Surprise! The Majors Discover Discovery
Written May. 13, 2008 by Sean Ross in Internet Radio with 3 Comments
Billboard's report yesterday that Clear Channel was looking at some sort of tie-in with Pandora.com -- the music recommendation-driven Webcaster -- makes a lot of sense. CBS already has its deals with Last.fm and, presumably for those looking for a less involved experience, the recently announced Play.It. And with ongoing speculation about its place in a world with increased royalties, Pandora is certainly a viable brand that some terrestrial broadcaster should take advantage of. (You could also see some less interactive version being one of the things that might actually drive listeners to an HD-2 channel.)
The Pandora report came on the same day that Last.fm announced a partnership with Lollapalooza for a Lolla Radio section. That followed, by a few weeks, the announcement of Clear Channel's eRockster.com, which used Coachella for its launch two weeks ago. With the two majors looking to lock in the major festivals, it's only a matter of time before Last.fm and eRockster's avatars come to virtual blows in the parking lot.
In the meantime, a possible Pandora/Clear Channel deal raises a few questions:
With the two major groups locking down two of the major Webcasters, what are other broadcasters doing along similar lines?
What implications do these or other Webcaster tie-ups have for broadcasters' HD-2 multicast channels, particularly in light of recent years' proof that it's not as easy to create this type of content as broadcasters thought?
Is there a way to use Pandora or Last.fm to reinforce radio's strong, but eroding authority in the music discovery area? "Here's a new song that you helped us discover through Pandora.com" has potential cachet on the air. "Here's a song that tested well in a similar market" does not.
Reader Comments
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Sean -- "Some less interactive version" of Pandora... Is that actually possible? Isn't interactivity absolutely inherent in the Pandora concept? Analogy time: If this was circa-1940, and NBC was in the nascent stages of building an "NBC Television" network, wouldn't this be like proposing "some less visual version" of that? Kurt
If you only think Pandora is about the interactivity, perhaps. But after a few years, I think they've developed enough trust and created enough of a mystique to recommend songs based on group rather than individual input.
I agree with Kurt. There are plenty of good radio stations I listen to every couple of months or so.
But I listen to Pandora several times a week because it is interactive and I can get exactly the type of music I want when I want it.
The whole point is to take some semblance of control back from the marketeers.