Listening Habits

Among the strongest arguments in support of internet radio and internet music subscription services is that music fans can have access to more music of a greater variety. The most well known sites, Pandora and Last.FM seek to expose listeners to music they are not aware of but that fits their self described musical taste. Emerging artists often pay stations like Last.FM to play their songs next to similar artists. The hope is that this breed of direct marketing will turn into music purchases or at a minimum, new fans. Nearly every internet based music service provides a direct link to an artist's website as well as a music store where their music can be purchased. Exposure to new tastes is inevitable, right?

What happens when listeners use subscription services that allow the user to pick the music instead of being fed a steady stream of radio? Interestingly, listeners can't seem to break away from their top 40 taste. Spotify is an on demand music service in Europe that allows listeners to choose specific songs to listen to. Users can be subject to advertisements between songs, or pay a fee of 10p per month in the UK to have advertisement free music on their mobile phones and computers. Spotify boasts 4.5 million songs to choose from, and they have licensing deals providing access to a very wide range of recording label rosters. The habits of Spotify users in the UK were remarkable during the first 6 months the service was available there.

From February to July, 2009, 2.7 million people signed up to use Spotify in the UK. During this time there were a total of 1 billion streams, averaging at 370 songs listened to by each user. Although listeners had access to 4.5 million songs, only 3 million were ever listened to. But here is the kicker: According to Spotify the top 100,000 played songs accounted for 80% of all plays.

It appears that when music consumers are given unlimited access to music through an on demand source, there is an aversion from trying new music. Perhaps people do not know where to start seeking out new music when confronted with so many options. This phenomena occurs elsewhere in our lives as well. We are all creatures of habit. This means that when looking for music produced in previous years, we are more likely to seek out what we already know. Looking forward however, it seems that services like Spotify provide a great opportunity to discover new music as it is being released. As internet based services offering a greater selection of music continue to replace terrestrial radio in the lives of music consumers, listeners may become more open to expanding their musical tastes.

To the extent that our music habits are a function of building social connections and having songs or artists in common with our own friends, the expansion of social networking components to internet music services will strengthen these connections. Already, services are allowing listeners to share songs or recommend songs to other listeners. This can serve as a catalyst to exposing listeners to new music and fostering social connections to that music.

For now it appears that old habits die hard. Personally, I love the idea that the next great artist could be a click away. Take the gamble and listen to something you have never heard. It's worth the reward and the music is free.

Blip Review

The goal of Blip appears to be streamlining one’s musical impulses to be representative of what ideal radio could be. Blip seeks to combine concepts of Twitter and Facebook with radio. Upon creating a free D.J. account, one types in the name of a song they would like to hear. Blip’s search engine seeks the internet for a link that hosts the song you are looking for. Blip provides audio and video clips, the majority of the latter come through youtube. The D.J. can preview the track to make sure it is what you were looking for. Upon approval, the user “blips” or broadcasts the song along with an option message of up to 150 characters.

Selected songs are then broadcast within the Blip website and to other social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook. The user must synch their accounts at other sites for Blip to broadcast there. As a user of Facebook, it is fun and incredibly easy to post songs and videos through Blip for friends to hear. Blip tracks a D.J.’s song picks and links them to other D.J.’s with similar musical tastes. When you are not broadcasting your own selections, Blip produces streaming radio based upon the selections of similar users.

Perhaps the biggest downside to Blip is the inability to produce a long play-list, and to control the order of that play list. Each time you select a new song it is automatically broadcast, and the new song begins to play. There are many music fans who get their kicks listening to the first verse and chorus of a song before forwarding to the next track. For me however, I need to hear the whole song. Blip would be a more useful site if one could drag songs into a play-list that would broadcast each song to other users when the track begins to play.

The second biggest problem with Blip is that you may have trouble finding the exact version of the song you are looking for. More often than not Blip sought to fulfill my request by producing a youtube link featuring a live version or cover version of the song. When you are seeking out a particular tune, the last thing you may want to hear is somebody's bedroom cover filmed in Kansas (no disrespect to Kansas or bedroom rockstars). There are clearly licensing issues, because many authorized recordings and album versions of songs are blocked by Blip. Blip remains far superior to conducting a search through Youtube, even if many of the hits lead you there. I love the idea of having both video and audio options through one radio site.

