New media and customization: Together is better
Monday, March 24th, 2008
Traditional broadcasting technologies such as radio are being displaced by more personalized services. Broadcast radio, television, and even modern satellite radio are all suffering from a decline in listeners. What’s the reason? Computers and portable media players are more advanced and easier to use than ever before. Sure, portable radios, walkmans and Discmans have been around for years, but they never offered people the degree of customizability as products like the iPod do. When I was a kid, making a customized CD or tape was very time-consuming or too expensive, at least until 1999 when I was able to afford my first CD burner. Today, I can do the same thing with a few clicks of a mouse and in way less time.
These days, more and more technologies are being supplanted. Last Christmas, I got an alarm clock/radio that doubles as an iPod dock and player. Instead of waking up to a screeching siren, I can start the day with my obnoxious teenage angst music.
The car is where traditional radio is making its stand. Very few cars have an iPod or USB connection, so radio is still the most convenient distraction when behind the wheel. A few years ago, cars’ AM/FM radio dominance became threatened by the satellite variety. The two main satellite radio services, XM and Sirius, claim they have a combined 17 million subscribers in
Even so, will portable media players be able to retain their market share? Satellite radio can be transmitted into your pocket as well. There are portable players from XM and Sirius, even devices that can record audio for playback later. So far, they haven’t been able to replace many iPods. Adoption of satellite radio has waned as iPods and portable media players have become more popular, suggesting that people would rather listen to their own playlists instead of stations designed for mass consumption.
And now for something completely different…
Any media platform has to be able to pass the adolescent girl test. Think of a user that doesn’t know and doesn’t care how something works. It just better work and better be cool. Radio achieves that because it’s so darn easy to use. Discmans were easy and were all the rage in their day. iPods are straightforward, and have the cool card in their back pocket. Podcasts fall short on both fronts. They need a lot of explanation up-front, and users need to be relatively skilled with the web to get value out of them.
I like to describe our website as “a service where you can create your own radio show. Not only with the music you want, but also the news, business, sports, and any other topic you want to know or be kept in the loop about.” I steer clear of describing what podcasts are because I find that in doing so, I use long words (e.g. syndicated) that only make people feel very confused.
We are designing the service so that it is very easy for people to get started. Then we’ll hook them using our wit and charm, and possibly a few high-rated podcasts. Keep coming back to dailysplice.com to see the changes we’ll be making over the next few weeks. Our mission is to make podcasts easier to use and to expose podcasters to a larger audience. No, not just adolescent girls.
