Will Online Radio save the Industry?

[RadioProducer]

Every week, we hear of a certain print publication closing shop, planning to shut down or simply going on sale (Newsweek) and this has made me think

of how the internet and new media in general sucked soo much blood out traditional media, such as tv, radio and print. It's no secret that major national broadcasters don't have the numbers like before, and if the cable trend is anything to go by, the market will become even more fickle.

All these facts made me think about the radio industry in general.

In your opinion, what is the outlook of the future? Do you think oNLINE radio is our only survival gear?

[saint]

Multi-national corporations have turned the broadcasting stations into junk. The same playlists and genre can be heard in multiple locations. There is no variety or personality in terrestrial broadcasting any more.

 

Fast forward to Internet broadcasting. You can listen to any genre imaginable - from the very professional broadcaster to the DJ who spins his own stuff.

 

You find a greater variety of content on the Internet, without the greedy fingers of corporate directors screwing things up. The biggest obstacle to overcome is the ludicrous stance that the "music licensing" cartels are enforcing.

 

A Internet broadcasting station CAN be made profitable, but that is a long term effort. Quick fix solutions tend to blow up in your face.

[GKIye]

a small story :

Years ago (during the late 80s) ... a guy who was a friend of Me during that time told Me : radio has to get known into the future as "wallpaper radio"

aka music and only music and a host is the least important into that general concept.

However I always disagreed with his point of view ... for reason of my start into radio way back in 1978 and for reason that I still have interests in media and radio ... I do believe that I together with other radio fanatics are the examples that the medium gonna live for ever ...

As Saint quoted, its a fact that major broadcast compagnies are landscaping radio to their needs - with formats to their audience (thats also happening to TV media)

Conclusion can be that local FM and internet only projects can keep the "real spirit" alive, for reason that basicly both are small projects and independent, they don't have huge budgets (IF they have so !)

The problem to those internet only projects is that they have a smaller range of listeners, who makes it look to the "outside" world as less important ... However I do believe that even small broadcasters can give and receive respect for what they are doing ... say and read : making radio as it should be

 

ps : the guy who told Me about the wallpaper radio achieved to make his own National radio network, however after 5 years it was all closed and finished ... the project itself went bankrupt !

[RadioProducer]

Saint,

thank you for your perspective.

Here's another p.o to look from....does internet loose the ''close feel'' terrestial fm have? As in, once many stations go online, they tend to cater for ''everybody'' and no one in particular, making it hard for any advertiser to bet their money on it.

[johny c]

I dont see terrestial radio closing right down. Maybe more of the big operations will find it hard and you will see it going back to more smaller stations. Here in New Zealand there are LPFM stations starting up all the time and in some parts of the country there is no room for anymore. There will always people who will want to hear their music on the good ol wireless.

[saint]

Terrestrial stations will always have a place in broadcasting, however more and more people are going online to get their media fix. Another point, any person, group or business can easily set up a online Internet broadcast outlet - not so with terrestrial broadcasting. Regular broadcasting requires licenses, transmitters - radio engineers - antennas - etc.

 

You can get any kind of genre imaginable online, and attract very defined audiences. From Gregorian chants to Bhuddist monk bells and all types of music in-between. You can't exactly get that on terrestrial radio - or even satellite radio like XM / Sirius.

 

When I am at home, I only listen to net radio - and It's content that I never could listen to locally - without running out and buying a few hundred dollars worth of music.

[voodoohippie]

Internet Radio is going to go BIG but here is the BIG BUT don't expect to get rich quick. Its a good hobby and you may make $350/mo (Maybe) and if you in it for the cash cow you should not quit your day job.

 

With this said yes Internet Radio will be available in cars heck its already available in cars with a wireless FM transmitter like the Belkin you can transmit your Blackberry/iPhone/Droid to your car stereo making it sound great and giving you a way to listen to Internet Radio anywhere.

 

Hobbyists get on while its hot.

[saint]

Internet radio sales / advertising is a combination of several elements, and that is the key that most people fail to take advantage of.

 

* IF * you take the time and maximize all the elements that are available, you can make money and more than 350.00 a month. HOWEVER - It does take time, it does take a substantial audience and it does take planning.

[James]

* IF * you take the time and maximize all the elements that are available, you can make money and more than 350.00 a month. HOWEVER - It does take time, it does take a substantial audience and it does take planning.

 

Im guessing your talking about someone who wants to start an online station with all the benefits (plus doing it legally with licensing)? Initial startup costs can be a pain in the rear if you want to start off properly.

 

But with online radio it is quite flexable, you can start off small with no licensing, then if you build up your audience and start bringing in some revenue you can start getting noticed in some high places around the web. Its fantastic.

 

/James' Rant

[wildun]

If you keep up with such things you'll find that terrestrial radio simulcasts are not doing as well online as 100% internet radio stations. Why? People can get all those commercials on am and fm, the public doesn't want that. They don't mind a commercial say every 15 minutes, but every song is too much. That's what terrestrial does. Hang in there! As stated above you need to use all the options the internet provides, don't count on just the stream.

[EricVdM]

GK, in a way your friend is right if he means wallpaper radio as background radio, I see it this way internet radio is good on the background when your serfing the net BUT there also has to be information.

I work this way: most of the day I have only music with every 3 hours information for about 1 minute and also have 4 reruns of my 2 hour show on our locale radio station (on FM). When people have they're radio (or PC) on most of the time they listen to the music and don't listen to what the DJ is talking about. That's my idee of a internet radio.

It's good we all have differend vision of radio otherwise it would be boring

[brandon_g]

One day at a clothing store they had only one radio station on over the intercom. And that station played the same songs every 5 minutes. So annoying' THE END

that's why internet radio is better

[GKIye]

Did you ever heard about a Christmas project who's broadcasting during the Holiday Season and who plays 24/7 the same song "Rudolph the red nosed ...."

