Radio Listeners Change Dial To Internet
from the listen-up dept
Shouldn’t be much of a surprise to most of us, but more and more people are discovering that since mainstream radio is so bad, they have an alternate solution: they can listen to radio online, where there’s much greater selection and they can find the sort of station they’re looking for. Of course, this is the same online radio that the RIAA is working so hard to shut down with licensing fees that will put all but the largest out of business – turning the internet into a clone of offline radio stations.
Comments on “Radio Listeners Change Dial To Internet”
Market Failure
It could be that the RIAA model of proprietary music fails because it is expensive and caters to shallow mass-appeal tastes. On the other hand, the free-giveaway model of music also fails because it overwhelms consumers with too many bad choices of amateurish bands that claim to be better than anyone else.
In the past, European countries have solved this problem through state support of high-quality music. However, this model has low appeal to libetarian-minded Americans.
Perhaps we are headed toward a post-music era in which the 20th century obsession with music or sports will seem strange to future sensibilities. If we look at the bigger picture of history, music, arts, and sports were once a luxury available only to the upper classes. In the 20th century, these pastimes became available to the masses, resulting in their degradation to vulgar sensationalism. Sports also exhibit a long-term trend toward vulgar competition between point-grubbing lowlives. Perhaps we are on the verge of discovering more individuated forms of entertainment that depart from traditional mass-appeal stuff.
Re: Market Failure
I work in a large building with a heavy metal structural system and then thick brick and concrete walls. Unless you sit along an outside wall with a window (like me!) you can barely get any radio reception at all.
Almost everyone in the building uses WinAmp or some similar interface to listen to web-radio, although most of the ones I’ve noticed are actually listening to local stations that they can’t receive on their radio due to the building.
I’m surprised the company hasn’t complained yet about the amount of bandwidth that is being wasted every day.