Wow! Perhaps the radio corporations are finally waking up?
Station apps give radio new life on iPhone, other smartphones
Those high-powered smartphones that can access the Web from virtually anywhere may be the best thing that's happened in years to one of the oldest and most beleaguered of traditional media: radio. Local stations are racing to create software applications — called apps — and appealing talk and music programming to help them reach the burgeoning number of consumers who see their iPhones, BlackBerrys and Droids as portable entertainment devices.
With the help of apps, smartphone users can listen to live broadcasts from hundreds of radio stations as well as services such as Pandora that offer music tailored to the listener’s taste. “It’s extremely meaningful,” Clear Channel Executive Vice President Evan Harrison says. About a year after the No. 1 radio company introduced its iHeartRadio app for iPhones, phone users account for 10% of its digital audience.
“We expect to at least double that number” in 2010, he says. “That’s a modest goal.” Its app for Android phones comes out on Wednesday.
The company attracts about 28 million unique visitors a month, up 30% vs. last year. CBS Interactive Music Group President David Goodman also is upbeat. “In the last seven months, our streaming audience has doubled,” he says. “It's a rocketship in listenership.” Radio could use some encouraging news. Industry ad revenue fell 21%, to $11.8 billion, in the first nine months of 2009, according to the Radio Advertising Bureau.
While digital services account for just 3% of revenue, it’s the only field that’s been growing. Clear Channel grabbed attention last year when it said about 5% of its $3.3 billion in revenue came from digital. But competition is intense. Pandora has 40 million registered users and is adding more than 80,000 a day — half from smartphones. It recently began to sell audio ads, and they’ll likely come from budgets that would have been spent at traditional players.
“The biggest pot is broadcast radio,” Pandora founder Tim Westergren says.
The big radio companies are fighting back by developing original programming. Clear Channel recently sponsored an Alicia Keys performance, and last week backed If I Can Dream, an online reality show. CBS is promoting its Live on Letterman series, with performers including John Mayer and Tim McGraw giving concerts after appearances on Late Night with David Letterman.
via [source]
