Radio Survivor

The National Association of Broadcasters is sending around an interesting think piece about Internet/mobile radio. The report was published by the Station Resource Group, a consortium of public media services. It’s titled “The Mobile Internet: A Replacement for Radio?” and is pretty circumspect about the question—pondering the various differences between broadcast and Internet audio streams.

This paragraph caught my eye.

A potentially critical new market variable has entered the picture, with the recent AT&T Wireless announcement that new customers will no longer be offered unlimited flat-rate data service. Although early analysis of the specifics of the new AT&T rate structure shows that most Internet radio users would still fall within the flat-rate zone, the move by AT&T crosses a virtual Rubicon. It is now conceivable that the current rate structure is simply the first step in a gradual throttling down of flat-rate service thresholds, and that if one provider has done so, others may follow. This movement could affect the uptake of wireless Internet radio by future consumers.

AT&T announced its two new data capped plans for the iPhone and other smartphones in June. DataPlus offers 200 megabytes of data for $15 a month. DataPro provides two  gigabytes for $25 a month.

Why might other carriers follow suit?

“Witness the still increasing ‘foreign’ ATM charges that nearly all banks now levy after years of offering such service for free,” the survey notes. ”During those years, strong consumer usage patterns were established, and once such behavior was created, the institution of small but incrementally growing fees for continued usage was grudgingly but broadly accepted by consumers.”

It’s an interesting question. AT&T’s DataPro says the plan offers consumers the capacity to watch 200 minutes of streaming video a month, the carrier claims. Streaming audio isn’t mentioned, but obviously that would take up less bandwidth.

Any comments on this out there in Radio Survivor-land? Do data caps make you nervous about tuning into Pandora on your iPhone?

Pandora radio lovers, you have until Wednesday noon Pacific time to submit your videos about why you like the service:

We’d like to hear – and see! – what you think and have to say about Pandora. We’re putting together a fun video piece of user-submitted videos about your experiences with Pandora: what it does for you during your day, a special moment, what it means to you, your friends, your family – anything fun or funny or special about Pandora that you’d like to tape and share and send in, please do! This can be just you, a group of friends, a class, team, office, troupe – any combination you can think of. We’ll turn them into a thoughtful, tasteful, and joyful montage of our listeners.

No more than 30 seconds long, please. The first 50 submissions get free T-shirts. Meanwhile I’m a huge fan of this kid, a technology TV star in the making. Enjoy:

Pandora online radio is continuing its community meeting tour with events in Atlanta and Denver this coming week.

On Monday Pandora will hold an event at the Denver Art Museum. On Tuesday the company goes to Atlanta’s Tabernacle.

“Town halls are a big part of what Pandora is about,” Pandora founder Tim Westergren says on the Pandora radio blog. “They continue to be wonderful opportunities for us meet and communicate directly with listeners.”

“We love feedback and people at Pandora events often weigh in on how Pandora should look in the future. In addition, I talk a bit about some company history, as well as a look under the hood of the music genome, and our latest thinking about the future. The questions and discussions always cover a wide range of topics – from how the music genome project works, to licensing, to the latest device updates. Everything is fair game!”

It would be great if Pandora streamed these meetings so that people in other cities could listen in on the discussion. Occasionally somebody brings their camcorder to one, but as you can see, the results are less than spectacular.

If you want the service to come to your city, e-mail Pandora at tour@pandora.com.

Today Apple CEO Steve Jobs made his now-annual announcement for the new version of the company’s top product. While there were several surprises in store, like the addition of video conferencing and HD video recording, there wasn’t anything unexpected for radio enthusiasts.

Jobs confirmed the debut of multitasking with the new version 4 of the iPhone OS which already had been revealed last month. What’s nice about multitasking is that audio apps like Pandora, Slacker, last.fm, AOL Radio and the Public Radio Player will play in the background while using other apps, just like listening to iPod music.

For a hard core online radio listener multitasking may indeed be the “killer app” that makes it worth spending the $199 to upgrade to the 16 GB iPhone 4 from a first generation iPhone or the 3G. Owners of the 3GS will get multitasking, too, which also makes for a cheaper upgrade for owners of earlier models, at $99.

