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.nets
James Cridland’s Articles
- The radio stations making the most of their content – my RadioInfo column
- Tune in to your favourite song onrad.io – I review a new service from Michael Robertson
- Australia: 40% of people have access to DAB+; which is impressive. Here’s an infographic and some more stats, and I compare Australia to the UK.
United Kingdom
- Some great speakers including Kyle and Jackie O, and Steve Taylor announced for Radiodays Europe [client]
- I’m looking forward to listening to John Sweeney on the Media Focus podcast – this podcast offers a great, long form interview that’s a rather refreshing difference from the usual world of soundbites. [client]
- A good – indeed, exhaustive – review of the BBC Store from Adam Bowie. He neglects to mention the irritation that it’s not called the BBC Shop. It would appear that the BBC has turned into the American Broadcasting Company.
- Statement on newly announced Government funding of the BBC World Service – good news and the right thing to do.
- Revisiting the question: Why doesn’t audio go viral?
- “You won’t read about this in the media, but…” Martin Belam makes a good point
- The trouble with streaming services – and why Chris Price won’t be giving up old-time radio quite yet
- Are Driverless Cars the Death of Radio? Betteridge’s law applies.
- Could Radio X be forced to change its name? Welcome to the murky world of trademarks. Oh, and… probably not.
- Lessons from history on how the BBC was funded, via David Lloyd
- ‘How can I help you?’ – nice piece about what marketers should be doing. (Consider it for radio, too – how does “the best mix of music” solve anyone’s problems?)
- Colourful beats 1Xtra, Capital Xtra and KISS – impressive showing from a station I don’t know much about
- Stats: A bunch of interesting graphs from Ofcom showing takeup of digital radio.
- A radio station that doesn’t brag about itself. A refreshing change. More interesting thoughts here about Max, a trial station on DAB.
United States
- There’s a radio station in Philadelphia called “Isis”. It’s considering a name change. (Considering?!)
- Fascinating: big data at work. Pandora & iHeartRadio release 2015 music metrics; RAIN compares thumbs
- US: Only 30% of millenials are watching live TV, says this data
- Interesting piece about “speed listening”. Particularly if you make radio or podcasts. That said, word economy is good too; one of my biggest complaints about podcasts is an almost wilful lack of respect for listeners’ time.
- Dash Conference surveys prospects for radio’s future in the car – good overview of this conference
- Great thing from WNYC – trying to engage listeners with their podcasts. Harder than it seems for a non-live piece of content.
- NPR is graying, and public radio is worried about it – as I say regularly, for all its innovation, its actual flagship programming is really very, very dull.
- Great thoughts about TV, mobile and the living room from Benedict Evans
- The mysterious story of ‘Radio Swan’ – cold war a-go-go!
Australia
- Impressive use of Periscope by 612 ABC Brisbane’s Terri Begley, pre-promoting a live OB into breakfast.
- Media Report not part of RN’s 2016 schedule – a shame to see this: a cerebral and clever media programme (and this has nothing to do with my three appearances on the show)
- Bauer Media to take over Southern Cross Austereo? Interesting times ahead. And, from what I understand, this story is on the button.
Elsewhere
- Switzerland: Broadcasters Welcome WRC-15 Decision – looks bit dull but this is literally the future of broadcast in one decision.
- Germany: Fun to read a German language article reporting what I’ve said about Capital Xtra’s new app. (Bizarre that Global haven’t press released this.)
- Israel: AudioBurst – a search engine for talk radio, and seemingly automated.
- Ireland: The sound of a new generation: How 2FM became a youth station again – good case study for those who want to go younger
- India: The first DRM radio I’ve seen for sale on Amazon (India) – price point is £149 or US$225. The average salary for India in 2009 was US$295.