Blip’s ability to find similar music is not as impressive as systems found on other radio sites such as Pandora. Perhaps Blip needs more users before they can get a wide enough sample to judge what a user’s musical tastes are. In fairness, I have been using the site for one week and have not yet blipped hundreds of songs. The accuracy may improve as my own tastes are broadcast more regularly. Some users might use Blip to its full potential by seeking out D.J.’s and following them, much like on Twitter. For most people however, it seems that the purpose of social networking is merely to maintain contact with one’s establishes connections. Even so, Blip has charm. Most music that one discovers is through friends, not by chance. Finding a new song posted by a friend on Facebook or Twitter is a great surprise, and I am always willing to listen.

Check out Blip for its simplicity, ease of use, and broadcasting capabilities. Go elsewhere if you want to build a long playlist to listen to over a long period.

Listen to my D.J. Station by following Liondeutsch on Blip.FM

E.T. Radio

I’m in the process of writing a research paper on the future relationship of radio and the recording industry. Having just delved into the research phase, a prediction can already be made. Internet radio is the future, and within 5 years terrestrial radio will be facing the same issues that print news faces today. Information wants to be free. Information acts like water and will always take the path of least resistance.

As consumers devouring information, or in this case music, we crave control and economic efficiency. Control is the ability to listen to what you want when and where you want. Control is also the ability to expand your musical horizon or to keep it static. Economic efficiency is simply finding the least burdensome mode to have control over as much music as possible.

The maxims of control and economic efficiency for the consumer came to fruition in 1999, when Napster first came to public. Napster provided the consumer with the ability to download, possess, and maintain control over any desired music for no cost. Of course, there is the illegal issue of stealing copyrighted information without having compensated the copyright owner. Internet radio looks to be approaching Napster2.0 where it is legal and often free for the consumer to demand any music anywhere.

In the coming weeks I will explore many of the new services offering on demand music access. If you have a mobile computing device such as an iPhone, you can use many of these services on the go. In early January, Ford Motor Company revealed the first factory installed internet console for cars. This console will provide drivers the ability to create on the go playlists from music they do not own, but can legally access.

Information wants to be free, music is no exception. We are the DJ’s of the future, so get your headphones ready.

Birth of the MP3

The MP3 has been blamed for bringing about the downfall of major record labels. Opinions will differ, however the MP3 is clearly at the heart of the currently aching business model followed by traditional recording companies. The origins of the MP3 and its rise to power are remarkable in part because the history exists independent of influence from the music industry. A technology created for innovation now stands for the proposition that information wants to be free (it is finding a delivery medium that presents delivery hurdles).

Beginning as a concept to improve the transmission speed of audio-visual content, Leonardo Chiariglione approached the International Organization for Standardization during the mid 1980’s with the goal of establishing a standard format for compression of digital data. At the time, Chiraiglione was serving as the director of research at Telecom Italia’s Centro Studie Labratori Telecommunicazioni (described as the old “Bell Labs” Europe). In 1988 Chiariglione formed the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) to develop a team of researchers for the project.

Chiarglione’s team developed a codec program that could shrink large audio files by removing sound frequencies not naturally picked up by the human ear. To the casual listener, the audio quality does not sound meaningfully different and yet the file can be reduced to 1/12 the original size. The initial codec was improved by researchers at the University of Erlangen, Germany. In 1992, the codec was completed.

It was never intended for the codec to be accessible to the public at large. The technology was to be used internally for sending information within a closed network. These plans were forever changed when a hacker and Star Wars fanatic, “SoloH” stole a copy of the MPEG codec from the University of Erlangen. SoloH made additional tweaks to the program so it could quicly “rip” files from a compact-disk into an MP3. SoloH distributed the codec for free over the internet, and the program became viral. By 1994 America Online was bringing the internet to homes across America, and most computers contained CD drives. There was a lethal cocktail in place for fast free distribution of information, and great consumer control. With the MP3, nobody would ever need to buy an album in multiple formats (updating a vinyl collection to cassette and subsequently CD would be no more). Buy it once on CD, back it up on MP3.

Several years would pass before the MP3 officially took over the market. In another installment, I will look at 1999. That year saw the birth of Napster, and the first time a record company sold MP3’s online.