The AudioFile: Radioactive Music Discovery
- July 13th, 2007
- 5 Comments
Satellite radio is in the toilet, and the government and the recording industry are trying to squeeze Internet radio for more dough — unsuccessfully for now, according to today’s news. Meanwhile, social networking sites like Imeem and Last.fm (and MySpace, of course) are continuing to blow everyone away in the digital music scene, thanks in no small part to their focus on community as well as music discovery.
It’s crystal clear that the Internet holds the future of radio. But there’s no reason social networking sites, Web radio, and music subscription services shouldn’t all be part of the killer app for music discovery, but mobility is still a major limiting factor. Now that we’re in the iPhone era, the hardware exists for removing mobility as an obstacle.
Satellite radio companies XM and Sirius have a combined 14 million users, and their merger is still in regulatory limbo. Talk about a great idea that was essentially squashed by industry forces. But Web radio is looking to step in to fill the void, despite having a brush with the U.S. Copyright Royalty Commission, which is trying to make it more expensive to broadcast songs on the ‘Net. (Thankfully, SoundExchange has announced it will not enforce the rate hike that was scheduled to begin next week.)
The big news this week is that CBS-owned Last.fm just added Sony BMG’s entire catalog to its arsenal, giving its roughly 20 million users access to streaming music from all but one of the major labels. That’s pretty impressive, and it makes Last.fm the largest Internet radio service in the world.
Last.fm is a pretty hot service if you’ve never used it; the service’s unique recommendation system (called “scrobbling”) creates instant radio stations by keeping track of what you listen to most often — including tracks in your own music management software and even on your MP3 player. Privacy issues aside, it makes for a pretty mean music discovery platform, and you can opt out if you’re paraniod. The social networking features (inviting friends, making recommendations, and seeing what others are listening to) are what give it potential to deliver on what the Microsoft Zune promised in terms of sharing.
But something’s still missing: You can’t take any of that content with you when you head out for the day. (Last.fm does provide links to Amazon.com for tracks you’re listening to — but only so you can buy the physical CD!)
I asked Matt Graves from RealNetworks’ Rhapsody service if Rhapsody would ever get into social networking, since it really adds a lot of value to online music. While he couldn’t give me specifics, he did confirm that “we plan to get into the social networking side of online music. […] We’re going to be doing some things on this front with Rhapsody in the coming months — so stay tuned.”
With regards to the success of sites like Imeem and Last.fm, he contends that “social networking is just one aspect of it. In our mind you need to be able to combine solid curation, the wisdom of the crowd, and unlimited access to music. THAT is the killer app.” I think he’s right there, but I also believe it’s critical to take all that into today’s mobile world.
Companies like Microsoft, MusicGremlin, and SanDisk have experimented with various methods of getting music lovers to discover and share music using dedicated music players with wireless capabilities. But none of them really swung for the fences.
Devices like the iPhone are changing this landscape, giving users access to broadband wherever they are. (Yes, I know the iPhone uses the slow EDGE network, but it won’t always be that way.) If Apple partnered with Last.fm and integrated it into the iPhone — and with the iTunes store — it seems like everyone would benefit. Apple’s iPhone-centric parternship with YouTube gives me hope for something like this.
Connecting like-minded users via social networking, letting them listen to and rate virtually limitless content for free even when they’re on the go, recommending new music effectively, and giving them the opportunity to capture that music and take it with them… It may sound too good to be true, but it’s only a matter of time before it’s a reality.
(The illustration above was created by Leah Perrotta, a Brooklyn-based artist and all-around lovely gal. See more of her work here.)
David Parise (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Slacker is doing exactly this very soon..
http://www.slacker.com
“COMING SOON
Take your stations with you anywhere you go with the Slacker Portable Player. Your custom stations are automatically updated on the Slacker player, ensuring that your favorite music always plays when you want it to. The large 4″ screen displays album art, artist information and visualizations in vivid color, allowing you to get your Slacker online experience wherever you might be.”
Chuck (Who am I?)
1 year ago
“….It’s crystal clear that the Internet holds the future of radio. But there’s no reason social networking sites, Web radio, and music subscription services shouldn’t all be part of the killer app for music discovery, but mobility is still a major limiting factor. Now that we’re in the iPhone era, the hardware exists for removing mobility as an obstacle….”
Hmmm, not sure about this, not crystal clear… at least anytime in the near future. This kind of commentary is what you get from someone who is a tech user, but has not stop to think about how the systems work under the covers.
Old fashioned broadcast radio still has a lot of life in it, if for no other reason than it is fairly spectrum efficient.
A few kilohertz of bandwidth (20 kHz for AM and 200kHz for FM) can serve tens (or hundreds) of thousands of customers. Yes, broadcast radio is limited in content, but it’s spectrum efficient. Satellite radio is even more spectrum efficient, heck a few MHz of bandwidth serves a whole country with tons of channels
If you really want to bring the wireless phone system to it knees than just allow everyone with a phone to “tune-in” their favorite internet broadcaster on their phone. The wired internet can handle that type of traffic but I doubt the phone system can. A million people during morning drive might select several hundred or several thousand different internet stations to listen to, good luck shoving that through the phone system with anything approaching quality. And this is assuming that the system can use a single channel to transmit the same Internet broadcast to multiple vehicles, I don’t think the wireless phone system is setup that way, or is likely to be in the near future.
The only thing that allows Vcast or the iPhone to do this sort of thing now is that so few people are using the system for this.
Same goes for WiFi / WiMax types of systems. I’m not holding my breath waiting for this scenario to happen.
mike kobrin (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Right you are, Chuck. The internet is the *future* of radio. It’s not the now.
And to boot, Arbitron’s study indicates that Internet radio and satellite radio are not decreasing the amount people listen to over-the-air radio, at least in their 1855-person sampling.
Over-the-air radio will never die, just as CDs and vinyl haven’t gone away with the digital music revolution. But there will eventually be a turning point when the technology and infrastructure are there… and they will be soon.
Thanks for reading!
Marcus (Who am I?)
1 year ago
I love last.fm and it has introduced me to a lot of music, and I don’t like popular music that much. The recomendations rarely work that great for me since I listen to a variety of music and I am picky. I understand how last.fm can be confused when your listen to almost every kind of music. But sometimes it’s magic and sometimes its crap.
Ehh, digital music is terrible when you think about it. I like internet radio, but I would never spend money on virtual media. The quality of music MP3’s and AAC are significantly worse than CD’s. For the most part it is fine for the iPod. But anyone with a Playstation and a decent receiver can tell you how much better it sounds compared to the connected iPod. Probably the biggest problem I have with digital music is DRM (I think they have the right to protect the content, but not take it away), if I am going to spend the money I want ownership and something of value, that may appreciate, and will live longer then myself.
mike kobrin (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Hmm… the only musical medium that has ever appreciated is vinyl. And even that’s only when you’ve got a reasonably rare or collectible item.
DRM is going away in the download scene, but subscription fans are probably going to have to live with it for a while longer.
I agree with you on the sound quality issue, though… most downloaded MP3s (at 192Kbps or less) don’t sound too hot because of the encoders used. A lot of tracks from eMusic, for example, have skips or crackles in places because the CDs weren’t ripped carefully.
I’m still waiting for Apple to start selling Apple Lossless tracks! (MusicGiants already does WMA Lossless, but I’m on a Mac).