Prediction: Big media will have its hands full with Netflix. And… Spotify and Gimlet and Anchor, oh my! Plus, rants and raves on “grit” and pop up service apps like Recharge (hotel-by-the-minute), Popup (ephemeral coffee shops), and Breather (on-demand private workspaces). It’s episode 91 of Media Unplugged with branding authority Tom Asacker and media strategist Mark Ramsey. Listen as we go inside media to reveal the ugly truth! Click the play button below: And if you’re rea

So the FCC is contemplating the relaxation of radio ownership rules. Some broadcasters want to own more stations under one roof in order to compete with more platforms attacking radio from the fringes. Central to this issue is what radio “is” now. In order to regulate something you need to know what it is and what it isn’t, right? Here’s a fact: Radio is not an industry of towers. It’s an industry of content and listeners and advertisers. Spotify, Pandora, and podcast platfor

It’s informed speculation at this point, but the story goes like this: By the end of this month, Spotify is expected to make some hardware announcements, and there’s a good chance that one of those announcements will be designed to bring the platform closer to more cars. Obviously anybody with a smartphone and bluetooth can conceivably use Spotify in their cars, but the platform is notoriously laborious – indeed, that’s the whole point of Spotify: Getting exactly what you wan

How to survive the media apocalypse. And… Voice control: It’s not as big as you think – but maybe it will be. Plus, rants and raves about Spotify’s reinvention as an partner for music artists, the new Steven Spielberg movie The Post, and the the wax museum selfies that have outraged the world. It’s episode 75 of Media Unplugged with branding authority Tom Asacker and media strategist Mark Ramsey. Listen as we go inside media to reveal the ugly truth! Click the play button bel

Yesterday I published a piece that argued two things: First, the decline in streaming for broadcast radio stations is real – it’s a trend, not a blip. Second, that decline has consequences not only for your streaming strategy but also for the strategy of spreading your radio brands across every new platform under the sun (“Alexa, I mean you!”). So what do you do? Here’s what I think you have to do. And not just you, but everyone who comes at digital from a place that has not,

This one is going to upset some of you, so get ready…. Recently I did some research where listeners were asked what platforms they listened to and where they listened to them. One respondent, a 40’ish woman with a teenaged son, indicated that her son would never listen radio “because he’s always wearing those headphones attached to his mobile phone.” At first, I couldn’t understand why she viewed this as an obstacle to listening to radio, since radio can run through those sam

There is a sense of inevitable satisfaction in the idea that we can get from digital platforms exactly what we want whenever we want it, right? We lean forward with Netflix and find precisely what we want or what Netflix tells us we will like because of what we have watched previously. We want that one song from Spotify, and so we find it and listen to it. We want to create a Pandora station that sounds just like one of our favorite artists so it hews as closely as possible t

If you’re waiting for a new music format – a knight in shining armor – to save your flagging ratings, then you will be waiting for the rest of your professional career. Because there never will be one ever again. What’s the next big new format? Radio has been asking that question forever. Most recently, the answer was Classic Hip Hop. Is it the next big thing? Maybe not (from Radio Ink): If you listened to Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins on his earnings call you might come to th

So people are freaking out about the new Edison data indicating that consumers – that’s you and me – switch stations 22 times in an average commute. …unless you’re my beautiful wife, in which case you switch stations 2200 times in an average commute. Is that number (the 22) shocking? I don’t know why. Anybody who has ever been in a car has seen this firsthand. I know we want to imagine that no advertiser will ever figure this out, but hey, advertisers know this already. They

So what does it mean when the radio industry headlines lead with debt-burdened iHeartMedia and this: iHeartMedia Battles Angry Creditors as Bankruptcy Looms. What does it mean when the next headline is about Cumulus, and this quotation: “Q4 and 2015 results dismal as radio’s decline shows no signs of stabilization.” What does it mean when CBS announces their plan to spin all of their radio assets while at the same time vowing to boost revenue $3.75 Billion by 2020 based on ev

