C'era una volta un luogo chiamato "scoperta". Questo luogo era la radio, la scoperta riguardava la musica. "I brani della nostra vita li scoprivamo ascoltando la radio," scrive Eric Suesz nel suo editoriale su Macworld. Oggi - prosegue Suesz - la radio USA, alias Clear Channel (tuttora proprietaria di un congruo numero di stazioni FM e AM), fa letteralmente schifo, trasmette sempre le solite canzoni, nei soliti tre o quattro format. Non che dalle nostre parti le cose vadano molto meglio.
Bisogna ammettere che quando scoprivamo le canzoni della nostra vita alla radio il mercato discografico forse era meno complesso e prolifico, ma il discorso di Macworld non è sbagliato. La radio dovrebbe... Riscoprire il suo ruolo di innovatrice di gusti prendendo esempio da iniziative Web come LastFM, Pandora e Slacker.
E se fosse Apple a guidare per mano la radio in questo percorso di riscoperta? Citando l'accordo con Ibiquity per il tagging dei brani musicali trasmessi via HD Radio (un "bollino" digitale che consentirebbe l'immediato acquisto su iTunes di un brano appena ascoltato), Suesz immagina un possibile ingreso di Cupertino nel mercato di una radiofonia "nuova" che stranamente assomiglierebbe molto alla vecchia.
Radio Apple
By Eric Suesz
What’s missing from the world of digital music? Discovery.
There used to be a place called radio that introduced you to new tracks for the soundtrack of your life. Remember that? Record companies hired talent. Distributors minted albums, tapes, CDs. Radio stations played them, you listened, and you walked away with a crib sheet of new artists to explore at your local record store.
But—and I can’t find a soul who doesn’t disagree—radio simply stinks. It has been sub-par and sub-standard for seemingly forever. The people who run FM radio stations (namely, Clear Channel) picked a business model about 20 years ago that was excruciatingly simple: Narrow the choices (formats) and insert as many commercial breaks as possible into a typical hour of programming. This strategy, to put it bluntly, worships at the altar of the focus group. How many commercials can you stand before you change the channel? It’s the opposite of innovation.
What if Apple cared about radio? Innovative sites like Last.fm, Pandora, and Slacker have amply demonstrated that people like to find new music via the “people-who-liked-this-also-liked-this” method. On these sites, you can create personalized, just-for-me radio stations that feed you stuff you already like while getting peppered with some new tracks every so often. Some of these sites are ad-supported, some allow you to purchase a subscription, but what if someone could create radio stations that were neither ad supported nor required you to pay to listen. Someone like… oh, I don’t know… Apple?
Apple recently partnered with an HD radio manufacturer to let users tag songs they want to purchase later at the iTunes Store. With a little radio-programming expertise, Apple could create a new way to sell songs from its iTunes Store, which would support the costs of programming and delivery. Apple has been very successful at setting up new networks of media distribution. It seems to be pretty good at co-opting the traditional players in some entertainment markets. Why not radio? And, why not the best radio ever: radio with no ads?
I bet there are some smart people out there with some strong opinions about this. Let’s hear them.
Bisogna ammettere che quando scoprivamo le canzoni della nostra vita alla radio il mercato discografico forse era meno complesso e prolifico, ma il discorso di Macworld non è sbagliato. La radio dovrebbe... Riscoprire il suo ruolo di innovatrice di gusti prendendo esempio da iniziative Web come LastFM, Pandora e Slacker.
E se fosse Apple a guidare per mano la radio in questo percorso di riscoperta? Citando l'accordo con Ibiquity per il tagging dei brani musicali trasmessi via HD Radio (un "bollino" digitale che consentirebbe l'immediato acquisto su iTunes di un brano appena ascoltato), Suesz immagina un possibile ingreso di Cupertino nel mercato di una radiofonia "nuova" che stranamente assomiglierebbe molto alla vecchia.
Radio Apple
By Eric Suesz
What’s missing from the world of digital music? Discovery.
There used to be a place called radio that introduced you to new tracks for the soundtrack of your life. Remember that? Record companies hired talent. Distributors minted albums, tapes, CDs. Radio stations played them, you listened, and you walked away with a crib sheet of new artists to explore at your local record store.
But—and I can’t find a soul who doesn’t disagree—radio simply stinks. It has been sub-par and sub-standard for seemingly forever. The people who run FM radio stations (namely, Clear Channel) picked a business model about 20 years ago that was excruciatingly simple: Narrow the choices (formats) and insert as many commercial breaks as possible into a typical hour of programming. This strategy, to put it bluntly, worships at the altar of the focus group. How many commercials can you stand before you change the channel? It’s the opposite of innovation.
What if Apple cared about radio? Innovative sites like Last.fm, Pandora, and Slacker have amply demonstrated that people like to find new music via the “people-who-liked-this-also-liked-this” method. On these sites, you can create personalized, just-for-me radio stations that feed you stuff you already like while getting peppered with some new tracks every so often. Some of these sites are ad-supported, some allow you to purchase a subscription, but what if someone could create radio stations that were neither ad supported nor required you to pay to listen. Someone like… oh, I don’t know… Apple?
Apple recently partnered with an HD radio manufacturer to let users tag songs they want to purchase later at the iTunes Store. With a little radio-programming expertise, Apple could create a new way to sell songs from its iTunes Store, which would support the costs of programming and delivery. Apple has been very successful at setting up new networks of media distribution. It seems to be pretty good at co-opting the traditional players in some entertainment markets. Why not radio? And, why not the best radio ever: radio with no ads?
I bet there are some smart people out there with some strong opinions about this. Let’s hear them.
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