James Cridland is Managing Director of media.info, and an Australia-based radio futurologist. He is a consultant, writer and public speaker who concentrates on the effect that new platforms and technology are having on the radio business. Find out more or subscribe at http://james.cridland.net
It’s a bit of a shame, but it seems that Beats 1 isn’t the massive success that Apple were hoping it would be.
Or my followers on Twitter are desperately uncool.
James Cridland’s articles
- Late-breaking news today: radio tagging tool AirShr has closed. I’ve written about the product here.
- This month’s Radio World International. I wrote the front-page story. Gunnar Garfors took the pictures. There’s still something nice about seeing your work in print.
- Digital-first radio. It’s a good thing, in spite of what the press might try to say. My article for AllAccess; and as a podcast – find it in iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
Australia
- Most listened-to DAB+ stations in Australia. Once more, an in-store radio station leads the way.
- This sales system is a good piece of future-proofing for Aussie commercial radio.
- Lazy Buggles Headline from Anthony O’Brien – works in a comms firm but thinks radio (90%+ reach in Aust) is dead. I get a response from the editor of the piece, saying that he wrote the headline and that he doesn’t listen to radio. Um…
- “How Podcasts Work” from the folks at Omny Studio
- Australian DAB+ radio is set to expand – interesting to see, and very welcome
- ABC Exits Shortwave Radio Transmission – the death of shortwave. This is causing a lot of discussion.
- Soon, Radio Stations Will Be Six Minutes Long – nice piece with a silly headline arguing for atomisation and lego-bricking
Canada
- Great piece from Alan Cross, highlighting the dizzying rate of change in radio. Well worth a read.
- This is awesome, and very clever – boom 97.3’s “Christmasizer 2000”, making every song a christmas song.
United Kingdom
- This is an awesome job in London, working for Radioplayer Worldwide – if I were still there, I’d have applied. Please share.
- James O’Brien On Angry White Men, Going Viral And Post-Truth Politics – very good piece (and much to learn) about how to make great radio viral
- The most successful radio stations on YouTube – some data from Matt Deegan which gives food for thought
- Vinyl sales outstripped digital downloads for the first time last week. The pedants point out, correctly, that vinyl sales outstripped digital downloads for about forty years; and it’s not in volume, just in value. But still.
- The Capital Jingle Bell Ball 2016 Content Strategy
- The changing landscape of radio – stats and more from the British Library. The one-sentence summary: “Everyone thinks radio is changing, but nobody seems to know how quickly.”
- Streams ahead: the artists who made it huge without radio support – but probably could have made it huger with.
- The Time Signal – a lovely and really very “BBC” film about the pips. Includes some quite hilarious acting from the subject.
- DTS Acquires All In Media – wow. Congratulations to Jason and Chris.
- Clever idea. BBC News do a “Facebook Live” showing you how the news is put together. Watch again here.
- Almost acceptable Lazy Buggles Headline, but random claim that Beats1 is “rising in popularity”. #nobodylistens
- Deezer names Chris Baughen (ex Global – RadioX/Xfm) VP of content and formats
United States
- Radio-killer Pandora to be bought by radio-killer SiriusXM?
- Samsung are copying Apple again: this time apparently removing the headphone jack from their terrible exploding phones.
- It’s the Giving Season. Would You Like a Radio Station? – a nice and interesting story about public radio being ‘gifted’ a licence.
- NBC Chimes: Behind the Scenes with the First Trademarked Sound. Fascinating listen.
- How Netflix encode their video. Very interesting techie read.
- Why Does Radio Suck? A New Lawsuit Explains Why (or, you know, doesn’t.)
- Mark Ramsey with an uncomfortable truth for podcasting: why is it still so small?
- Christmas comes before Thanksgiving at radio station in Paxton – nice overview of WSRS’s Christmas flip.
- (US) radio doesn’t care about attracting Millennials according to this survey. Most other countries do rather better, but that’s driven by public service broadcasters in the main (think BBC Radio 1, triplej, MNM and so on)
- “Defying Conventions: Is Beats 1 Redefining Radio?” Not sure it is, but here is a proper long well-researched piece. #nobodylistens
- Apple Music up to 20 million subscribers (half as big as Spotify). Any figures for Beats1? No, of course not. #nobodylistens
- Personalisation works – when Coke put names on bottles, total sales went up 2%
News from elsewhere
- These are the 10 biggest radio stations in South Africa
- All about OMRI, the new API for smartphones and radio
- New Zealand: Mediaworks launch a new digital audio streaming platform