions this way of listening to radio. The New York Times article I referenced merely talks about how Apple hasn’t put a radio receiver in the iPod; well, in a manner of speaking, they did put one in the iPhone. And Sprint put one in my BlackBerry, too, in the form of the semi-tolerable “Sprint TV” application (which also does radio).

I truly believe that this is the future of radio, even if nobody quite sees it yet. Consumers want choice, and Internet radio gives choice. Consumer want mobility, and mobile Internet radio gives mobility. With improvements in hardware and software, mobile Internet radio could also easily deliver what the DVR has brought to cable and satellite television; program buffering to allow pausing and rewinding, and maybe even scheduled recording of programs (the RIAA would love that—not).

But alas, I think sometimes I’m the only one who “gets it.”

Keep listening.

Wes

Entry filed under: Dance Music Industry, DJ Wesley Personal. Tags: BlackBerry, Internet radio, iPhone, radio, Sirius XM.