This column by Jennifer Lane was originally published in her Audio4cast blog.
Last week we learned from the Radio Advertising Bureau’s 2013 Revenue Report that digital dollars continue to increase at a much faster rate than other revenue segments for radio broadcasters. Up 16% over 2012, and 18% for the last quarter of the year, the digital sector for radio is picking up steam and promising to top a billion dollars this year.
One of the obvious reasons why the digital sector is growing quickly is that the streaming audience is growing in all the right ways – more and more of the 12+ population listens weekly and monthly, the time spent listening is increasing year over year, and the younger demographics are listening in much greater numbers than older generations – signalling promise for the future of the medium (and marketability to advertisers as well). All of these trends are recently documented by the updated Triton Digital/Edison Research Infinite Dial Report.
At the same time, radio broadcasters are tuning in to the huge growth opportunity that digital audiences represent. They’re refining their online offerings, improving their ad platforms, and becoming more savvy at managing and selling their inventory. All of this is creating a more sophisticated online marketplace – impacting radio’s ability to capture more digital dollars.
One of the things we do really well at RAIN Summits is examine trends and tools, and discuss best practices that the online audio industry is employing. We create panels that highlight opportunities in the industry – hoping that our attendees will engage and learn about ways that they can maximize their opportunity. We don’t restrict our topics to broadcasters only – instead, we sit broadcasters who stream side by side with online only platforms, and place the focus entirely on online audio.
I think we have a fantastic lineup of panels and speakers on our agenda for our flagship event, RAIN Summit West, on Sunday April 6th in Las Vegas. If you haven’t made plans to join us, you should. There’s a tremendous amount of momentum in our industry right now, and we need all hands on deck to join the conversation and feed the buzz. I hope to see you there.