Its a traditional who has been made since a century in all different formats and genres ...

Well that station plays those genres of the same song all over again 24/7

During the Holiday Season it can be found at the Shoutcast directory

[EricVdM]

Did you ever heard about a Christmas project who's broadcasting during the Holiday Season and who plays 24/7 the same song "Rudolph the red nosed ...."

I think I would get a red nose myself when I would listen 24/7 to that song even in different genres :xmasthumb:

[SpazzRadio]

I think Terrestrial Radio will never go away, but I think it will go to smaller operations (mom and pop stations).

 

As Satellite radio (in the USA) and internet radio become more prevalent and easily accessible (even built in to cars and such), you will start to see advertisers start to seek out internet radio providers.

 

New and diverse advertising models will need to be developed for these advertisers to suit their market and audience requirements.

 

I think internet radio can have an even more intimate feel then local radio with things like chat rooms and such on the websites where listeners can communicate easily and somewhat anonymously with the dj's and other listeners.

 

The issues that will arise in the near future is when corporate radio gives up on terrestrial radio and turns its attention fully to internet radio. I only hope the internet listeners are more loyal then terrestrial listeners.

[brandon_g]

I think . and internet radio become more prevalent and easily accessible (even built in to cars and such), you will start to see advertisers start to seek out internet radio providers.

 

New and diverse advertising models will need to be developed for these advertisers to suit their market and audience requirements.

 

I think internet radio can have an even more intimate feel then local radio with things like chat rooms and such on the websites where listeners can communicate easily and somewhat anonymously with the dj's and other listeners.

 

I only hope the internet listeners are more loyal then terrestrial listeners.

 

I wonder how Cars are going get online radio setup With chatrooms and #2 I Also wonder Will we finally Get paid Ads For station and get get paid for it

[SpazzRadio]

I wonder how Cars are going get online radio setup With chatrooms

There are several high end cars out right now that have heads up displays on areas of the windshield. I am not saying that people are gonna use the chatrooms and interactivity of websites while driving, just saying they will have internet radio capabilities. Also don't forget there are normally passengers in the car who could interact.

 

and #2 I Also wonder Will we finally Get paid Ads For station and get get paid for it

Paid ads implies getting paid for them ... Paid ads that you do not get paid for are called charity:cool:

[m3gab0y]

Just before ~30+ years ago there were only landphones in someplaces. As for now there is GSM signal *almost* everywhere or in order words atleast 98% of the people in european countries are able to use the GSM service.

 

So as GSM gets better and better over time and GSM is basically a dual way data stream, I believe that we'll be able to listen to Internet radio on our phones as long as there's service. For example - I was able to do this with a smartphone in an area that I was the only one with usable coverage and somewhat manage to keep a 24 kbit/s stream running over GPRS in an area that GSM's are uncommon and where you can only listen to radio in AM and watch satelite TV with big dish

 

So on Topic - as the internet radio gets in the mobile phone by default or in the car using the phone (or, perhaps, something else?!) it will be much more commonly available and as FM radio has limited range and goes out in tunnels or rough areas, Internet radio can still go on strong even in tunnels etc.

 

So this basically makes advertisers go crazy and fight each other to reach more potentional buyers via the radio's listeners.

 

Another advance is that you can find out how many listeners are listening at each time and calculate *real* statistics for the advrtisers.

[GKIye]

@ MB

Nokia Internetradio provides these stats at your online account

it works out very well ...

[Neilad79]

The way that radio, certainly commercial radio is going over here in the UK with most stations airing networked shows, online radio is the only way for some of us to stay within the business. The online station that I work for at the moment seems to have quite a healthy following.

[wildun]

Given new methods of access, including internet radios in cars as an option, simulcasts are losing ground. Too many commercials and unless those are entertainig people don't want them. The whole industry needs to step back and look objectively. I think this will impact the radio industry as things progress.

[saint]

Dataman19

 

Just a quick technical note, IP radio is much different than unicast streaming radio.

Most Internet radio stations use unicast streaming - not IP streaming.

[antondegracia]

Quality is a big issue here. Online radio is limited to poor to moderate sound quality due to a lot of factors. Top on the list, streaming quality is stuck at low bitrates. Terrestrial radio on the other hand, gives superb quality plus equipments are readily available to make the radio experience more satisfying. I'd say terrestrial radio will stand its ground for a long time still but lose a portion of its popularity to the internet community.

[DJs Radio]

Everything in our lives is turning digital and we are all becoming a global village on the internet, so FM radio must be next. In the not to distant future the internet will be everywhere and that is when I think FM will die you will be able to travel the length and breadth of your country and listen to the same station playing the music you want to listen to.

 

The only down side is maybe we will all be listening to our own tunes streamed from our own PC at home via a free stream service.

 

Nik

[melodyone_streetteam]

I think FM will never completely die off, but with playlist becoming incredibly repeptitive for weeks and months at a time on commercial stations, people will start to crave variety. With the arrival of smartphones and other devices (ipods, tablets etc) with 3g connectivity, its now a lot easier for people to access online stations that you once had to be behind a computer to listen to. I have yet to see a car with internet connectivity (probably too high end for my budget/social circle lol), but im sure within the next five years, the technology for DAB/internet (both broadcasting and recieving) will become cheaper allowing it to become a standard feautire

 

My knowledge of marketing and broadcasting is quite basic in comparisson to people posting on this thread, but i think the key to it is creating "a brand" which people can identify with. A lot of online radio stations, no matter how fancy/flashy the sites are, have very generic playlist broken up by constant adverts which ultimately wont keep people coming back.

 

sorry if ive just repeated whats been said on the thread, just throwing my 2 pennies in