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Radio is becoming irrelevant. Once it was the major stronghold of music and record companies, the medium through which listeners were introduced to new music, and hence new products to sell, and hence new revenue for the company. Radio does continue to serve this purpose, but the territory is quickly being encroached upon.
The internet is the radio’s rival. It’s edging out the former king by logging music users likes and dislikes, and presenting people with a chance to use their own established favorites to find others new artists they mayn’t have seen before.
The relational process is more efficient for the user. It allows one to preset guidelines as the new music he will sample, rather than the radio’s more shotgun type approach.
Take for instance the interesting Music-map.com. It allows a person to input an artist, and then displays a grouping of artists that are generally liked by the same people, the nearer a result is to the central, searched artist, the greater the correlation. This allows someone to seek new entertainment in the same vein, and thus have a greater chance of finding something to fill their craving.
Is it time the radio died?
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Is it time radio died? Although it will probably make it’s musical comeback (right now movie theatres are experiencing the same slump) I must admit that overall, I listen to news and talk radio rather than music on the radio.
And I hardly ever go to the movies. I usually wait years till a movie is on TV. I don’t even bother watching them on cable. Up to $10.50 for a ticket, sitting next to someone that smells, a child spills a soda and it makes its way down to my pocketbook and I just spent more on snacks than the ticket, I have come to the conclusion that going to the movie theatre is not worth my trouble.
I must admit I only use the radio for news and talk radio. Especially NPR with Crazy College and the Car Guys.
Same with me. Music is too handy on a cd as I am travelling, and I can easily listen to what I want, not what some disk jockey is putting out there. But I must be honest that if the radio is on, I am usually listening to talk radio; Limbaugh and others. There is such a great group of intelligent commentators out there these days that AM radio has never been better.
This person leaves out the truly intelligent argument that radio serves more than the stated purpose. Much more. News and information for anyone and everyone (whether they have an internet connection or not). The affordability and availability of radio is still it’s strong suite.
Traffic updates on the radio, couldn’t live without ’em.
It would be interesting to see this sort of data for other mediums besides music… books, movies, restaurants, artwork… things like that. Of course, the means of collecting that data is non-existent for most other things, and that’s probably for the best. As nifty as this information can be to look at, its very existence means that someone is watching our music purchases VERY closely.
There are some real gems that are only available on the radio. Two of my favorites — A Prairie Home Companion, and This American Life.
Of course, the latter is available on Audible, and the former, I rip to mp3 to take with me on my commute, but these types of programs wouldn’t exist without radio. It’s more than just music.
Radio is not unlike a book !!! You get to paint the frames in your imagination as apose to having to accept the ones given to you by means of “TV” or going to the movies,
In the 80’s, I would never miss a Lary King show , I had painted my own radio studio in my head and as he talked to his guests, I would watch what I saw in my head, I rarely watch him now on tv , but maybe thats because his guests and topics are not as interesting as when he was on the RADIO,,,!!! Please forgive my english, I’m french,,,
music-map.com: cool idea, but interpretation is unclear (e.g., why do the artists names keep moving? does this symbolize anything, or just look cool?) and it looks like the artists segregate more by time period than by musical similarity. For instance, Neil Young isn’t even on the map when you ask for Pearl Jam and vice versa, despite high musical similarity, a whole bunch of songs in common (mostly Neil Young covers by Pearl Jam) and a couple of collaboration albums.
There is radio on the internet, ie. winamp. Cds are too much of a hassle if u ask me, ipods is the place to go if you really want to listen to material you like constantly.
I tend to disagree. I live in the U.K. (Great site by the way) and the Radio stations are top class. The national radio stations (Radio 1, Radio 2, etc.) are extremly well funded by the BBC and have been a major player in finding new talent in the U.K and therefore the world. Coldplay, Keane, to name but a few, both had their songs played on Radio 1 first and continue to do live sets and interviews exclusive to radio. On a long road journey or at work I always make sure the radio is on.
I can’t say how your radio stations are in the states but over here there very much alive and kicking.
RA-dio? Is that Ronnie James Dio’s older brother?
music-map is crap. how is britney spears related to metallica?
I don’t know about music-map, but http://pandora.com is good at providing similar music to bands/songs you tell it you like. It’s like a personalised radio station for your chosen genre, but without being able to choose particular songs.
I’m of the opinion that all the major media outlets need to start moving more into serving the individual needs and tastes of the customers, not just the blanket concept of “customers”. Pandora is good, but it needs training before it gets really interesting. I read an article about a similar product being developed in Europe, but the european version of RIAA ruled that being able to search by artist name was “too much interactivity” for their level of royalties. (you can listen to music online for free, but you can’t decide what)
Television this year has become a slaughterhouse for the new series, as many shows have been canceled between episode 3 and 7. How on earth can people find out about all the new shows and decide which of the competing ones they want to watch (without being shackled to the TV) in that limited time frame? I had a good deal of interest in Vanished this season, but it was on at a time that didn’t work for me, and 3 lbs got the axe almost immediately – that was a show that would have me watching on an extended basis. I will be mourning for many years shows like “Firefly”, “Cupid”, “Now and Again (the one with Dennis Haysbert and Eric Close), and “Strange Luck”. I was even a big fan of “The Book of Daniel”.
There must be another model than executive’s highly flawed perceptions for judging a series’ success level, and the Internet just may be that method.
The big point is that all these industries are complaining about slumping sales figures, yet they are clinging more than ever to a business model that is driving their customers away. Restricting what your customer base has to choose from and what they can do with the products just makes them look elsewhere for their entertainment needs. And the entertainment industry needs to learn that the business they are in is not selling disks, downloads, and seats in a theater – it is entertaining. And nothing entertains like resentment, does it?
I like to listen to the World Service. It’s repetitive, sure, but anything’s better than cantopop.
I tried listening to it online for a while when my radio broke. Yes, you can download programmes, listen to whatever show you want, pause live broadcasts, skip sports (yawn) etc.
but
first you have to fire up the puter, let her boot, connect to the internet (Taiwan earthquake?) get to the site, start the radio player, then wait 20 seconds for the biatch to start speaking. OK. But then I want to go into the other room, or take a shower, and the whole thing’s screwed. I bought another radio. Click, ssshhh, hello World Service.
The radio is good, simple technology that still works. the problem is finding content. Frequencies and programme guides.
I really think that radio’s not broken, and doesn’t need fixing.
I think that radio still has a place. If we only listen to artists that are similar to ones we already know, how can we broaden our interests? If nothing else, radio gives you exposure to stuff you might not listen to otherwise.
ah. so internet killed the radio star.
It’s basically the Netflix algorithm http://www.netflixprize.com
err, Netflix *problem*
Enter your reply text here. OK
Answer: see Neilsons / Holywood reporter for all the statistics & #’s
Answer: No, Radio is alive and well. Biggest places: Car / office. It’s a money maker.
Last. fm’s good.
http://www.last.fm/home
But sometimes the real radio’s good because they play things that aren’t related to your interests…then they become your new interests= more variety.
I’m thinking a damninteresting radio station would be good. DI FM.
Run with it Alan!