Here's what I think a lot of people are going to figure out... You can set up your own internet radio station very easily on the Mac with Nicecast. (Probably there is something on the PC too). All you do is run iTunes into Nicecast and broadcast your stream on the internet. If you have DSL you can easily have enough bandwidth for one or two streams, so you can point your iPhone to your own internet radio station and listen to your own mix, on the way to work and on the way home and in the office, ( for 128 or higher bit rates, we'll need version 2 of the iPhone next year... so be it). This is very simple and once people are shown how simple it is, they will most likely start setting it up themselves. A few simple video tutorials on youtube and off you go. Maybe I'll do a few.
Broadcasters have killed the goose by putting 20 minutes of commercials in a typical hour and also basically eliminated new and interesting music because their consultants told them the 30 songs they MUST play to get listeners. This is bad because where are new artists going to get exposure going forward? Certainly not from the iPhone-iTunes-Nicecast senario I mentioned above. The marketing of music is forever changed and it seems like the last folks to understand the change are Radio folks. How will new artists get exposure? I'm not a guru and don't have the answer.
I ask you this, if a new Elton John were to release an album next month, (a 24 year old Elton that is) who would hear it? Only a very small sliver of the listening audience, versus 37 years ago when the vast majority would have had the opportunity to sample his music on various stations across formats. Not today my friend. So how does it work today? That is not a simple answer.
40 years ago it was very simple. Broadcasters today have not even the foggiest idea of how to do it, which begs the question..... what do we need them for? They don't do news, they don't do local coverage of any kind whatsoever like we used to. They don't cover local bands. They don't cover local politics. What are they there for? Why do we give them our airwaves free of charge? Are they serving the public interest as a public trustee? Stuff to think about, no?
Dan, Again, I agree with you on many of your points but did you even pay any attention to my comments about PUBLIC broadcasters? Many of them are using the airwaves exactly the way they are intended and are doing some very innovative things.
The shell games that many commercial broadcasters play in terms of buying, selling and moving stations to turn a profit drive me nuts. The FCC has for some reason decided that these kinds of actions actually serve the public.
These kinds of games along with poor programming and too many commercials do indeed drive away listeners and do nothing to serve the public.
You seem to really like Internet streaming. I do as well, however, when you start thinking about the cost per listener it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense as a business model. It's a nice thing to offer but it will never be able to serve the same number of people as cost effectively as a large FM or AM transmitter will.
With traditional broadcasting the initial investment in hardware is only made once. There is no recurring cost per listener. It is inherently a one-to-many technology.
Perhaps as the Internet changes and mobile broadband becomes more and more common this will change, but for now, broadcasters still have an advantage in that regard.
What all of you are missing here is that Radio is about dead. This was apparent to me when I drove from San Antonio to El Paso with my laptop and Verizon Broadband card, streaming a radio station non-stop where there aren't any radio stations. Cars will soon have broadband internet and we will all be listening to an internet radio signal and not need to be stuck with commercials. Sat. is not the answer because of no-locally issues but with a stream of a local provider, this issue goes away and probably without the Gov. restrictions of broadcast radio. All of us in the radio industry need to find new jobs in about 4-5 years.
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Here's what I think a lot of people are going to figure out...
You can set up your own internet radio station very easily on the Mac with
Nicecast. (Probably there is something on the PC too). All you do is
run iTunes into Nicecast and broadcast your stream on the internet.
If you have DSL you can easily have enough bandwidth for one or two
streams, so you can point your iPhone to your own internet radio station
and listen to your own mix, on the way to work and on the way home
and in the office, ( for 128 or higher bit rates, we'll need version 2 of
the iPhone next year... so be it). This is very simple and once people are shown how simple it is, they will most likely start setting it up themselves.
A few simple video tutorials on youtube and off you go. Maybe I'll do a few.
Broadcasters have killed the goose by putting 20 minutes of commercials
in a typical hour and also basically eliminated new and interesting music
because their consultants told them the 30 songs they MUST play to get
listeners. This is bad because where are new artists going to get
exposure going forward? Certainly not from the iPhone-iTunes-Nicecast
senario I mentioned above. The marketing of music is forever changed
and it seems like the last folks to understand the change are Radio folks.
How will new artists get exposure? I'm not a guru and don't have the answer.
I ask you this, if a new Elton John were to release an album next month,
(a 24 year old Elton that is) who would hear it? Only a very small sliver of
the listening audience, versus 37 years ago when the vast majority would have
had the opportunity to sample his music on various stations across formats.
Not today my friend. So how does it work today? That is not a simple answer.
40 years ago it was very simple. Broadcasters today have not even the
foggiest idea of how to do it, which begs the question..... what do we need
them for? They don't do news, they don't do local coverage of any kind
whatsoever like we used to. They don't cover local bands. They don't
cover local politics. What are they there for? Why do we give them our
airwaves free of charge? Are they serving the public interest as a public trustee?
Stuff to think about, no?
Dan
Dan, Again, I agree with you on many of your points but did you even pay any attention to my comments about PUBLIC broadcasters? Many of them are using the airwaves exactly the way they are intended and are doing some very innovative things.
The shell games that many commercial broadcasters play in terms of buying, selling and moving stations to turn a profit drive me nuts. The FCC has for some reason decided that these kinds of actions actually serve the public.
These kinds of games along with poor programming and too many commercials do indeed drive away listeners and do nothing to serve the public.
You seem to really like Internet streaming. I do as well, however, when you start thinking about the cost per listener it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense as a business model. It's a nice thing to offer but it will never be able to serve the same number of people as cost effectively as a large FM or AM transmitter will.
With traditional broadcasting the initial investment in hardware is only made once. There is no recurring cost per listener. It is inherently a one-to-many technology.
Perhaps as the Internet changes and mobile broadband becomes more and more common this will change, but for now, broadcasters still have an advantage in that regard.
What all of you are missing here is that Radio is about dead. This was apparent to me when I drove from San Antonio to El Paso with my laptop and Verizon Broadband card, streaming a radio station non-stop where there aren't any radio stations. Cars will soon have broadband internet and we will all be listening to an internet radio signal and not need to be stuck with commercials. Sat. is not the answer because of no-locally issues but with a stream of a local provider, this issue goes away and probably without the Gov. restrictions of broadcast radio. All of us in the radio industry need to find new jobs in about 4-5 years.
Greg