The social media blog Mashable just posted a head-to-head comparison of interactive radio services Slacker and Last.FM.
They compare Playlist Creation, Social Features, Mobile Apps and "Music Extras". It is a very interesting comparison which I leave to you to evaluate and decide for yourself who wins.
The most interesting point to me is not necessarily any of the individual points of comparison, which can always be debated ad nauseum, but the fact that the comparison took place at all and, really, represents only a small portion of the interactive music and radio landscape that exists and that is coming.
The combination of personal playlists, mobile access to streams and music micro-blogging via Blip or Twitter, to name a few, are very quickly moving into the area that was once the domain of radio - local communication. If I can both tell you what songs I like and lifestream (Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, etc.) things that occur in my neighborhood, then you have a sense of the local context and gain local information.
Do I think such niche, personal music and information streams would completely replace radio? No.
But I do think the form of the content of 'radio' must fundamentally change to incorporate those social tools or risk losing the audience to continued fragmentation.
This business reality, to me, becomes even more relevant in light of the re-development of the performance rights debate for broadcast radio. If one class of musicians wants to charge for this medium that is, of course, their right but I think in the end; after the stations look at their options, the result will not be much, if any, additional revenue for the artists or major labels.
Instead, I believe you will see a tremendous increase in independent label and artist songs who will freely give music to take advantage of the wide promotional reach of broadcast while focusing on niche, direct-to-fan interactive tools to generate revenue based on that promotional value. The multitude of music discovery options means that it is easier for MDs, PDs and DJs to find high quality music to play.
In addition, the fact that social media tools can provide direct, real-time consumer feedback means that stations can base their playlists on the real, proven desires of the music fans in their market, which is increasingly not solely major label artists. Economic reality and the combination of dynamic & passive listener input will trump the need for heavily marketed names that come with a price tag
The fact is that media fragmentation has already occurred and is accelerating. The platforms that already reach millions of listeners or viewers must ultimately fragment along with it to ensure they can have the same, or similar, personal relationship with the users that we have all come to expect.
But fragmentation does not mean the elimination of previous outlets. While we all consume music in new ways, broadcast media like radio will continue to reach millions cost-effectively, but the revenue models both for the content owners and stations will need to adapt to embrace the new competition.
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