"How Radio Is Becoming RadiADo"

The brilliant Al Ries, author of the marketing classic "22 Immutable Laws of Marketing", validates in this Ad Age article my main beef with terrestrial radio that I mentioned in my post here.

The End of Web Radio As We Know It?

This story is so big that even the mainstream media sources are talking about it, but I will link to the first source in which I saw this story online, this Business week article.

The technical issue here is payment on a per listener/per song basis versus the traditional percent of revenue basis. Since web radio generates hardly any revenue to start with, there's no way they can withstand hefty fee increase the Copyright Royalty Board is demanding through their mandating the former, to take effect within the next two months.

The real issue, as I see it, is the music industry regaining some measure of control over their product, even if it's only symbolic. They're mightily pissed at the MP3/piracy phenomenon, which has reduced their sales at the local Tower Records (that is, if it's still open) and through Amazon.com. Heck, the unchecked growth of the MP3 single-handed even killed off a burgeoning online sales channel characterized by once-known entities CDNow and CDUniverse, which can now be only found strewn among ancient Mayan ruins somewhere in Mexico, I think. (Actually, I see a site called CDUniverse is actually still selling CDs online. Do you buy your CDs there? No? See what I mean?)

So, killing off several thousands basement web radio stations that weren't generating any money for them anyway is a cheap way to make a point to music distributors everywhere: don't eff-you-see-kay with the RIAA.

I doubt anyone is quaking in their boots as a result.

XM = More AM and FM? Siriusly?

This Adweek article provides for terrestrial broadcasts -- those with antennas here on earth -- hope for the future as satellite radio gains more of a foothold in listening share: those who listen to satellite radio actually spend more time listening to AM/FM and Internet radio than non-satellite customers. In fact, the claim is that these people listen to more AM/FM (14 hours) than satellite (10 hours and 45 minutes), with Internet not far behind (8 hours and 15 minutes).

Huh? Really? I happen to have both Sirius and XM in the car (both units were free to me, and I don't mind paying the $25/month), and i gotta tell ya: I rarely switch the unit over to AM or FM. If I had to put a frequency on it, I'd say I listen to satellite radio 100% of my car rides, AM maybe 5% of car rides, and FM less than that. As a listener, I have no interest in terrestrial because it seems that every time I flip it to either band, there's a commercial on. Plus, the sound of music on Sirius is so good, and the connection so stable, that there's no quality advantage to FM at all. (My XM XT Roady unit sucks for music -- I only listen to comedy, baseball games and old-time radio on it.)

Honestly, I would like to meet one of those people with satellite radio who listen more to AM/FM instead. I won't to know what the thought process is there. Seriously -- I can't imagine.