Industry information that you can actually use
March 2005
Buying Music Off Your Car Stereo May Finally Be Reality.
Grammys Gone Mild: Show Gets A Dog Bone From Nielsen.
BUYING SONGS OFF THE RADIO—DIRECTLY! COULD IT FINALLY HAPPEN?
It's been a dream of the record industry for over three decades: tapping into the impulse buying nature of people's love of music. Imagine being able to listen to a song on the radio and buy it instantly with a simple click on the car radio console. We would no longer need record stores, free giveaways or even concerts to help bolster sales. Sales would happen at the speed of light.
But, with the exception of digital radio (which still makes up a very small section of the market) the idea of listen - like - buy has been undeliverable to the masses. That is about to change thanks to, of all entities, ClearChannel Communications, the company that seems to have an angel in their pocket when it comes to rulings by the FCC and the FTC.
Feeling the pinch from satellite radio and iPods, Clear Channel (who owns about 9% of XM Radio) has teamed with a third party developer, iBiquity [iBiquity.com] to upgrade 95% of it's 1,200 stations to this new digital broadcast standard. Earlier this year, ClearChannel announced its "Advanced Technology Initiative," an aggressive conversion over the next three years on many of its stations to what is the technical equivalent to HDTV for radio. This will bring better sound and more data/programming options which will include a "download module," so listeners can purchase and rip as they sit in rush hour traffic. All of this on standard, analog radio within the next three years.
But the race for market share is not a lonely one. Enscom and Cox Communications will also be getting in the mix. ClearChannel has a great advantage with its 1200 stations. It will be exciting to see what the underdogs will offer to get your business. We may see multiple streams over the same station, with say, a top 40 format layered on top of an Indie format allowing listeners to be exposed to more content then ever. Or a buy-in-bulk offer. "Buy this hour for less than $10." It's going to be fabulous. It's going to be frightening.
So, will this save the record industry? No, but it could save the radio terrestrial industry and that would save the established revenue streams of songwriters and artists, which has been destabilized by digital communication formats. It also tips ClearChannel's hand as to what they (really) think of satellite radio's slow penetration into the mass market.
For more theory on this see Moses Supposes – November 2004 where I deconstruct the future of satellite radio via the Howard Stern deal with Sirius. "Will Radio Kill the Radio Star? Could Stern Burn Satellite Radio Before He Helps It?"
This year's Grammy Awards was the best in a decade. Ask anyone who was there, but if you ask the average TV watcher they might not have any opinion. Why? Super low ratings.
Media analysts feel that the new show, "Desperate Housewives" sucked all of the market share out of the Grammies, resulting in a drawing of their lowest total viewing crowd in a decade, particularly among the most coveted audience by advertisers-- 18 to 49-year-olds.
Citing data from Nielsen Media Research, CBS said the telecast drew a tad under 19 million viewers, down from about 27 million viewers in 2004. Coincidentally this differential (8 million) is exactly the amount of people that the RIAA claims were guilty of wholesale file-sharing on Napster. Could there be a connection? Hummm.
Would people rather watch Terri Hatcher's boobs than a self-congratulatory music business gala with the countries richest .0001? That's a tough one.
Rumor has it that NARAS (the company that owns the Grammys) is going to ask Terri Hatcher to host next year's event in a halter.
Okay, I made that up, but they should seriously consider it. If America would rather watch a middle-aged come-back actress than some of the most popular musical talent in the world, it really tells you where their head is when it comes to pop music. This statistic combined with recent data of album sales suggests that the majors are in need of a creative readjustment. Most of us knew this already, but will they heed their own god, Nielsen/SoundScan?
OBITUARIES
Hunter S. Thompson, author of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ,'' committed suicide. He was 67. A famous writer and media commentator, he had little to do with the music yet legend has it that he authored one of the most repeated quotes about our fair business: "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”
However one of my readers uncovered an alternative theory claiming he never said EXACTLY that. If true, this quote will go hand in hand with other "non quotes" like: "Beam me up Scotty" and "Play it again Sam." Both of which were never actually uttered in exactly that way.
See this link:
urbanlegends.about.com/od/dubiousquotes/a/hunter_thompson.htm
Cy Coleman, composer of the Broadway musicals "Sweet Charity"and "City of Angels" as well as such pop standards as "Witchcraft" and "The Best Is Yet to Come," has died of heart failure this past November. He was 75. His songs will live forever in our hearts.
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