James Cridland is Managing Director of media.info, and a U.K.-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
Last week I was helping to launch the Irish Radioplayer. One app with all of the big Irish radio stations, the app enables monetisation and control for broadcasters, and that’s a good thing. Works with Android Wear and shortly Apple Watch, too. Good things happen when we work together.
United States
- Teach your brain new tricks. Here’s a man riding a bicycle. One of the biggest issues with the future is unlearning the past: this is a great demonstration.
- How to Make Radio & Streaming $100B Music Store! – Remi Swierczek has the oddest ideas I’ve seen for a while.
- Nice to spot – a simple radio tuner from Streema which is on Apple Watch. Looks nice.
- Seven Ingredients of Great Radio Talent – another great Larry Gifford blog
- Is That an FM Radio In Your Pocket? – more from the US campaign.
- Why Jay Z’s Tidal streaming service became a train wreck – ouch. Partially it’s because, according to this post, ‘regular’ streaming quality is good enough.
- How’s podcasting doing in the US? Here’s a fact sheet from the Pew Research Center
- Who Is Telling The Best Product, Brand, and Experience Stories? — interesting articles linked from Donna Lichaw
- Lazy Buggles headline #1: hello New Richmond News
- Lazy Buggles headline #2: hello Herald Zeitung (which is a Texan newspaper, as you’d guess from the name)
United Kingdom
- By me: DAB now comes in “almost two-thirds” of new cars in UK. It was 50% a year ago.
- By me: New programmes for 5 live Sports Extra – arcane rules if you want to add programming on the BBC
- Over 400 pages of meticulous research from Sean Street – Historical Dictionary of British Radio (I’d recommend you buy one, not just because this is an affiliate link)
- The FM radio hidden in your smartphone: I’m quoted in the Daily Mail, but despite that, it’s a good article. Caution, Daily Mail link
- Many congratulations, Aiir, on your launch and your successful rebrand
- The (unnecessary) EU cookie warning thing really shouldn’t be appearing on your pop-up player. PS: You really don’t need that cookie thing. Look at how Amazon do it.
- Clive Dickens (as OXIS Media Chairman) was on the Radio Today programmelast week. Interesting listen.
- ‘Anyone can be a voiceover‘ says Emma Clarke – except she actually doesn’t, because they can’t.
- Journalism: interesting project from BBC News Labs – Who’s talking about what… shame that, of course, broadcast news doesn’t appear here.
- Which radio play out system should I buy? – Good advice from Rupert Brun
- Apple poaches top producers from BBC Radio 1 for new Spotify rival – are there no good Americans in radio?
- The way radio newsrooms used to look – Paul Easton remembers LBC and IRN
Ireland
- The Irish Radioplayer is now live. Irish radio in one place, for free.
Australia
- In Australia, the ABC plans digital expansion
- Happy birthday, DoubleJ – great digital brand extension for the ABC, great listen, and popular too.
Other things
- If you run an Android phone or tablet, this is apparently an excellent audio recorder. (Does external mics too).
- Interesting idea – radio station containing automatically beatmatched tracksfrom SoundCloud. Nice UI, too. Actually using it, it managed to match the beat, but not much more.
- Norway switches off FM – and Taiwan covers the story. I am the only English script on this page.