DAY TWO: Pandora, Spotify, Not Radio?

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It’s day two of our special feature with some of the best program directors in the country. There’s no denying that Pandora and Spotify have listeners. Is that at the expense of radio — or is it in addition to radio? Is this something you should be worried about, or is it something to ignore? Over the next several days you’ll get a taste of what radio’s top programmers believe about these digital competitors. Here’s our second sample.

Mark Chernoff

WFAN New York VP of Programming Mark Chernoff tells Radio Ink that’s not really a fair question. “Spotify and Pandora are essentially commercial-free music platforms but radio is ‘now,’ ‘live,’ and mostly ‘local’ particularly on the spoken-word side. Radio provides up-to-the-minute news, weather, sports, and traffic, and on many music stations the jocks/hosts know how to blend the right amount of entertainment with the music. We need to make sure we’re always promoting ourselves. If you just want commercial-free music then I suppose you’ll migrate to Spotify or Pandora, but to me there’s so much more with radio.”

Jimmy Steal

Meruelo Media’s KWPR Los Angeles PD Jimmy Steal says radio needs to transform itself. “‘On demand’ is simply shorthand for ‘I want to hear it now, wherever, whenever, and however I want to.’ Radio is a legacy medium, with traditional media limitations pushing out scheduled programming at predetermined times, and that is not the way the world works anymore…Netflix binge-watching anyone? So as an industry our strategic task is this: while we’re programming our terrestrial signals to the very best of our abilities (where most of our revenue remains at the moment), we must also, at the same time, rapidly transform our current content, and create new station-branded digital content, into an on-demand ecosystem across all our digital channels to complement our original non-on-demand terrestrial programming…This simultaneous challenge is not unlike having to change a tire on a car you’re currently driving…precarious…but with great precision possible.”

NOTE: Our Best Program Directors in America list will be released on Monday, May 7. This list will only be available to subscribers of Radio Ink Magazine. It will not be posted online. To subscribe to our print issue in time to receive this issue CLICK HERE. To purchase one year of Radio Ink’s digital edition (for $49.00, only $3.26 per issue) GO HERE.

Jeff Catlin

Cumulus Media’s KTCK Dallas PD Jeff Catlin wonders if listeners are really turning to Pandora and Spotify. “Are they though? I mean, that’s the perception: that people are leaving traditional radio in droves and spending their time exclusively with Spotify and Pandora, but I don’t necessarily agree with that perception. Perhaps I am jaded ‘Mr Radio Guy’ here, but I think listeners still listen and use radio and still have favorite stations, in addition to using those music services too — as a supplement and utility. BUT if we are losing any listeners to these services then it means we have to be better at understanding what they get from there that radio can’t offer. It means they want something from content, be it music or spoken word, that is different and new. One criticism of radio is that it can be generic and homogenized. Another age-old criticism is that there are too many commercials on radio. They pay for their subscription and get to skip ads. Consumers coming of age now are used to specific, very targeted, and on-demand content. They won’t wait through spots, wait to hear their favorite song, or wait to hear commentary from their favorite talk show host. They want everything all the time, right now, and radio has to continue to figure out how to deliver on that expectation.”

Gator Harrison

iHeartCountry Brand Coordinator and WSIX Nashville PD Gator Harrison says his initial answer would be that listeners are not turning to Pandora and Spotify. “According to the 2018 Liontree MediaSlope Conference, AM/FM radio listening is not only leading, but growing at 50% for the year 2017 (up from 47% in 2015 and 48% in 2016) vs Pandora at only 8% (down from 9% in 2016) and Spotify flat at only 4%. According to a 2017 Nielsen Comparable Report, radio is the new #1 Mass Reach Medium at 93% — greater than even TV at 88%. Nielsen 2017 data also confirms that iHeartMedia, by itself, is America’s #1 audio platform by far at 91% vs Pandora at 34% and Spotify at 29%. You would be better qualified to compare the growth of Pandora and Spotify listening to that of CD, album, 8-track, and cassette tape listening. These are modern-day music collections. Please don’t misunderstand or misquote, that’s not to slight the impact of Pandora, Spotify, or even our own iHeartRadio — ALL incredibly powerful for not only music collection, but music discovery as well… it’s to simply state…radio is not only very relevant, it will always be your real-time local music companion. People will always crave connection. Radio connects like no other medium can.

Here’s part one of this special series.

If you have an opinion on this topic, feel free to leave it below in our comments section. 

5 COMMENTS

  1. Here’s a question, what percentage of the population only wants music….no commercials, no jock talk, no traffic, weather or news…just the music? I think that percentage is fairly significant. In the past people really never had an option to listen to “just music” unless they had their own CD’s, cassettes, records, 8 track, etc. Frankly, that opportunity to serve that segment of the market is what launched Pandora, Spotify, Sirius/XM, etc. In my opinion terrestrial radio needs to figure out compelling reasons for people to listen to Kelly Clarkson, Adele, Maroon 5, Pink, Ed Sheeran or any other artists on terrestrial radio vs listening to Pandora, Spotify etc….how do we do that? Do we give big prizes/money away as incentives to listen during shorter stop sets, do we cut exclusive music deals with certain artists, more chances for people to win concert tickets, etc? I don’t have all the answers, but who ever figures that out….could make a lot of money!!

  2. Very great points overall. The only profitable; and as they state in forward looking investment releases ‘the largest radio’ firm, is Sirius XM. With 33 million subs. They offer live programming, on demand programming, DVR like functionality & now have 3 Board Seats on Pandora, as well as a 486$ million recent investment. Don’t shoot the messenger. Radio must continue to change, as it has evolved successfully for 110 years or so. Radio does still win locally, and such points already stated. Just financially Radio must take advantage of new delivery technology and not run away from it. Make the digital station relevant, create podcasts before they go from 200$mm to 2$B, use HDR like overseas… get with it frankly. Those who do it right will find great success and everyone must fight for radio. AM/FM chipsets are required for security in my view as well. Make all smartphones and connected devices activate the inexpensive chips.

  3. Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud all feed off of the same people who listen to radio. We’re sharing the same audience. Radio should stop theb12 unit stop sets. Some stations up to 18 units. Spread it out. With our live and local appeal we would give less a reason for someone to leave radio for a different service

  4. I agree with a lot of these comments. Chernoff is right, that Pandora & Spotify are mainly music delivery platforms. They don’t do program development. They don’t have talent. They don’t do sports, news, or talk. They have replaced personal music collections. They replaced the truck drivers who used to transport the CDs to the now-defunct record stores. We can see the results of that change very clearly, because not only have record stores mostly gone away, but now even record departments in places like WalMart & Target are going away. All that is a result of these streaming services. That’s a very different situation from what’s going on in radio. Just because Pandora & Spotify play music doesn’t mean they’re doing the same things as radio. And I think users are sophisticated to understand the difference, and use them that way. We shouldn’t be distracted by what they’re doing, but at the same time make sure that everything we do is available on the same platform and is equally accessible, so people who want to hear our morning talent on demand can do so.

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