A recent study set out to determine the difference between hearing music aloud and together with others (the way radio tends to be consumed) versus hearing that music alone (e.g., via earbuds or headphones). The study, sponsored by Sonos and Apple Music, came to this conclusion (reported in Mashable): With music being played aloud, families reported spending 13% more time together and were in closer proximity to each other (20% more of the time). That second stat may have som

“Share-of-ear.” It’s a mantra among broadcasters nowadays. And I’m going to explain why you should forget about it. You know what it means: We compare the time listened to radio with time devoted to other audio forms: Online radio, podcasting, mp3’s, whatever. The theory holds that any platform’s “share-of-ear” comes largely at the expense of any other audio-centric platform. So when podcasting listenership grows, that means radio listening (for example) might shrink. I can o

How can terrestrial radio partner with online radio for the benefit of both? That’s just one topic tackled by Duncan Orrell-Jones, CEO of Slacker Radio. In this Q&A from hivio, the audio future festival, Orrell-Jones outlines Slacker’s business strategy and how it contrasts with the strategies of more familiar names like Pandora or Spotify. Slacker’s emphasis is on building a state-of-the-art radio experience and pursuing unique deals in partnership and distribution. Some of

What if music genres are a lot less important to how listeners tune in music than “use case” moments? That is, what if what you want to do while you’re listening is more important than the genre you are listening to? That’s just one insight from Spotify’s deep dive into their massive dataset. Think about the implications of that for a moment. It suggests that you should spend less time trumpeting your genre and more time trumpeting the moments that your genre is suited for in

Beginning later this month, Pandora becomes the exclusive streaming home for the uber-popular Serial podcast. And starting next year, Pandora adds Serial’s sister radio show/podcast This American Life (on what can only be a non-exclusive basis). I’ve been thinking about the consequence of this announcement, and here’s the best I can come up with: It’s good PR for Pandora in an otherwise quiet time It’s great news for Serial, which gets to add an all-new distribution partner w

You’ll never guess how much music matters to Millennials! And… What happens when Stars ARE the Network? It’s episode 29 of Media Unplugged with branding authority Tom Asacker and media strategist Mark Ramsey. Plus, Playboy says “goodbye” to nudity, Meryl Streep thinks there aren’t enough female movie critics, and there’s actually something called “Paranormal Date.” Brand authority Tom Asacker and Media Strategist Mark Ramsey go inside what’s really happening in media. Listen

Every time there’s some new innovation out there which enhances the choice set available to consumers who want to hear audio entertainment or information, a chill runs up the spine of every broadcaster, because with such a large fraction of listening, radio seems to stand more to lose than to gain from the expansion of choice. Without question, new choices squeeze existing options. Indeed, given the growing number of distractions available to consumers across every platform –

Yes, you can get rich with online video – but not through YouTube. And… Paramount’s new business model makes theater owners AND consumers happy. It’s episode 23 of Media Unplugged with branding authority Tom Asacker and media strategist Mark Ramsey. Plus, rants and raves about Google’s new chat-bot that can debate the meaning of life, how Sony Music is “disfavoring” artists through its investment in Spotify, and how J.J. Abrams Star Wars presentation at Comic-Con is footage-f

What’s in store for Spotify now that we’re living in a post-Apple Music world? That’s what I discussed with Brian Benedik, Spotify’s North American VP for Advertising and Sponsorships at hivio 2015. Some of the questions Brian addresses: In its news releases Spotify seems to refer to “audio shows” rather than “podcasts.” Why? Spotify has added entertainment, news, and video clips to its wealth of music. What have you learned about consumer interest in these additions? How hav

In part one of the slicing of Apple Music, I looked at the all-you-can-eat streaming service itself. Today, in part two, I go inside the strategy behind Apple Music’s streaming radio station, Beats 1. What is Beats 1? It is “Apple’s first 24/7 worldwide radio station.” Special? Innovative? No (and does Zane really not have his own board op?). That’s despite the hyperbolic and breathless reception this initiative is getting by some tech-heads who should know better. Take MacWo