Source: Ofcom

Hitting the ‘entertain me’ buttonhow traditional radio skills are becoming a vital part of the streamed landscape July 2015

By the end of the decade, it is estimated that up to 50 billion

devices will be wirelessly connected to the internet

Source: Ofcom

Last year 164 billion tracks were streamed in the US alone

Music consumption is increasing

People engage with musiceverywhere

A complex echo-system of user preferences is emerging

Digital services & startups offer radio-style services in abundance

Meanwhile, traditional radio engagement is declining

Source: Audiomonitor

There are a number of challenges for traditional radio entering the digital space

TechnologyNavigating new technology and essentially moving from airwaves to cloud storage, adds a lot of pressure to

infrastructure.

LicensingRights for radio-style

streaming are different than those for terrestrial

broadcasts. Additional features such as downloads or on-demand streams even

further complicate.

AudienceDigital users are fickle and monetization mainly comes

from a tough to obtain subscription fee that

requires major scale for profit

Radio broadcasters hold some of the most in-demand assets for the new digital

industryProgramming and content expertise

Brand recognition

Deep knowledge of music audiences

Strong history of ad-funded monetization

Navigation between global and local audiences

The industry will continue to scale by attracting new users with different

levels of engagement and by offering access across all devices

Some of the core components for a successful radio service are:

How are these evolving together?

• So the case has been made for human curation, what services are best equipped to curate to a massive audience?

• Who are the winners and losers in a world where local radio is displaced by global?

• Does radio need to be global in order for streaming services to scale?

• What is the role of the playlist on interactive radio?

• Is there a threat of new payola situations?

• How do labels and artists market their music to radio in a way that helps foster discovery?

Radio talent & human curation are supplementing the algorithmic radio streams

• What do users really expect when they hear the term ‘smart radio’?

• Are the services currently out there really smart? Are they meeting the users’ expectations?

• What unlikely brands do you envision getting into radio?

• There is a lot of buzz about hybrid radio, should that be a consumer term or just something used to explain the infrastructure?

• What types of modern monetization or new business models will emerge in order to entice new users?

Services are taking the work away from the user and creating easy ‘entertain me’

buttons

• What devices are offering top-notch radio listening experiences?

• Are devices being made with the radio or steaming in mind, what can be done to drive this further?

• How do open platforms work to enable more/less confusion for the consumer? Is access to all services necessary?

• Mobility is an important feature for most music apps, however the majority of people listen to music at home and in the car. Are these core places for listening being ignored?

• How will wearables add further demand for scalable curation?

Now that all devices are connected we can expect better integration with music apps