The Public Doesn't Know What They Want, Until They Want It.
From today's InsideRadio:
Wi-Fi hits the dashboard Radio’s reign as king of in-car listening may not be over, but there’s a new threat. Autonet Mobile has begun selling Wi-Fi for the car at more than 3,300 stores nationwide, including Best Buy. But a Jacobs Media survey finds just 6% want Wi-Fi in their next car. Most prefer an iPod connection.
There are two things very wrong with this post... #1: Innovative progress rarely comes from asking the public what "they" want. To wit, this quote from Henry Ford: "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." Nobody seemed to want MP3 players until the iPod, no one saw a market for home computers, and the head of a certain film studio once remarked (in regard to the emerging 'talking-pictures' technology) that no one would ever want to hear an actor speak.
#2: Do you think it's possible Jacobs Media might have a vested interest in making that statement to further pimp their iPhone app services?
Radio’s $100 million lead in 2007 evaporated last year as internet revenues grew 11% to $23.4 billion. That’s $3.9 billion more than radio. The internet is now the third largest ad-supported medium, behind television and print. But radio is fighting back, targeting online ad growth. The RAB says off-air dollars accounted for 9% of last year’s radio revenue.
"President Obama should get Congress to shut down the FCC and similar vestigial regulators, which put stability and special interests above the public good. In their place, Congress should create something we could call the Innovation Environment Protection Agency (iEPA), charged with a simple founding mission: "minimal intervention to maximize innovation." The iEPA's core purpose would be to protect innovation from its two historical enemies -- excessive government favors, and excessive private monopoly power."
Lessig blames the "Disneys and Pfizers of the world" for turning government-managed rights originally designed to stimulate innovation into special interest mandated monopolies that only serve to feed a gluttonous bloat of "exclusive rights" handed out by the government to a select few.
"America's economic future depends upon restarting an engine of innovation and technological growth. A first step is to remove the government from the mix as much as possible. We need to kill a philosophy of regulation born with the 20th century, if we're to make possible a world of innovation in the 21st."
Lessig's proposal for an iEPA organization is an interesting one. What do YOU think?
I've been seeing a lot of coverage about Newspapers getting into streaming audio lately. I guess if you're a Newspaper, even Radio looks like a better option...
Reach & Phrequency: Will Music Sooth The Savage Newspaper Marketplace? Hoping to capitalize on their familiarity with the local cultural scene, the Philadelphia Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer are launching a site devoted to local music-- phrequency.com, which will offer music downloads and video along with reviews, event listings, and user comments. According to Philadelphia Media Holdings, which owns both papers, the Web site will exist independently of Philly.com, the papers' main Web portal...
It streams EVERY station on the planet, or so it seems. I'm talking about every station I've ever listened to. It has stations I've picked up while listening at night as a kid. It picks up the stations I listened to commuting in New York and New Jersey and in Pittsburgh. It even has the station I used to listen to to find out whether or not my school would be closed due to snow.
In the age of Pandora and last.fm and iTunes, terrestrial radio has taken a back seat. But for me, as someone who has always enjoyed the thrill of the hunt - picking up a distant AM station at night -- this brings me back to my childhood. And it brings me to places I can't be -- like to my favorite afternoon drive DJ in Pittsburgh.
I almost forgot ... the stations that use RDS (Radio Data) will show what's playing and who's on the air when you search for the station.
It's time to celebrate if you're rooting for further commoditization of traditional Radio and the Internet. TargetSpot (arguably one of the most impressive automated Radio/Web sales tools on the market) just got bigger.
TargetSpot buys rival Ronning Lipset Radio and results in forming the largest online radio ad network. TargetSpot brings together CBS Radio, Entercom, AOL Radio, Yahoo, and more than 1,000 other online stations comprised of more than 50 radio groups and web properties. The TargetSpot CEO (Doug Perlson) says combing the sales and technology structures positions them for the "strongest monetization possible."
