As I was browsing through ASCAP’s Headlines the other day, I happened to come upon an article in its Daily Brief’s section about Pandora (an internet radio service) and how it may be to blame for the demise of am/fm radio. The article itself was from a tech website called Ars Technica and I thought I should check it out because Pandora is playing a huge role in how people listen to radio now and how artists, songwriters and publishers get paid. The article talks about how ‘net streaming services have taken over the radio listening market tremendously and a report titled “ The American Youth Study 2010” by Edison Research showed that “20 percent of consumers age 12 to 24 say they listened to Pandora radio over the last month”, based on their study, and claims only six percent of those listened to online streams from am/fm radio the week they were studied.
The article then gets into how compared to ten years ago, young listeners have deserted morning radio and are spending more time on the internet, something that only this digital “turnaround” has created. We see the effects of this in our everyday entertainment lives, from how we purchase music on iTunes to how we watch movies for free or little charge now on Netflix…we don’t even have to budge or move around until its time to pop some more popcorn in the microwave! The draw of Pandora is so high because one can sit down and create their own special radio stations revolved around the artists they like, let alone being able to skip songs and have less commercial interruptions than what traditional am/fm radio stations present. I have this service downloaded on my Blackberry and its great for all the above reasons but its not where I go when I want to hear the newest music available. According to the Edison report, I am one of many listeners who feels this same way and they found that over 51 percent still has listening to the radio as their source of hearing about new music while only 14 percent use ‘net radio station for this same purpose.
I agree with the article that a DJ’s opinion on a record will always dominate over what a digital radio station decides is hot and sometimes we just don’t want to hear what we pre-selected but rather something new to our ears! The author Matthew Lasar also brings up the fact that most people still hear about concert information from old-school radio rather than through social media outlets and that we “would be very disappointed if the AM/FM radio stations [we] listen to no longer existed." That is very true, but only time and Pandora will tell how this tug-of-war for radio listeners will turn out in the next decade or so we’re going to have to keep those antennas up!
