Online music services “not a threat to radio”

Online music services like last.fm and Spotify are not a threat to broadcast radio, delegates heard at Friday’s MediaTel Group seminar on the ‘Future of Radio’.

Morag Blazey, former PHD chief executive and chair of the IPA Radio Working Party, said that Spotify struck her as a more specialist service than broadcast radio, which can just be switched on and left playing in the background.

While these online services might provide the tools allowing someone to create their own playlists, said GMG Radio’s group commercial director Jonathan Gillespie, “this is not for everyone”, with many people just not interested in doing this.

However, one bonus for commercial radio is that the targeted ads heard on the likes of Spotify could help educate advertisers about the possibilities available, according to radio futurologist James Cridland.

Cridland – who is about to embark on a trip looking at how radio works around the world – also questioned why it was a dot com – last.fm – that came up with the idea of recording the songs people listen to and making recommendations based on that. “Last.fm has monitored the last 90,000 songs I have listened to. Why didn’t we think of that?”

Putting on his futurologist hat and moving away from online slightly, Cridland said that the launch of the new PURE Sensia could indicate where radio is heading. The Sensia features internet radio, DAB and FM, as well as a colour screen and built-in apps for the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

It also uses RadioDNS technology, which combines broadcast radio with additional information from the internet, something Cridland is hugely excited about, saying it will “open up the things radio can do”.

MediaTel Group’s Future of Radio seminar was sponsored by Ipsos MediaCT