He says "monetization" -- I say "commoditization." Toe-MAY-tow. Toe-MAH-tow.
What would you call an online system that requires no actual understanding or comprehension of marketing or radio advertising or web strategy in order for you to be able to produce and place advertising spots and web banners? Just because you can get a great price on a set of scalpels at The Dollar Store doesn't make you a brain surgeon.
TargetSpot (and other systems like it) allow the amatuers to pose as professionals. It puts Buyers in charge of strategy and execution. I don't care how good a negotiator might be, I don't want them writing my radio spots or designing my display ads.
Point. Click. Crap. You think terrestrial Radio sounds like shit NOW? It's not going to get any better when ALL the spots sounds the way a posting on eBay reads. This is the level of "expertise" that will be needed to plan and execute media advertising.
No one WANTS to talk to a Radio salesperson, but the truth is that the GOOD ones know what they're doing. They've been educated in advertising strategy and marketing techniques that are proven to work in their chosen media. I don't like doctors, but you can be damn sure that if I need an operation I rather have to deal with some complete DICK who happens to be the best at what he does than perform the surgery myself.
Eric Ronning and Andy Lipset of RLR will become co-presidents of TargetSpot, which also absorbs the entire RLR sales team. Lipset says their firm and TargetSpot have been "complimentary leaders and innovators" in the online ad space, and believes they're now poised for "explosive growth."
Half as many salespeople but higher commissions. It's one option under study at Citadel, where CEO Farid Suleman believes as much as half of revenues would come in anyway, with or without a salesperson. So they're studying ways to possibly reduce the number of AEs and pay those who remain higher commissions. Faced with little growth in radio dollars, Suleman says everything needs to be on the table.
With a lot of radio schedules being purchased by agency buyers who negotiate all effective creativity and results-based marketing ideas out of their purely transactional media buys -- why bother with the human element? Let these technical buyers log in to a website where they can view market ad rates on a stock-report-style electronic tickertape and make their media purchases via an automated system at whatever cost per point they'd like to request.
This would then allow media salespeople to focus on their most profitable results-driven business and everyone should be happy... with the possible exception of the media buyers, since this would allow the salespeople to stop wasting time trying to drop rates to please them and actually go out and sell a profitable marketing plan to direct clients -- which means those low ticker tape spot rates will rarely ever clear.
Gaaawd -- they make it so easy for me to make fun of them...
Radio goes on offense The industry's rallying cry becomes "Radio Heard Here" as the NAB, RAB and the HD Digital Radio Alliance unveil a multidimensional campaign. The effort comes as the industry is facing a number of challenges, but NAB chief David Rehr believes adversity creates opportunity. He tells Inside Radio "It forces people to do something." The multiplatform, multimillion dollar campaign for "Radio Heard Here" will include more than $200 million in donated airtime on stations starting this Spring. Other components will begin sooner, such as $2 million worth of outdoor and online advertising. A viral campaign will also target younger demos, featuring video shorts posted on sites like YouTube and MySpace.
This directly speaks to my theory of positioning terrestrial broadcasters as "Websites with Radio Stations" instead of "Radio Stations with Websites." $200 million in FREE radio ads combined with who knows how much ad spending on YouTube, MySpace, and assorted other websites and outdoor billboards.
"Radio Heard Here" -- Yeah. We believe Radio works SO well that we stand behind our product as the vehicle to broadcast this message. ...Sort of...
Sammy Hagar launches Cabo Wabo Radio. Hagar, along with radio veterans Woody Nelson and Shadoe Stevens, begin webcasting their online station New Year's Eve from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Cabo Wabo Radio will feature "high energy" and classic rock. Hagar's calling it "Rock Radio the Way God Intended It." Who knew God was such a big fan of streaming audio?
No word yet on if they'll have to pay themselves the additional performance royalty charges currently being pushed upon other webcasters.
