Who cares about Digital Radio? We’ve already got it. It’s called “the internet”.
Seriously. Why shell out for a new appliance whose only function is to receive a couple dozen local broadcasts when your existing equipment and internet connection can already bring you thousands of live audio streams from around the globe?
Take Apple’s iTunes software. It’s installed on the computers of pretty much everyone who has an iPhone or iPod — that’s one million Australians — plus anyone else who cares to download it. iTunes currently lists more than 3600 internet “radio” stations. The content covers the full spectrum from pop (310 streams) and classic rock (128) to folk (48) and comedy (14). Even US Congress, via C-SPAN Radio.
And that’s just what’s been submitted to Apple’s catalog. There’s many more. All available for free, no extra equipment needed.
Sure, you need an internet connection. But mobile broadband already covers 99% of the Australian population, even without the National Broadband Network and a Wi-Fi tail in your home or office. Data prices trend ever downwards. Compared to the bandwidth used for that full HD copy of Lesbian Vampire Killers you just downlo … um, I mean rented legitimately through a reputable online distributor, an audio-only stream is nothing.
According to 2008 research by m.Net Corporation, Australian mobile phones are more likely than not (53%) to be broadband-capable (i.e. 3G or 3.5G) and 57% of mobile-owners already use it for “entertainment services”.
At home, want to listen via something more living-room-friendly than a computer? There’s already plenty of choice. Digital entertainment players like the Netgear EVA8000 and its many competitors don’t just stream internet radio, they play videos and photo slideshows too — and cost under $400.
Other wireless-capable devices like the Chumby and the cute-as-heck bunny-eared Nabaztag read news, share prices, time, weather, traffic information, messages from your friends — and, yes, play internet radio — customisable for your needs.
On the content-creation side, entry-level computers and smartphones have everything you need to create a radio program. Free services like Shoutcast stream out the audio to your audience.
The same can be said for TV, using streaming services like Ustream and Mogulus — and even Qik video streaming direct from mobile phones. As cheaper bandwidth becomes available, the centralised media factories suffer. First newspapers, then radio, then TV. All will slowly wither away.
Yes, all this does indeed create a serious problem for existing broadcasters. What does Breakfast with Blocko and Narelle really offer that can’t be done by a $160 plastic rabbit?
The broadcasters will fight back. DMG has announced an iPhone application for receiving their digital channels over the internet. The ABC is rumoured to be developing one for Triple J.
But, as I say, why set yourself up with one or a dozen or two dozen channels when there are thousands — including one created by people you know for people just like you?
Or one created specifically for you?
By a plastic rabbit.
Digital Radio is simply too late to save broadcast radio. It’s as pointless as streamlined steam locomotives in the age of the diesel-electric.
Well Stilgherrian, I’m glad you can afford the time and money to sit there listening to internet radio if every station in Australia is, as you say “dead”.
I beg to differ. I can’t be arsed sitting there for 10 minutes looking at a loading screen on my iphone, as I did last night in a pub with free wi-fi, waiting for a podcast to load.
Let alone streaming… Are you crazy? I get 700 MB included on my plan, how am I going to stream internet radio to the extent that I listen to broadcast radio? Plus, I find internet radio over populated and mostly with either irrelevant or poor production values.
Broadcast radio still has a lot going for it. Every single one of my friends (and even my 75 year old grandma) has an ipod or an iphone, yet they only listen to it when a broadcast radio isn’t available to them.
Shall we go shutting down the newspapers, radio & television stations? Hell, why not even the cinemas and theatres? God forbid anyone in this world has to PAY for entertainment.
No we shouldn’t. Anyone with a brain should be out there protecting these entertainment and news sources because if we rely on impulsive bloggers and bedroom podcasters, not only will the legislated accuracy be taken out of the news – but also the quality.
Aside from all that – digital radio a lot of good things going for it beyond quality and hey, the word’s not out on whether or not analogue will even be turned off… So take a breather and sit making your own little radio shows if that’s what you want to do, in the meantime I’m going to tune in to what I love as I have since I was a child.
Digital Radio was a good idea … the UK has had it for nearly 20 years but it is restricted to local content. I have a Sagem ( Dick Smith sells them) it receives all internet radio broadcasts (just like your PC) but with a WiFi Modem/Router (which most literate people will have) , you can plug it in anywhere in the house and listen to worldwide Internet radio. As a Pommie who hasn’t lived there for 38 years I can listen BBC7 and get all those British comedians that weren’t even born when I left or I can listen to the news and current affair programmes of Switzerland on DRS where I lived for 30 years. What I want is a radio in my car that only plays Radio National and Classic FM and leaves all that crappy Harvey Norman / ARL stuff out.
I would like to ‘optomistically’ think that digital radio may provide something much much better than the low quality 64-128k mp3 quality that seems to be so on the few internet stations that I have played with.
Unless the cost of streaming data to your car when driving to and from work drastically reduces or approaches zero radio has a long life left in it.
A few standard points tend to crop up in these discussions, whether it’s about radio, the death of newspapers or whatever human activity we pick to point out how i’ll be changed by digital production and distribution.
1. We’re looking at trends for the future, not what’s happening by next Tuesday morning tea time. Look at what’s happened over the last 15 years, and try to project that into the next 15.
2. Data transmission costs are trending to zero. Just because Australian telcos charge (relatively) high rates for mobile data now, doesn’t mean they’ll be able to do so forever. iPhone plans in the US and Europe already have unlimited mobile data. Do try to look beyond your current cheap-arse mobile plan, folks.
3. It’s not about what old friends are relatives are doing, or people continuing to consume the media they loved as a child. People usually settle into lifelong habits. Look at how the 10 year olds use the technology. That’s what counts for the future.
Even calling it “internet radio” interprets audio streams in terms of what was done before. That’s like calling TV news a “video newspaper”.
4. On “what do the young’uns think”, they actually don’t care all that much about what the audiophiles would call “high fidelity”. Only old farts worry about all that. The young’uns are more interested in the immediacy, convenience and shareability of what they’re listening to.
5. Someone will always mention the hobbyists and disparage them with words like “bedroom” and “pyjamas”. Grow up. That’s a cheap rhetorical trick and shoddy logic. Just because some people might make content with low production values, doesn’t mean other people won’t be making high-quality material — including highly-professional operations, some of which may even be institutions you’re already familiar with. Like the ABC. Maybe.
6. Increasingly, the media people consume is about where they fit into the cultures and sub-cultures, not about where they happen to be sitting geographically. John Russell makes the point that “internet radio” allows him to connect with his Pommie culture — something that’s important to him even though he’s not lived in the UK for 38 years.
Similarly, young people will, when older people, stay in touch with the culture they grew with, even though it’s scattered across the globe. Low production costs mean they really can remember the days of the specific set of nightclubs they went to, with the music played by the same DJs — and that’ll always have more salience for them than a mass-produced product that supposedly appeals to everyone in their their generation.
All this is happening. Slowly but surely. You just won’t see if it you’re sitting in your car listening to ABC Classic FM. And what’s the demographic of their audience again…?