Apple says the new iPhone has a bigger battery offering up to 40 hours of music listening time and up to 6 hours of 3G web browsing. Listening to streaming radio over 3G is quite a bit more data intensive than simple web browsing, so it’s doubtful you’ll get 6 hours of 3G audio streaming.

Unfortunately, new iPhone owners starting contracts with AT&T will no longer have an unlimited data plan available to them, with the biggest data plan topping out at 2 GB per month, with $10 for each additional 1 GB. It’s unclear if a current iPhone owner can continue to have an unlimited plan if she starts a new contract upon buying an iPhone 4, though I should expect so.

Still missing from the iPhone is an actual radio capable of receiving traditional analog or HD broadcasts. When the radio-equipped iPod Nano debuted last October rumors starting swirling that there was a latent radio receiver inside the iPhone. One would think that if the rumor were true, that radio would have come out with the introduction of the iPhone 4. Since we’ve seen no sign of an iPhone radio with this major update of its OS, I’m guessing we’re unlikely to see one in the near future, if ever.

Last week AT&T announced that new smartphone customers will no longer be eligible for the unlimited data plans that current customers enjoy. Instead, two somewhat less expensive plans will be available. For $15 new customers may download 200 MB of data per month, with a charge of $15 for every additional 200 GB over the limit. 2 GB per month will cost $25, plus another $10 for each 1 GB after that. Current data plan customers pay $30 for unlimited data. For its part AT&T says that either of these new plans provides enough data to satisfy 98% of their customers.

While it may be true that the vast majority of AT&T customers use less than 2 GB of data in a month, I would argue that’s because data-hungry mobile streaming media is just starting to take off. But the these new caps threaten to stunt that growth just as mobile internet radio is gaining steam.

The 200 MB of data offered by the least expensive plan covers only about 200 minutes of streaming stereo music at the common bitrate of 128kbps. And that’s without any other data usage for email, web browsing or anything else. Even listening to a lower-quality mono talk station at 32 kbps will only stretch listening to 800 minutes, or 13 hours.

The 2 GB plan will cover about 34 hours of stereo music and as much as 136 hours of low-bitrate mono talk. At first blush that seems like a fair amount of listening time, but how does it measure up against real-world radio listening? Someone whose commute lasts about an hour each way will easily listen to over 40 hours of radio in a month. If that commuter wants to use her iPhone or Blackberry to listen to Pandora, last.fm or another streaming music station she’ll be over her limit by the last week of the month.

Without access to hard statistics on how many hours the average mobile Pandora or last.fm user listens it’s hard to say for sure how many new AT&T customers are likely to be affected. However, I do think it’s fair to say that these limits will make many smartphone users cautious about how much time they’ll spend listening to internet radio on the go, especially in order to avoid overage fees.

Of course, AT&T is not the only wireless data carrier in the US. As long as you don’t have your heart set on an iPhone there are lots of other carriers to choose from who still offer unlimited data plans. But for how much longer? Computerworld quotes several analysts who predict that Verizon, the nation’s second largest carrier, will set caps in as soon as six months. While there may be some pricing competition on these plans, I’m guessing they’ll offer pretty similar amounts of data for prices that only vary by a few dollars a month.

With a cost between 75 cents and $4.50 and hour, listening to mobile internet radio on an AT&T smartphone starts to look pretty uncompetitive compared to traditional broadcast, which is free, or satellite radio which offers unlimited listening for $10 – $20 a month. While it may be inevitable that the days of unlimited data plans will come to an end, I hope that the metered pricing quickly becomes more reasonable, permitting a reasonable amount of streaming radio listening. If not, this vibrant new way of listening to radio might be stunted before it has a chance to blossom.

As an iPhone user I can say with full knowledge that one of the things that holds the device back when it comes to listening to online radio is the lack of multitasking. While the iPod app allows you to play your audio files in the background while surfing the web or using other apps, you can only use third-party apps one at a time. Since listening to online radio, Pandora, last.fm or Slacker requires a third-party app, there’s no reading facebook or playing video games.

