THE NEW MUSICAL BOX

CHANGES ON THE AIRWAVES

The days of traditional radio broadcasting are numbered following an announcement this weekend that the analogue signal in the UK is likely to be phased out by 2018. 

Ever since radio was first introduced to the British public by the (then) British Broadcasting Company in 1922, it has been synonymous with analogue delivery, be it medium or long wave and in more recent years, AM or FM. It has led to all manner of cultural references ranging from "listening to the wireless" and "the airwaves" and so forth, but with the launch of digital broadcasting from 1995 onwards, the analogue writing has been on the wall. It may not have always been terribly visible as early digital radios were somewhat variable in quality, but with the advent of more effective and cheaper units, something like 40% of all listening on the BBC and commercial networks is now digital.

Of course, digital listening lends itself to all manner of devices, so some of the increased listening percentages comes through PCs and laptops, notepads, tablets, smartphones and digital TV. Linda Smith the chief executive of The Radio Centre (which represents commercial radio in the UK) has said that she believes the digital switch-over will be "most likely in the first or second quarter of 2018". This is three years later than a government report recommended back in 2009, but it does recognise that the more than 350 analogue radio stations in the UK need time to adapt their infrastructure - and of course, all manner of other businesses need to prepare for the change too - car manufacturers, radio and electronic retailers and, it goes without saying, many radio listeners.

The BBC are championing the change and they, together with their commercial colleagues, are likely to be making some key announcements about how this will happen at the annual Radio Festival in Salford on October 14th. The government are also expecting to produce some detailed timetable arrangements by the end of the year.

Whilst digital radio is definitely the way ahead for now, it does mean a massive upheaval for the 60% of the listening public who still use analogue radios. The recent phased approach to digital TV switch-over, which concluded last year, gives us some sort of template to work to, but with all those extra radio stations around plus the likelihood that many households have more radios in them than TV receivers, it could be a somewhat more complex exercise.

Of course, digital radio stations such as the BBC's digital-only national stations BBC 6 Music and Radio 4 Extra have grown in popularity and seen their audiences increase over the last two years. They are facing another challenge, however, and this will prove to be more fundamental in some ways: the growth of internet streaming services such as Spotify. Spotify has deals with a range of major record labels that allow it to stream tracks and albums from their artists in return for a fee. In turn, Spotify sells advertising slots in between streaming songs and also takes income from charging listeners for some of its premium services. The listener can choose which songs to listen to from a database, can create their own playlists and, whilst on-line, they can purchase downloadable copies of the songs direct from selected providers. Spotify has grown quickly in the last year and as at the end of 2012, had over 20 million users, a quarter of whom pay for the premium services. 

Apple's all-pervasive iTunes is hard on the rails with its new iTunes Radio service which launched in the USA just last month. It too provides a free streaming service - supported by adverts - and a paid-for premium service. Like Spotify, users can skip tracks, select their own choices and customise their "own" stations using songs from the iTunes library. They can also buy songs direct from their iTunes account and as the database is larger than its Spotify rival, there is every chance that it will prove to be popular. The UK will receive iTunes Radio early in 2014 and Apple then plans to roll it out gradually to the rest of its "empire" through into 2015 and beyond.

So, the world of radio is set for change and it will be very interesting to see what the landscape looks like in a year or two. There is one more challenge that we must add to the mix, and this is the increasing dominance of on-line services such as You Tube and Vevo for exposing new music to the general public - and that's something I'll be exploring in the next New Musical Box blog.

Have fun.

Alan Dorey

5th October 2013