Om Malik responds to my earlier post (aka fisking) of his B2.0 article.

First, thanks Om for engaging in the conversation. This is what this blogging stuff is all about. I can understand the perception of online radio not having taken off from the comScore/Arbitron report you cited. It is a misleading for the following reasons:

1. It measures only the top 4 internet-only networks that have paid big $ for the privilege of being measured. It does NOT measure the entire Shoutcast community, the streaming activities of terrestrial stations (AM, FM, Public, Commercial, College), international webcasters, and basically the other players in the landscape.

2. It’s a weekly number. The Arbitron/Edison Media Research report I’d cited earlier was for a monthly number of the entire streaming universe (not just the top 4 entities).

3. It’s a US-only panel. For various reasons, they are not using server logs to calculate cume & other measures. I’m not a huge fan of panel-based approaches on the internet because it favors larger players over smaller ones (since there are so many consumer options many of which will probably not register signficantly on a panel). On a side note, this is the niche companies like I/PRO are going after because advertisers are wanting more info about sites that are down the tail so to speak.

At any rate, the nub of Om’s argument is that the consumer, not God, is empowered to create their own playlist. I don’t disagree though I think there will be room for all flavors. To try to separate the semantics from the substance, consider a 3×2 matrix where distribution mode is on one axis and consumption mode on the other and a rough categorization of the players in each bucket:

_____________________Streamed_______________Downloaded
Complete Control: Rhapsody/Napster________________RhapsodytoGo/NapstertoGo
Some Influence: LaunchCast_______________Skip Button on iPod
No Influence: Radio@AOL, FM Radio_______________Podcast Shows (e.g. Coverville)

(Apologies for the poor formatting. This WYSIWYG editor isn’t as WYSIWIG as I thought and it’s Friday evening).

I think Om’s beef is with the third row where the consumer has no influence on the programming. I don’t think this consumption mode will completely go away per se. Rather, I think it’ll be like TV. A large number of people will prefer having stuff programmed at them, and they’ll appreciate human voices and personalities behind the music. Picking songs for one’s own playlist is way too much work for most people. However, like TV, the “radio station” will become atomized into discrete shows that people can roll into their own radio station, just like they do TV with PVRs today. How about some Morning Edition followed by Howard Stern mixed in with Coverville mixed in with playlists I’ve created (using say Live365, my former company and one I continue to advise in the spirit of disclosure), and playlists of my friends or celebrities.

To use Om’s metahpor: I think there will always be a need for God to play DJ because, often times, God will introduce me to music I might like. I just need to choose a God (or Gods) in whose taste I trust!

Infinity announced KYOURadio.com today.  People can submit archived shows (which are now being called Podcasts by the press) with the best, most interesting ones being broadcast on AM 1550 (in the Bay Area) and streamed online from their website.  Infinity will insert ads in between the shows although the content producers won’t yet be able to participate (rather they’ll be doing it for fun or to promote their show).  On the other hand, it’s not an exclusive deal for the content producers and all of the licensing will be taken care of by Infinity.  As the article mentions, Infinity acknowledges that they’re not taking a huge risk since the station had not been doing well financially anyway.  Still, it’s a good, bold move that terrestrials like Infinity need to make to catch up.  It’s as if the New York Times devoted a page in their paper or website to articles submitted by their community (hint, hint).

They’re outsourcing (or is it open-sourcing?) their programming to the masses (not unlike some other folks out there), which is a good way for them to identify talent.  And they’re challenging the folks out there who think radio sucks basically saying: "We hear your complaints; we’re now going to give you a shot at it".   I hear they’ve already gotten numerous submissions today and I bet they’ll end up with some good shows, but I’m not sure that it’ll be enough to increase that station’s ratings – the esoteric and disparate nature of the shows may make it confusing to listeners (though having a program guide on their website would help).  What they’ll need is a system to rate the submissions once there are a lot of them or else their producers will spend all of their time wading through the chaff to find the wheat.  Internet-based rating systems like GarageBand.com’s could help on this front. 

It’s an interesting experiment and I’ll be all ears to hear how it goes.

Update: Rafat pointed to my this post, which Om responded on his gigaom.com. I continue the conversation here.

Infinity announced their intention to roll out visual radio, with help from HP and Nokia, sometime next year.  Basically it’s a service that will send contextual metadata to your visual radio-enabled Nokia handset while you’re tuning into a radio station through their FM tuner, such as artist/album and concert information.

This is a good move for Infinity.  The most incisive part of the article is the quote by the person from HP:

"We’re able to help them create a relationship with customers they’ve
never had before, and a revenue stream they’ve never had before."

She’s right.  Infinity, and other terrestrials, are realizing the need to cement the listener relationships they’ve spent tens of years and many millions of dollars in establishing.  They can see that the government-created oligopoly of FCC licenses can’t be counted on forever in terms of limiting choice in a given market.  New technologies such as satellite radio, itself a government-created duopoly, are enabling some consumers to throw off the yoke of the analog radio dial for the greener pastures of the satellite radio dial in the car, and internet radio at work. 

Enhancing relationships and relevance with their listeners, and using new technology to do so, becomes of paramount importance.  For instance, a station could record an in-studio performance underwritten by an advertiser and offerred to registered listeners only (P1s in radiospeak) from its website.  Advertisers would reach the P1s they crave; loyal listeners would be rewarded, and it would encourage new ones to register with the station and start the relationship dialogue.

One a side note, if you’re listening to the radio today and don’t know the name of the song that’s playing, dial 866-411-SONG on your cell phone and hold it up to the speaker for 15 seconds.  Soon thereafter, you’ll get a text message with the name of the song and artist provided by Musikube (using Shazam’s technology).  There is currently a charge of $0.99 per Song ID for the 411-SONG service, which will show up on your cell phone bill.

[Full Disclosure:  I am currently helping Musikube out on a project.]