This restriction is sort of tolerable on a small mobile device like the iPhone, but it’s far more annoying on the iPad. Imagine if your laptop or netbook wouldn’t let you listen to streaming stations while word processing or web browsing. In fact, for work I use a Palm Pre which does permit multi-tasking. I do occasionally listen to Pandora on the Pre while answering emails, even though it kills the battery more quickly.

Wired’s Gadget Lab has a sneak preview of a beta of the forthcoming iPhone OS version 4. Top on the feature list is real multitasking. When the new OS drops later this summer iPad and iPhone 3GS users finally will be able to run their favorite streaming audio app in the background while using other apps. You might even be able to run two audio apps at the same time to test your bandwidth and tolerance for cacophony.

Unfortunately multitasking will not be available for first generation iPhones or the 3G. I guess our puny little processors can’t handle it.

As we reported back in January, all the big radio hoopla at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show as about the incursion of internet audio services like Pandora into car stereo systems. Things have been quiet on that front until I noticed an article in the New York times last week that asks “Will the Internet Kill Traditional Car Radio?.” It looks like writer John R. Quain is one of the first press reviewers to have his hands on one of the new Pandora-equipped car receivers, the Pioneer AVIC-X920BT.

Quain reports that the sound was not quite CD quality, but better than some satellite stations. Tethered to his iPhone he noted that

AT&T’s 3G wireless service is notoriously patchy in New York City, so there were occasional dead spots when the music dropped out as the cellphone searched for a signal. Furthermore, the software will not let you create or add new Pandora stations, a nod to concerns about distracted driving.

His is the only review–such as it is–that I could find, though it does look like the Pioneer is shipping.

For everyone else who doesn’t yet have Pioneer’s top-of-the-line car receiver, listening to internet radio in the car still means connecting it via a cable or bluetooth and messing with your smartphone’s controls. And, certainly, 3G data coverage is going to be one of the most limiting factors, especially outside major cities or off major interstate highways.

Until a critical mass of car receivers will interface smoothly with smartphones and wireless broadband is more consistently available, traditional broadcast and satellite radio are going to be the choice for most folks who want to listen to something besides their own CDs and MP3s.

While there are quite a few streaming radio apps for all the major smartphone operating systems, I’m quite doubtful that too many listeners will be clamoring to listen to a local or distant cookie-cutter active rock or adult contemporary commercial station over their smartphone instead of just scanning the radio dial. I’m guessing that services like Pandora, specialty internet-only stations and unique non-commercial broadcast stations like KEXP or WFMU will end up being the winners when mobile internet radio becomes truly practical.

 

Getting bored with Last.fm or Pandora? Interested in exploring other internet radio options? Check out Slacker Radio.

Recently featured in several commercials for Verizon’s Droid, Slacker Radio serves as another fantastic means for discovering new music and enjoying radio. For example, I was pleasantly surprised to have Riley Kilo and Rogue Wave pop up in my Say Hi To Your Mom radio station (I hadn’t heard either of them for quite a while, and they’ve never popped up on my Last.fm or Pandora stations of the same name). I haven’t started to fully explore its musical offerings, but I definitely haven’t been disappointed yet.

Like its counterparts, Slacker Radio allows users to create customized radio stations based on either an artist or a song. Unlike its counterparts, it also lists recently played songs and stations based on genre, which is a nifty perk, and even offers a “Top Stations” section consisting of “top hits” and a number of genre-specific stations. Slacker Radio has also developed a number of applications for smart phone, portable, and home use, including the iPhone and iPod touch, Android, Blackberry, Sony Walkman, and a number of streaming options.

