Radio has taken its share of knocks over the past decade or so. The good news is that there’s more attention, time, and resources being devoted to audio at this point than at any other time in our modern history.
So it’s a positive that audio content and programming are a major focus by so many traditional and digital companies, in addition to start-ups. But the downside is that there are only so many hours in a day where people can entertain and inform themselves. And time spent with video and just being online has expanded, too.
That’s why the radio broadcasting industry should be gratified by the latest comScore/Millennial Media data that details how consumers are spending their online time – by device and by content silo. Note the two red circles, highlighting dominant smartphone usage: streaming radio and games.
You don’t have to look very hard at this chart to see how the marriage of the smartphone to streaming radio continues to gel, encouraging broadcasters to invest in their streams – their technical quality, content proposition, user experience, and digital sales and staff support. The smartphone is the gadget that has changed everything, but our streams are like valuable veins that make it possible for consumers to enjoy our content on their preferred devices.
More and more people are addicted to their smartphones, and streaming radio plays a major role in their ability to enjoy our content wherever they are and whenever they like. And as we learned in Techsurvey10, seven in ten consumers who own smartphones and/or tablets who download apps have accessed a radio centric app (or apps), illustrating just how fertile this space is for broadcasters. And as more of them become addicted to their phones,
And by the way, the #2 smartphone consumption category is games. And we’ve learned at jacAPPS over the year, branded games for radio is already emerging as a big thing that enhances the experience for the audience, as well as providing a revenue stream via sponsorship for clients and advertisers.
Lucky us.
We do have a dog in the hunt. If you’d like more info on apps that stream (and much, much more), apps that contain an alarm clock feature, as well as branded game apps, check in with Bob Kernen at JacAPPS – bob@jacapps.com.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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I’m not sure I reach the same conclusion as you do here. My guess is that the overwhelming majority of time spent on “streaming radio” is on pureplays like Pandora, not live streams of terrestrial radio. Given the ubiquity of radios, I don’t see how the smart phone access to terrestrial streams matters all that much. No, I’m not saying that stations shouldn’t stream, or that their streams should sound lousy. In fact, better processing and fixing the AFTRA disaster (that IMO makes terrestrial streams almost un-listenable) are things that radio should address immediately. But doing so probably won’t unleash a sea change of incremental listening.
I would love to see some research that would either prove or disprove my theory, but I can’t help but think that people mostly listen to radio with radios and because radios are pretty much everywhere, phone access or the lack of it doesn’t and couldn’t impact overall PURs. Would more people listen on phones if they could? Sure, but most of that would be substitution not addition IMO. The upside is that you’d be reaching people where they are (good) but you’d be doing it in a way that can’t really be monetized (bad). So you’d transform a returning asset into a non returning one, while devalueing your license by moving one listener at a time away from a profitable endeavor to one that can’t possibly make money for a number of reasons.
Try looking at it this way: If every terrestrial listener listened exactly as much as they do now, but did it all online, would that be good or bad for radio?
If radio has a dog in this hunt I believe its in building a better Pandora or Spotify. IIRC, the third biggest Pandora complaint in the latest Tech Survey is lack of localism. That presents a real opportunity for radio – a much bigger one than local streams.
Of course, all of this is linked to a more reasonable, scalable royalty structure, which I don’t see any real effort toward currently. Everyone in the audio music business has a dog in that hunt and without some changes eventually there will be no audio music business.
I’m not going to argue against the idea of building a better Pandora (or providing more customization), Bob. But to your main point, there are fewer radios “out there” than you think, especially among Gen Y and Z folks. And more and more, people at work don’t have radios in their cubicles, but have a computer at their desks. There’s a lot more “terrestrial streaming” going on than people think.
Now it’s easy to discredit because they are (essentially) radio-type people in Techsurve y 10, but by far, their top streaming choice (every year) is “the station that sent me the survey.” And it will grow every year (whether radio wants it to or not).
The main thought you bring up – that’s it’s mostly pure-plays that we’re looking at on the chart – absolutely crossed my mind. But I know that there’s a lot of streaming of radio stations here, not to mention apps like iHeart Radio and TuneIn. That’s why I believe that the smartphone revolution still portends great things for radio – if we embrace it.
Always great to hear from you, Bob.
I think there are two real questions that need answering:
1) Why do Gen X and Y not own radios like their older siblings and parents? I would suggest its because radio doesn’t offer much that interests them, not because they refuse to listen to any other device but their phone. If radio wants to appeal to Gens Y and Z it will have to rethink its 25-54 focus.
2) Is it good for radio to convert terrestrial listeners to streams of ANY KIND? I would suggest that the financials say no.
The answers are to devote some full signals to programming that Gen X and Y might like and to get the AFTRA and royalty situations fixed so that streaming of any kind of music can be done profitably. Otherwise music streaming is a slow walk down the plank.
Here’s how I would respond, Bob:
1) Gens Y and Z are the first generations you can say are native to the Internet. They’ve grown up with multi-options and radio has simply been another choice. You can argue that broadcast stations haven’t appealed sufficiently to young people – and given 25-54 emphasis for programming – you’d have a pretty good case. But that said, they have simply had so many more choices than their older siblings and their parents. Thus, a computer (and eventually a smartphone) were more important than radio.
2) I don’t think radio has much of a choice about whether consumers enjoy their content on regular radio or streams. People are going to find content wherever they like. And while certain models are more profitable or prohibitive, radio cannot dictate or control where and when consumers listen.
Thanks for continuing this conversation.