The Devaluation of the "Tease"

The “setup” or the “tease” has always been one of the pillars of programming be it in radio or a television news cast. In both mediums it has always been about keeping the audience as long as possible-mainly to get them past the commercial break, or into the next quarter hour. When radio and TV where the only immediate information providers around - that strategy worked fine. But with all the available media choices and channels today- the “tease” is continuing to lose some of its value and effectiveness. As PPM has shown us- in some cases it can actually do the opposite and act as a cue for the listener to bolt, because it’s a sign that “Uhh ohh..Here comes another 5 minutes of commercials…I’m outta here!”
We now live in a “want it now” world where we just don’t have to wait around anymore for information that we want right away. The ability to get local news, weather, sports scores, and financial information pushed to your phone means you don’t have to sit through a half hour TV news cast to pick up bits and pieces of your local weather forecast before they actually deliver the complete forecast towards the end of the newscast. It also means that you don’t have to wait for the local forecast on your favorite radio station to be delivered at the top or bottom of the hour either. The “tease” hasn’t totally lost its luster as it still works in a less urgent setting-such as teasing a new artist coming up in the next music sweep, or a great winner reaction. But as far as breaking news and information goes-why wait to get it pushed to you when you can Google it?

More Competition for Your Radio

When it comes down to all the available choices in terms of media for the average consumer, radio has always had three trump cards. One it is a local medium, two it’s free and three it’s portable. The “local” argument is debatable as more and more stations are being forced to slash their operating budgets, lay off staff and pipe in voice-tracking from outside markets, that in a lot of cases meets the bare minimum requirements for “local” content. “Portable” and “free” have always seemed like the biggest advantages, but in the near future “free” will more than likely be the only trump card left. Cadillac for example has just rolled out an in-car wireless Internet option in its CTS sport sedan. It will cost five hundred dollars for the radio and twenty nine dollars a month for the wi-fi service. You can bet that it will only be a matter of time that the cost will come down dramatically as more competition emerges in the in-car internet industry. This should make broadcasters more than just a little nervous as now the possibility of streaming any station in the world from you car radio is only a few sleeps away.

New iPod Shuffle-Death of the Live DJ?

In case you missed it, Apple just released the new iPod shuffle. The new shuffle appears to be leaps and bounds better than the original –which was basically a fancy memory stick with a 99 dollar price tag. The new shuffle has a lot more going for it- including the ability to tell you the name and title of each song played, in fourteen different languages. Over the past few days I have read a few blogs and emails from friends and associates who are saying that this marks the end of the live DJ as we know it. Their point of view is based on the thinking that iTunes and the iPod are direct competitors of radio, and since the iPod now can do what radio doesn’t seem to want to do, and that is give out song title and artist information, the writing is on the wall. Interesting argument, but as I see it not the case. First off 99.9 per cent of people who load songs onto their iPod load them up with their favorite songs and already know the name of the song and who the artist is. They don’t need their iPod to tell them that what song was just played – when they put it there themselves in the first place. Now of course let's say someone stole mine - then it would become a whole different story, as they might not be familiar with my seventy six different tracks from Jason and the Scorchers. So…while this new app on the shuffle is cute- it does not mark the beginning of the end of the live DJ as we know it. That already happened a long time ago.

The Rise of Social Media

Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, vBulletin, Avatars United, Bebo, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut, Skyrock, and Netlog are just a few examples of social media software apps available to anyone. These days, if you are not participating in some form of social media- you are actually in the minority. Nielsen just released a study that suggests a mind boggling two thirds of the world’s Internet users visited a social networking site of some kind last year, and the numbers are growing at lightning speed with the fastest growth coming from 35-49 year-olds. Facebook is the number one social networking site- and according to Nielsen social media itself accounts for 10 percent of all Internet activity and it has now taken over email as the most popular Internet activity. These numbers say a lot about the challenges facing traditional media. It is certain that we are moving towards a model where it will be more about coming up with creating and interesting content- and less about the buy itself. The more interesting the message and content is, the more people will want to watch it, listen to it and share it. Rather than fear the “New World Social Media Order”, traditional push media like Television and Radio need to find away to embrace it and use it to communicate on a deeper level with their audiences and advertisers.

Seth Godin was a brave and timely choice for keynote speaker at this years Country Radio Seminar in Nashville. His observations on the current state of the music and radio industry had many industry folks squirming in their seats. In Godin's book "Tribes"- he points out how and why the recording industry failed itself- and why it is in the situation it is today. Radio can't be too smug either as we have done a great job of chasing the same audience the past 3 decades with the same bag of tricks. Needless to say it is going to take more than a keynote speech from Seth for the radio industry to get its house in order- but I do hope that his observations about our industry get us past the navel staring and get us moving towards steps that will begin to address the problems. These actions will require a dramatic change to the current model we operate under along with a willingness to pursue and commit to the innovative thinking needed to change the current course we are on.

The Blu-Spec CD?

On this date in 1983 Sony and Phillips first introduced their jointly developed compact dis system. I remember having an argument with a friend of mine in the early 80’s over the CD vs. the Album –of which I had invested quite a bit of my hard earned cash at the time. My friend said the album was dead, the CD would be the permanent replacement, and I had better get used to reading my liners notes with a magnifying glass. My friend Bert was right….sort of. The CD replaced the album- but twenty six years later –it in turn is being replaced by the digital download. Digital track sales were up 27 per cent from last year, breaking the one billion mark for the first time. The Nielson Company’s year end report shows physical CD sales fell 20 per cent to 362.6 million from 450.5 million, while digital album sales rose 32 per cent to a record 65.8 million units. Unfortunately for the labels the increasing amount of digital downloads is still not making up for the drop in CD sales which is a big problem seeing that their business model has always been based on total album sales. That being said however, with the move away from optical media in general, a lot of people where taken by surprise by Sony’s recent announcement of a new CD format-called the Blu-Spec CD. Think Blu-ray for audio. Is this an attempt to bring back the CD to its former glory? The answer to that one has to be no, however there will be a number of back catalogue titles in the new format available through Amazon. I would consider this more like an opportunity for fans of the CD to have the chance to enjoy an “enhanced aural” experience on their favorite form of media-the CD, just like their vinyl loving cousins are able to do with select new and reissued titles on their hi-fi, high dollar turntables. And if that’s not enough apparently the new Blue Spec-CD is way more robust and impervious to scratches like their predecessors where. When you are not listening to them, you can actually use them as coasters at parties….