As someone who has been keeping their eye on Slacker Radio’s development (via their website) for the last few months, it’s nice to see that they’ve already developed a piece of hardware called the Slacker G2, an alternative to the iPod that syncs up to a user’s personalized Slacker music station using a wireless signal. The website also offers Slacker Radio Plus, which gives users the option of ad-free listening with “unlimited skips, song lyrics, mobile station caching, and more” for either $4.99 per month (billed monthly) or $3.99 per month (billed annually at $47.88). Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be necessary if the website’s layout was more user friendly and visually appealing, so it’ll be interesting to see where this goes. I also find it interesting that each track gives the user the opportunity to “GET RINGTONE” as opposed to the actual track, which is generally the case, but the website is still relatively new, so, again, we’ll have to wait and see.

For you more tech savvy users, the online store offers a number of Slacker accessories, including an FM transmitter and a number of add-ons for the G2. The store also offers an assortment of Slacker-related t-shirts and baseball caps.

The website’s forum section appears to be quite active and features a number of threads, ranging from artist suggestions to personal radio player feedback. This portion of the website appears to be well-organized and should be able to answer any remaining questions that you may have. Enjoy!

The new issue of Rolling Stone now on newsstands features “40 Reasons To Be Excited About Music.” Though I might argue with a lot of the reasons (Black Eyed Peas are reason #1?!), I’m pretty convinced by #40: “Because You Really Like Music.” One of the factoids backing up that claim is the breakdown of how surveyed readers say they listen to music.

Out of eight formats FM radio comes in at a very respectable third place, with 59% of readers saying they listen to it for music. That comes behind 87% of readers who listen to CDs and 72% who listen to legal downloads (readers could choose all the formats they listen to). Satellite radio comes much further down the list at #7 behind cable TV, vinyl records and illegal downloads, surpassing only online subscription services. There aren’t a lot of details given, so I don’t know if Pandora or last.fm are considered online subscription services or if they’re lumped in with “legal downloads.” Also missing from the list is online radio; maybe that’s part of “legal downloads,” too?

Admittedly, at this point in history Rolling Stone doesn’t have a reputation for being at the cutting edge of music or technology. But with a circulation of 1.4 million the magazine isn’t fringe either. A 20-something Pitchfork reading indie rocker might think of a Rolling Stone reader as an aging boomer willing to pay $200 a seat for Eagles tickets, but the mag’s actual demographics show a reader’s median age to be 31, with 63% having at least some college education. So we can’t assume that the average RS reader is necessarily behind the times, as is also evidenced by the fact that 72% of readers listen to legal downloads.

All this goes to show that radio hasn’t yet been abandoned by rock music fans, like the Rolling Stone readership. Then again, 59% does not indicate a medium at its peak. I haven’t been able to track down any similar stats from an earlier year, if in fact RS has conducted such a survey before. But I reckon the percentage of radio listeners ten years ago would have been much closer to CD listeners.

What this tells me is that music radio still has a chance to hang on to listeners, and maybe even grow a bit. But I think it’s clear that the direction of commercial (and, unfortunately, some noncommercial) radio towards tighter playlists, national programming and strict, homogenized formats will not do anything to aid this cause. I’d love to see a breakdown of what kind of radio the Rolling Stone readers listen to, but alas I don’t think they asked that question.

Ever since radio lost its prominence to television as America’s number one form of entertainment, it has been in the background of American life. The primary place where many people listen to radio has been in their cars on the open road. The audience for traditional AM/FM forms of radio is shrinking, but the market for personalized Internet radio services such as Pandora radio continues to grow. Drivers have sought to bring Internet radio with them on the road since mobile smartphones such as the iPhone, Blackberry or Android phones started offering mobile Internet radio applications.

The problem is how to do this. Launching the radio apps on phones and then connecting them to a car stereo’s auxiliary port has so far been the only way to take Internet radio to its fullest potential. But this creates further distractions for the driver and can contribute to driver error and traffic accidents. This week the Ford Motor Company announced their solution to this dilemma.

A new upgrade to its SYNC systems named AppLink will natively and wirelessly use radio applications such as Pandora or Stitcher radio from smartphones, allowing the driver to use these applications hands free. After Ford rolls out the new software update later this year, all SYNC enabled vehicles will be able to use AppLink. The system works by syncing smartphones to Ford’s SYNC systems and then the user navigates Pandora or Stitcher using voice commands. (more…)