Does Spotify pose a threat to radio?

How many times have you heard "radio is dead, everyone listens to Spotify now" or words to that effect?

It's not true, of course, with the latest MIDAS survey showing live radio accounts for 73% of UK 15+ ear-time while on-demand music streaming (OMS) is miles behind on just 11%.

Live radio also reaches 93% of the 15+ population with OMS on 28%, so radio remains solid - and that's why big tech has long been keen to bounce the ball in its court.

Fortunately for us, the likes of Spotify and Apple don't seem to have any real understanding of radio from the inside - as a medium, it's appeal and how listeners interact with it - because their people are merely listeners and not industry experts.

However, that's not to say we should underestimate the streaming giants as we don't know what their plans are. The international radio industry cannot afford to be a victim of its own success.

iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman is confident in FM radio and says he does not view Spotify as a competitor.

Clearly FM is not the future, whichever way you slice it, but Pittman is right to suggest it's becoming increasingly important for radio's primary purpose to be companionship and human connection rather than just music.

There is no long-term future for jukeboxes interspersed by twelve minutes of spot ads per hour - in fact, on American radio, that's about the duration of a single commercial break.

While there's generally some acceptance among heritage audiences, if commercial radio launched in today's climate it would never have ended up with such a heavy ad-load and would've been more keen to explore innovative, creative revenue streams like branded content.

What purpose do tight music rotations serve?

One of the most common criticisms of commercial radio is it plays "the same few songs all the time" - so why do it?

The logic is simple - the most frequently-played tracks are likely to have proven most popular in that station's music research, and someone is statistically likely to hear one of those tried and tested favourites whenever they tune in.

A common methodology for conducting this research is the auditorium test whereby existing listeners and target listeners are brought together in a room, listen to a load of songs and score each one based on how much they like it.

While likability is the most important data overall, programmers are also interested in familiarity (knowing the song) and burn (sick of hearing the song). These two are particularly relevant to current tracks and determining if a newer song has cut through or been overplayed.

Auditorium testing isn't exactly cheap so doing it more frequently would be costly and if you test too many songs in one session, by keeping people sitting there for too long, productivity sharply decreases thus affecting the accuracy of results towards the end.

However, what you could do is gamble excluding a certain number of huge songs that consistently score well to make way for a few extras - at least for a while.

While technological advancements in recent years make online music testing possible - which some smaller stations have done - this is less reliable as it's conducted unsupervised and unrealistic to think every person who makes a start in their own time will complete the survey and do so correctly.

BBC radio may seem less music-intensive than commercial radio but then you factor out the ad breaks it doesn't have to contend with. This is also the reason BBC stations are better placed to risk playing more songs that maybe aren't as popular or familiar.

Global saves local radio - yes, really!

Capital gains six new FM transmitters from Monday as the brand replaces Touch FM, Banbury Sound and Rugby FM.

It comes after Quidem, which had been operating at a financial loss, entered a brand licencing agreement with Global in September and its format change requests were approved by Ofcom.

The usual suspects will bemoan the "death" of local radio through consolidation into national networks when, in fact, this move safeguards the future of these stations.

What's the alternative? The company winding up and handing back the licences to Ofcom would be in no-one's interests leading to:

• a reduction in choice (at least in the short term)

• a reduction in local journalism at a time when it's never been more important 

• a lengthy process whereby the licences are re-advertised likely leading to another small operator coming in and having a go shortly before also declaring itself unprofitable

A takeover of Quidem by Global could've been subject to a CMA investigation with a "hold separate" order to prevent integration - as we're seeing with Bauer's acquisitions earlier this year - and given the financial pressures in this case that could be detrimental to its operations.

The current ownership structure means Quidem will have to provide its own three-hour regional show despite being in the same approved area as Global-owned Capital Birmingham.

The Radioplayer boom and speaking with one voice

UK Radioplayer celebrates its ninth birthday next year.

First announced in 2009, as a partnership between the BBC and commercial radio, it was initially a Flash-based web console before developing iOS and Android apps. 

Its key aim was to improve the online experience for listeners by delivering an attractive and interactive solution for client stations, but it was also a bid to speed up digital growth with the internet accounting for a mere 3% share of all listening according to RAJAR.