Rapper JA RULE is webcasting his own internet radio station from his home in New York. The Always On Time hitmaker, real name Jeffrey Atkins, fronts the ambitious new venture and hosts a weekly hip-hop show every Friday from 10-2.
"I got an Internet radio station, 187FM.com. It's a vehicle for new artists to get on and get their music heard worldwide. Internet radio is good because it doesn't pigeonhole you to just your region. You can be heard everywhere."
The hip-hop star launched the network in March (07) and he's delighted with his first months as a radio mogul. He says, "It's the best because we're not censored, and you can log in from anywhere and hear my station. "As technology is going forward... if you go on the iPhone, you can go to a website that has audio... It's becoming easier. "It's even easier than satellite radio because we're not making you pay for it."
"I think internet radio scares them all."
ZombieRadio says: What if EVERY artist has their own radio station? What if they released their hot new single via their own webcast rather than fighting for airtime on local stations across the country? You could hear the song and buy with a single click.
If you follow Ja Rule's line of thinking, their stations could even help with the breakthrough of new artists.
I agree with Ja Rule -- internet radio should be scary as hell to traditional broadcasters.
The U.S. Labor Department says radio will be among the slowest-growing industries in the coming decade. Government economists say consolidation and technology breakthroughs will lead to 5% fewer radio announcers by 2015.
Among the "negatives" for radio work? Shift work and low pay, with the median salary for a radio employee about $11 an hour.
Another example of why the future success of artists, authors, musicians (and all other creatives) no longer lies in the hands of major art galleries, gigantic publishing houses, or big record labels...
Just put these two prehistoric prats in a cage and let them duke it out, will ya? Here are the latest whinings...
Headline #1: Study says radio airplay actually drives down record sales. University of Texas at Dallas Professor Stan Liebowitz says radio airplay can hurt music sales by as much as 20%. He finds the more time listeners spend tuned into the dial - the less likely they are to buy pre-recorded music. Liebowitz's study comes at a time when record labels have started pushing to nix radios' royalties' exemptions.
ZOMBIE RADIO SAYS: If the reporter had bothered to ask a Radio PD they would have said their RATINGS have been suffering because of the CRAP the Labels have been pushing to play on the air. They beg for additional spins but cry when the audience is so sick of their tune that they don't want to own it? DUH. ZR also feels that even if Radio didn't play their music -- no one would want to own it anyway. With the exception of 2 or 3 artists -- show me any talent being promoted by a major label that the public can get excited about.
Headline #2: Here's why the record industry is after radio's wallet. Their sales drop yet again. According to Nielsen SoundScan album sales dropped 15% in the first half this year. In short - the record industry has definitely seen better days. The good news for labels is that the sale of digital tracks increased 49% compared to last year.
ZOMBIE RADIO SAYS: So, is this profit drop being blamed on Radio too? That's right -- it's Radio's fault you and your product sucks. Bitch about the 15% drop in album sales and completely ignore the fact your sale of downloads INCREASED 49%!!!
Boo-Hoo-Hoo... I can't dig for coal anymore because all these gold nuggets are getting in my way.
Philly's new "Skin Radio" sees a future for music on AM radio.
Tom Kelly (Marconi Broadcasting) told Inside Radio "in the research, we found that listeners in their 20s don't have a negative attitude about AM radio" -- not the way some baby boomers do.
Kelly (who just paid $5 million for 1340 WHAT) likes the future for music on digital AM. And ZombieRadio thinks he's right. With digital broadcast of AM stations on HD Radio (one of the few real benefits of HD Radio at all) and the sure-to-kill-HD WiFi Radios combined with city-wide Wi-Max signals, matching digital streams with a terrestrial AM radio has most-likely never been more lucrative.
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dedicated to pointing out the mindless and brain-dead actions of the
mainstream media industry in general.
Don't
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all know from seeing zombie movies that the contagion spreads quickly.
