The Infinite Dial

Next month I will be speaking on a panel on podcasting at the NAB Radio Show. I've done a lot of these sorts of panels over the years, and have mainly been attended either by technical folks--engineers, webmasters--or forward-thinking programmers who understand the direction that radio has to move in order to stay relevant. This year, I believe, will be different. There is a sea change happening in the radio industry right now with podcasting and downloadable media, and I predict this year we will see more GM's, market managers and group heads in the audience. Not only is the material highly relevant, but we also have a tremendous panel, anchored by NPR's Bryan Moffet and the chair of the Association for Downloadable Media, Chris MacDonald.

Of course, the question that is on a lot of people's minds in the radio industry is: how do I monetize podcasting? Given that it doesn't contribute to my ratings, how do I make this worthwhile for my station? One of the messages this panel will deliver is that there are folks making money right now and achieving great success with podcasting--so why not your station? In that spirit, over the next few weeks leading up to the NAB I'm going to spotlight some of podcasting's true success stories--the independent mavericks who are making it work, every day.

To kick things off, here is one of podcasting's real visionaries, Chris MacDonald. Not only does he chair the ADM, he is also an executive with Libsyn (who host a lot of podcasts for traditional radio) and a very successful podcaster in his own right with his music-based podcast, IndieFeed. There are a lot of broadcasters who think that you can't podcast music because of all the rights issues; yet Chris manages to podcast new music each and every week over an assortment of genre-based channels for IndieFeed and has millions (yes, millions) of downloads every month to show for it. I sat down with Chris to find out what makes IndieFeed tick:

What's your elevator pitch?

IndieFeed is a subscribed download music discovery services that delivers fresh, breaking new music in a short-form audio show. Available in a variety of popular music genres, IndieFeed presents one full song then describes interesting information about the artist, track and label, and where to learn more.

Who listens to your programming? How would you describe your audience?

A highly active and engaged youth- and male- skewed audience who come to our service to learn about, share and purchase new music:

Age Breakdown:

• under 17 - 22.7%


• 18/24 - 35%


• 25-34 - 23.2%


• 35 - 44 - 12.9%


• 45 - 54 - 4.6%

• male 66.3%


• female 33.7%
• 64.3% purchase music based on IndieFeed's music introduction


• 85.4% go back to artist or label website as IndieFeed recommends


• 50-50 split desktop and mobile consumption


• wide range of household earning, above average education


• Other forms of broadasting consumed:
  
  
  
  • 63.2% internet radio
  
  
  • 49.4% broadcast radio
  
  
  • 79.7% mp3 player
  
  
  • 15.5% satellite radio
  
  
  • 23.2% cable digital radio

Average 2.5 million unique Neilsen Verified downloads per month

What makes you special? What are some notable successes you have had?

IndieFeed dominates the music podcasting space and is consistently amongst the highest featured and top 20 podcasts on a variety of charts. IndieFeed has the highest volume and comment rankings of all 170,000 podcasts offered in iTunes, as well as over 1000 5 star rankings on its Alternative Modern Rock channel. Some of our other successes include:

• Guitar Center licensed IndieFeed content to play in over 200 of its in-store retail locations in the US.
• IndieFeed shows have routinely entered the overall top 100 iTunes list.
• Advertisers on IndieFeed include: Honda, Buena Vista Entertainment, Showtime, Castrol, USA Networks, Toyota, SpikeTV, Jabra, TD Bank and several national PSAs

What is the most important thing you have learned through the process of getting your businesses off the ground?

Really (really!!) understand what your audience wants from you, constantly deliver that, and they will pay you back with their attention and belief in your business.

What advice would you give the radio industry about downloadable media? And what can you learn from them?

Youth culture (and increasingly mass culture) rely more and more on downloadable media as an incredibly important consumption option. That trend shows little indication of decreasing. Downloadable media affords new audio consumption habits that are more personal and intimate, and therefore create very compelling brand and monetization opportunities.

Consumers who self-select downloadable media are willing to accept different types of marketing messages. You don't need to "yell" at them so they don't touch the dial, more subtle and effective messaging works in a captive engagement setting like downloaded audio. In this sense many ad units used in terrestrial radio may need to be reworked, but with the upside of better yields.

We could learn a tremendous amount from experience with mechanics of monetization in terrestrial radio, from advertising marketplaces to local ad sales, to the scaling cross marketplace buys.

Thanks, Chris!

Want a chance to pick Chris's brain? Make sure you attend our panel on Thursday at the NAB and bring your questions!