Quick Hits: Rescuing radio; Deezer vs. Spotify

Worthy of note:

• Doc Searls, author and one of the first cognescenti bloggers (since 1999), has published a prescription for radio in the Internet era called “How to rescue radio.” In it, Searls seems taken aback by the changing definition of “radio,” and particularly offended by Apple’s iTunes Radio, which he calls, “…a body-snatch on all of radio, as well as a straight-up knock-off of Pandora.” He’s late to the game with that objection, and not exactly correct about the knock-off part. But the substance comes down the page when Searls lays out a multi-part plan for keeping broadcast radio prominent as users shift to digital and mobile. His suggestions are provocative, but not gratuitously so. Searls has clearly brought years of experience to his perspective of old media navigating new-media waters.

• Music subscription services Spotify and Deezer are head-to-head competitors, but American listeners don’t feel the competitive tension since Deezer is not (yet) available in the U.S. (Many reports indicate that Deezer will migrate to the states early in 2014, perhaps on the wings of a telecom partnership.) For our European readers, Deezer and Spotify are both important pureplay platforms with large audiences across many countries. In that context, Liam Boogar’s comparative review in Rude Baguette (“France’s Startup Blog”) is interesting and well-done. Cut to the end: Boogar started out this piece of work as a Spotify subscriber, but ended up ditching Spotify for Deezer for what he perceives as better music-discovery tools.