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Entercom to exit TuneIn, commits all stations to Radio.com for streaming

Entercom, the second-largest commercial radio group in the U.S., has announced its intention to pull its station streams off the radio aggregation platform TuneIn, and consolidate its streaming presence exclusively on CBS-created Radio.com.

The decision follows a September fortification of Radio.com when the Play-it podcast portal (also developed by CBS Radio before it merged with Entercom) was closed and redirected to Radio.com. According to Entercom CEO David Field, these moves are part of an ambitious roadmap for Radio.com, which resides at one of the most premium domains imaginable.

“We are committed to making RADIO.COM a leader in the digital audio space,” Field said. “Over the next several months, we will be rolling out new product features, distribution partners, advanced advertising products, and other improvements to enrich the user experience and enhance our value to customers. Our goal is to make RADIO.COM a daily habit for many millions of Americans.”

The mobile app is arguably a better experience than the desktop version of Radio.com, and it notably forces user registration. Gathering user data has long been a challenge for broadcast compared to online-only pureplay audio platforms.

David Field promises that Entercom radio listeners will soon hear a more aggressive promotional effort to drive traffic to Radio.com.

The gambit creates a more silo’d and competitive landscape of radio aggregators, as Radio.com moves into direct competition for listenership with TuneIn and iHeartRadio.

 

Brad Hill

13 Comments

  1. as a brand radio.com has a real chance with consumers – in fact – consideration of changing the corp name like iheart did to radio.com might make since as well – but the timing of doing this before there is a deal with smarthome devices to incorporate the stream – or an app for the windows 10 environment is more likely to kill audience numbers before growing them. Normally its content that drives to the app – but so much of listening occurs on Alexa, Google etc now – that to leap before those channels are launched seems premature.

  2. I have TuneIn and iHeart on my phone and that’s one app too many. Isn’t this like needing multiple radios to listen to different stations? But who am I to stop Entercom from narrowing its listener base.

  3. Traditional media companies don’t understand or value aggregation. Radio.com should have ALL stations. That’s the best for consumers. When users go to Radio.com and search for their favorite station only to realize it’s only a tiny number of CBS and Entercom stations they will feel deceived and likely never come back.

    I was impressed with iHeart who quickly realized they needed lots of stations, not just iHeart to win consumers over.

  4. LOL!! Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Google & Pandora are freaking loving how clueless broadcast radio is – carry on w/your current failed strategy, they say – carry on!

    • I’m with Jackson, Broadcast is clueless as to the complexities of streaming, and will soon die on an accelerating curve, with Pandora laughing. Broadcast has persevered longer than expected, but soon begins the rapid demise, because they are too ignorant to fully embrace the digital future. Why? Because they are profitable today. Can anyone say Kodak?

  5. Let’s hope the digital quality is better on this new format than what was on tune-in.

    • TuneIn isn’t actually broadcasting anything. They’re just a directory. The quality is set by the broadcasters/streamers themselves. Some broadcasters have deliberately only let TuneIn broadcast the lowest-quality streams, but that’s the broadcaster not TuneIn’s doing.

  6. My experience with Alexa is it goes to tunein by default to find most stations I ask for, even when the station is available directly or on other platforms.

  7. In related news, ABC, NBC, CBS & CNN will all exit Comcast, Cox & DirectTV. NOT! Entercom = idiots.

  8. What a stupid idea. Who was the numnut that decided this. I hope he got fired.

  9. Unfortunately, I can no longer (or choose not to) listen to Entercom stations at home, as my Bose system does not use Radio.com, only TuneIn. C’est la vie, Entercom.

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