In Radioplayer's first few months, having started with around 150 stations, it attracted 5.7m unique users. Today, that figure stands at 7.6m with more than 400 radio stations and listening via online and apps has increased by 10 percentage points (still impressive considering internet growth has been slower in the UK owing to the strength of our DAB market).

Fast-forward to 2019 and Spain has just become the 12th country to adopt the Radioplayer platform. It's one of the UK radio industry's biggest success stories.

Despite the BBC and the main players in commercial radio no longer directing listeners to Radioplayer, their stations are still available on the app and, as stakeholders, they remain committed to supporting the organisation's current primary focus on striking deals with the automotive sector to secure radio's in-car future as the prominence of connected vehicles grows.

Radioplayer and Radiocentre demonstrate the benefits of working together to achieve everyone's best interests. The commercial case for building one's own listening platform is strong and I don't blame an established group with the scale of Global or Bauer for doing so.

The wider point to make is that, as radio competition intensifies, it may seem as though the industry is becoming increasingly fragmented - but, for a sector faced with powerful new digital rivals, speaking with one voice has never been more important.

Magic 100% Christmas returns

Bauer has announced Magic will play 100% Christmas music again for 2019 starting at 9am tomorrow.

While the festive format flip is commonplace in the lesser-regulated US market, with hundreds of stations making the temporary switch each year, a flagship UK radio outlet had never made this bold move before Magic twelve months ago.

It's a proven audience winner in the States and in the UK we've seen a sprinkling of all-Christmas stations over the last decade at both a local and national level.

Magic is synonymous today with a more upbeat and positive feel than its former easy-listening self making the festive theme a perfect fit. It's a strong brand with a loyal listenership and brand extensions to cross-promote too, reducing the risk of post-Christmas churn.

Social media may not be the most accurate representation of anything but the response from followers is largely positive which does offer a flavour of the wider audience reaction.

We can’t tell from RAJAR how Magic performed in December alone as each set of data is recorded over a three-month period, but given it added 45k listeners in London and a whopping 227k listeners nationally in 2018 Q4, I don’t think Bauer will be too worried.

What's more, Sky Cinema obviously see commercial benefits having returned for 2019 as the headline sponsor of Magic 100% Christmas.

Petition to save the good old-fashioned "best of..."

Here's a question: why does no UK talk radio station do a packaged show looking back at the best calls of the week?

I ask because, in any debate, only a small percentage of calls are "radio gold" so a tightly-packaged highlights show, drawing output from across the entire station, would be a good listen (as is LBC's Callers of the Year at Christmas).

Many individual shows have "best of" compilations available either on-air or as a podcast but I'm surprised there's nothing that showcases a whole station as a shop window.

Some would argue it's the "kind of thing you do as a podcast these days" rather than broadcast but the two don't have to be mutually exclusive. At the end of the day, while there's more than one way of preparing and/or delivering it, it's all audio made by creative people going into ears.

Live has unique benefits, primarily instant listener interaction and reactivity, but if not being used to its advantage a well-produced pre-recorded show might be preferable. Both have their place.

I'm not of the view that radio's success is largely down to liveness. People love radio because it's helpful in some way. That could mean interesting, thought-provoking, educating or entertaining - and when playing your best bits, you can be sure you're ticking one or more of those boxes.

Ofcom study: live radio leads smart-speaker usage

Back in May, Ofcom's Online Nation report revealed the following data on smart-speaker usage:

• 20% of UK homes now have a smart-speaker compared with 13% two years ago
• 56% use theirs to listen to live radio
• 47% search for information
• 46% ask about the weather
• 36% set alarms and schedule reminders
• 34% get news reports

If one thing's for sure, it's that linear radio is not dying. We know reach has long remained static, hovering around the 90% mark, and digital now accounts for 56.8% of all listening. The device is changing but the overall number is not.

RAJAR's latest MIDAS survey also found that 75% of listening on smart-speakers is to live radio, vs 23% for podcasts/listen again, having grown its share of all radio listening to 7% (sounds small in the grand scheme of things but it's early days and DAB & FM still dominate - smart-speakers are now level with PCs which have been mainstream for a lot longer and just six percentage points behind smartphones).

With many homes being wireless-less, smart speakers are effectively reinstating the good old-fashioned radio which is something to celebrate.

Of course, going forward as online sees further growth, competition from both more radio stations and new skills/services will only increase as it becomes more and more of a level playing field.