Mp3 killed the radio star
There is a worrying trend which could impact radio
listening and, ultimately, radio advertising. My work involves quite a bit of
travel in Africa, not least in taxis to and from airports. The first thing I do
when I hear music in a taxi is ask what station they’re listening to. On three
or four occasions I discovered that they weren’t listening to radio at all, but
to MP3 players which they’ve generally loaded with over a thousand of their
favourite songs. The more affluent music lovers, as we know, favour the iPod,
which together with iTunes is one of Apple’s greatest triumphs. Apple is in the
business of selling gadgets. Tens of millions of them. iTunes was a way to make
it easy and cheap to buy music. Apple sold billions of songs at 99 cents each.
Mp3 players have been around for a long time. But in the
midst of a technological revolution that’s causing seismic shifts, these little
Mp3 players with huge capacity are relatively cheap.They plug
conveniently into the vehicle’s cigarette lighter and play through the radio.
These are not the latest model vehicles either. Ford’s interior designer, given
the ubiquity of Mp3 is talking of not including CD players in their new models.
We know that growing numbers of kids are getting their music from the internet
and not from radio, or from that endangered species known as CD/DVD stores
It’s not the uptake of these gadgets that one finds
worrying. What concerns me is the uptake by an older generation who spend long
hours in their vehicles. They no longer find radio interesting or entertaining.
The potential fallout from this is, as listenership declines, so will radio
advertising.
Traditional radio needs to kick it up a notch if it wants
to hold onto its audience.
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