The whirlwind speed at which technology is moving puts incredible pressure on the innovative companies in the vanguard of this space. Not all of them are going to come out of this maelstrom intact. And that’s the point – even so-called venerable tech brands are being tested every day.
We’ve watched the demise of both MySpace and BlackBerry in our Techsurveys over the past nine years. Each was a juggernaut, dominating its category. Today, they’re also-rans with little hope for resurrection.
In the eReader space, you either got in early and innovated or you’ve been left behind. Barnes & Noble waited, and now their Nook is pretty much over and done. Amazon, meanwhile, had to move quickly with its Kindle Fire tablet line to keep up with the game-changing iPad. Some brands innovate and hack their way to success. Others are left by the wayside.
And that’s the big question now facing Pandora. While they’ve spent the last several years trying to innovate the ad experience (not very well) and convince Congress to give them a break on royalties (not successful at all), Apple swoops in with iTunes Radio, threatening to reinvent the customized music experience.
Rich Greenfield’s enthusiastic review for iTunes Radio begs a lot of questions about Pandora, from the user experience to the ads to the ability to seamlessly purchase the music you’re enjoying. His video review is below, and if you’re a Pandora user, you can easily understand why there’s a buzz wave coming for Apple’s product. And while Siri has been something of a mixed blessing for Apple in many ways, its integration in iTunes Radio appears to be intuitive, smart, and much improved.
>EMAIL RECIPIENTS: CLICK HERE TO WATCH ITUNES RADIO VIDEO<
If this isn’t a message for radio about the need to introduce new innovations into formats, morning shows, talk programs, events, and radio sales, I don’t know what is.
The call to take some risks and experiment has never been louder. In this new environment, you don’t get punished for trying as much as you do for standing pat. Yesterday, we spoke about innovation incentives for radio’s content creators. The old sales axiom – “If you don’t ask, you don’t get” – applies to Program Directors, too.
When you look at “what’s new” in radio, you have to look hard – and that’s something that the biggest companies need to address. Yes, there’s iHeartRadio, TuneIn Radio, Listener Driven Radio, Jelli, radio mobile apps, and a handful of other breakthroughs. But too often, radio is left in the weeds by newer, cutting edge brands that are working harder to innovate in the audio entertainment space.
Maybe it comes down to this – the radio industry needs to reinvent the job it does for consumers, for advertisers, and communities. The hard part in all this is that for decades, those jobs were the same. They didn’t change.
Radio entertained, it informed, it sold stuff, it generated store traffic. And then it repeated all these moves – and very successfully.
Today, consumers are looking for new tools in which to entertain themselves musically – sites that allow them to customize and personalize their music. News, information, and sports content are being generated by a myriad of networks and platforms. And advertisers are increasingly turning to search, mobile, and accountability in order to drill down to reach consumers in the market for their services.
That doesn’t mean that radio is over and done with as so many suggest. It’s just that radio’s “jobs to be done” orientation has changed. Stations can and should be providing different services to their various constituencies. But none of that will happen without a reassessment – an industry S.W.O.T. – to determine the new jobs that radio can do like no other medium.
Radio’s local, personal, one-to-one ability to touch consumers, advertisers, and cities and towns is the secret sauce that Apple, Pandora, Google, and Amazon can’t touch. As we continue to reinforce in this blog, radio’s connection to personalities and human, local entertainment continues to be the proprietary elements that these other services and brands lack. We have to embrace them. And occasionally throw the ball down the field.
Siri-ously.
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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What’s your take on PPM and having the jocks still make a personal connection on the air?
The notion that radio programming is a “leaky bucket” in a PPM world is a false one. Growing great radio brands often requires strong personality, so you have to develop and nurture talent. Having said that, the onus is on DJs (especially in dayparts) to connect and engage in bite-size concise ways. The shortening attention spans of listeners demands it. Think Twitter – how to be engaging and smart with a limited amount of running room.
Nikki, thanks for reading our blog.
I have two reactions to this article – first, I don’t see necessarily this as a game changer vs. Pandora. Yes, the voice integration is very nice, but I doubt it will be long before Pandora voice syncs with Android and iPhone too. You can open Pandora and Spotify with a voice command now, but that’s as far as they go goes.
Then there’s the algorithm that’s behind it. I don’t have an Apple device to test it with, but every other “radio” app I’ve tried has fallen way short of Pandora IMO. Maybe Apple also has the secret sauce – but a temporary lock on voice activation won’t be enough if the product doesn’t measure up. And of course, there’s the business model for streaming, which doesn’t appear to exist. Pandora has those annoying pop ups because they’re paying 60 cents on the dollar for royalties and can’t make a profit. Apple is paying MORE and they won’t be able to make a profit either – although they might decide to subsidize online radio as a loss leader to sell their products. Time will tell but I wouldn’t count Pandora out just yet, given what I’ve seen from Apple – nice though it is.
As for radio, the last thing I can think of that came close to equaling either Pandora or Apple’s new radio product was music testing and research in general. It changed so many assumptions and programming was seriously revamped as a result. Most other changes since have either been minor, or they made things worse in the name of operation efficiency.
Remember, Blackberry held on for awhile and then one day it was over. Windows phones are really good, but not enough better than iPhones or Androids to entice many to learn a new OS. There are lessons there for iTunes radio and terrestrial radio.
Pandora/iTunes Radio vs. Nash FM? Not even a contest.
Bob, thanks for the thought-provoking comments. Regarding the biz model, Apple may not have to make a profit on iTunes Radio – unlike Pandora’s dilemma – given their other pretty successful silos. And that may be their strategy here, not to mention supporting more iTunes sales.
Regarding the “sound” of these various channels, the algorithm is interesting. To my ears, there’s less discovery on Pandora in recent years. Did they tweak it, did all those new members alter it, or am I hearing things?
Thanks for taking the time.
Discovery on Pandora seems to be waning, but it depends on how you configure it. Building a station around a song will yield less discovery than a station designed around an artist. Also, our the discovery factor mirrors the popularity of the song. Use an obscure song and you’ll get plenty of discovery. Build a station around a classic rock staple and you’ll get less discovery. Also, Pandora is still apparently clueless about era and artist separation
Bob, you may be right – there are lots of ways to manage Pandora, and maybe I should work a little harder to squeeze out discovery. OR maybe my favorite rock or alternative station ought to be providing that discovery for me in a way that is curated, interesting, and compelling. Thanks for the follow-up.
Will this work with Windows Phones or Android devices? Will it continue to add to the bloat that causes iTunes on Windows PCs to be a less than stellar experience?
If not, it’s going to be relegated to niche status at best. Back when iPhones were THE mobile platform, this would have been an out of the ballpark game changer. But now, Android phones alone make up something like 75% of global smartphone shipments. To ignore that large of a chunk of your potential mobile audience is going to be to Apple’s detriment.
Google Play Music is cross platform. So is TuneIn, and even iHeartRadio and Radio.com. And of course Pandora is available just about everywhere, too. iTunes Radio will no doubt be locked down to iOS only and therefore will be mostly irrelevant except for the old timers who still think an iPhone is the bee’s knees. For the rest of us, it won’t even exist.
Tom, you make good points especially given Apple’s iOS-centric strategy. I’m not suggesting that Pandora is cooked but that innovative improvements on their model are all part of the evolution of this space. And Apple has come up with some nice touches here that will continue to put pressure on the incumbents. Thanks for taking the time to comment.