James Cridland’s Weekly Links: New online US music rates, Radio 1 music head poached by Spotify

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

James Cridland sends us his weekly links with this note:

Welcome to 2016. Here’s what’s happened in the world of radio since we last spoke: this is quite a bumper edition, since it covers a few weeks of tweets and news. I sent it today, Tuesday, to avoid your post-Christmas inbox hell. Hope that’s sorted now.

United Kingdom

• Spotify poaches BBC Radio 1 head of music. Techcrunch celebrates with lazy Buggles intro. Incidentally, one tweet I read claimed that this was “rats fleeing the sinking ship”, which – given that BBC Radio 1 has 10.5m listeners every week – couldn’t be more wrong. Ergatoudis was probably given an offer he couldn’t refuse, and/or has had enough of the BBC’s politics. Or he knows something we don’t about Radio 1’s future.
• James Naughtie signs off from BBC Radio 4’s Today programme – a great and touching piece of video.
• Bots and ‘super playlists’ are in music’s streaming future – interesting stats in here too
• Iain Lee says BBC is in ‘a state of fear’ – and why is Alex Dyke still in a job?
• The day I presented The Jeremy Vine Show – Tim Johns (who is excellent) posts about the day that the BBC Radio 2 star he worked for lost his voice…
• Radio is flowering because it’s so much more potent than TV
• Next Radio Conference Interviews – some great interviews from Hayley Hayes, which I think are relatively new to be posted.
• In Praise of the Tape Cassette – fun piece by David Lloyd. I can’t listen to Paul McCartney’s Pipes of Peace without hearing the funny line-up tones from the front.
• Can’t help but think that the Guardian Style Guide people should rule against lazy Buggles headlines
• How Classic FM uses Facebook – reminded of this great preso while responding to a student’s email.
• BBC R2 breakfast presenter Chris Evans gives up TFI Friday to focus on his sure-to-fail reboot of Top Gear. I told you so.
• Radio North Kent broadcasts from Australia – impressive for a small voluntary station.
• AM continues to be switched off in Europe: lots turned off at the end of last year. In populated areas, AM is not your future, radio. Even radio’s biggest fan, David Lloyd, says “Let’s be honest: AM is pretty foul to listen to“.

United States

• Radio’s Future Is… a massively humbling article. Thank you, Fred Jacobs. (Oh, and while at a client meeting a few weeks ago, I slightly squirmingly noticed a “wall of innovators”, containing four people of which I was one. Jim Henson was another. Embarrassed? Oh yes.)
• Netflix is re-encoding its whole catalog for better streams that use less data – interesting work. Surprising how many radio stations are just content with an MP3 stream, which isn’t the best for mobile. I was in a great meeting with StreamOn [client] the other week, who use HLS in a really innovative way.
• The Copyright Royalty Board posted new rates for internet radio in the US. Here’s the LA Times, and futureofmusic.org‘s coverage. It doesn’t apply to Spotify, Google Play, Apple Music, etc, but does apply to radio stations and similar services. Probably the only two things you care about are these:
  – Radio station simulcasters (WPLJ for example) will pay less ($1.70 per thousand song plays rather than $2.50).
  – Non-subscription services (Pandora’s ad-supported service) will pay more ($1.70 per thousand song plays, rather than $1.40).
• Automotive is now part of almost every radio conference, and Fred Jacobs is happy about that. As an aside: he’s speaking at Radiodays Europe [client] in March, alongside Radioplayer’s Michael Hill. You should come.
• I talk a lot about sharing radio moments with video. This NPR example is nice: subtitles so you don’t need to turn the sound up; though relatively unclear which program it was. (I didn’t watch to the end).
• The most-used medium by Millennials? Radio. (FX: tech writers fall off chair)
• The History of Baseball Broadcasting: initial US radio commentary was mostly made up
• “A Guide to Podcasting” by the Tow Center – exec summary from Adam Bowie
• Stats on the global music business, if you wondered how they earn their money
• New radio format: Star Wars Radio – which appeared on Apple Music (and Google Play Music, and Spotify) on launch day. And if you wanted Star Wars as a radio drama? Sure… NPR did that. (And, apparently, the BBC did so too.)
• Podcasts? Hmph, they’re just a fad, according to this WIRED article.
• Nice coverage of a radio news journalist at News Radio 1290 WNBF
• In the UK, radio on TV is as big as online radio. And the US is waking up to that, slowly
• This article about podcasts highlights the need to make the user interface simpler
• Time to rebrand comments – nice idea. Though, perhaps, comments have had their day.
• BIA/Kelsey predictions for local media for 2016. Some interesting points.
• Ever wondered about the history of the car radio?
• Think streaming is the only way to get audio to phones? ZenoRadio is an interesting solution… [client]

Australia

• How good radio partnerships work – Rove (2DAY’s new breakfast host) says how he chose his co-host
• Remember Mel Greig? She’s back in radio: but not, quite, the previous gig’s size.
• Google executive Michelle Guthrie to replace Mark Scott as ABC [Australia] managing director – interesting. The ABC seems a meek, brow-beaten organisation in spite of some great people.
• Podcasts: where people are actually choosing to listen to ads – nice piece from Corey Layton
• The podcasting scene will explode (this explosion is, I believe, a good explosion rather than a bad one)
• “How Girls Make Good in Radio”: Surprising Stories of the Early BBC’ – free lecture in Sydney, February
• Interesting view from an AM radio station operator about content trumping platform. Not sure I agree wholeheartedly, but good to see.

Elsewhere

• Finland: commercial radio revenue up by 31.5%
• New Zealand: Business killed the radio star – man is furious at cancellation of local show (consolidation and cost-cutting hitting the NZ market), and a lazy Buggles headline
• Chile: Another example of how people feel closer to radio than any other media – they confess their crimes on it.
• Germany: Spotify kills the radio star? A reality check [and a lazy Buggles headline]
• New Zealand: Radio’s prison rape joke with PM falls flat – ah, there’s nothing funnier to joke about. Wait.
• South Africa: strange drop in audience figures challenged. Plus, bonus lazy Buggles headline