INTERNET MASHES RADIO INTO LITTLE BITTY PIECES!


Don�t think radio�s a-changin�? Don�t think that radio hasn�t spawned
several business that will someday in the next few years overtake it?



Over the past few years, radio has seen a decline in listeners mostly to a
website called Pandora.com that plays music based on the listener�s tastes.
So far the online radio service has topped 40 million registered users.
Radio�s one advantage, of use solely in automobiles, is being usurped by
advancing technology such as Pandora entering Ford automobiles (). Other
Internet only radio stations have taken some of radio�s listeners including
LastFM.com which similarly to Pandora plays an Internet station tailor-made
to the consumer. Over 35 million users come to this website every month.



Disc Jockeys are finding work outside the traditional radio model as
well. Adam
Carrolla, who once was a morning talk-show host in Los Angeles, was fired
when his radio station switched formats. He immediately bought some basic
recording equipment from a local music shop and started a podcast or show
made specifically for downloading off the internet. His programs have been
downloaded more than 50 million times over the past year, and Carrolla
himself says that he feels radio's future lies in podcasts rather than
traditional radio or the satellite radio provider Sirius XM.



The role that was once played by many DJ�s, to announce the title and
artists of songs played on the radio, has been replaced by one of countless
apps or programs downloaded to smart phones over the Internet. The world�s
leading app for song identification is Shazam. This program �listens� to
the song playing from a radio or other source and identifies it. This has
lead to bigger sales of the songs identified by Shazam, and now the company
is partnering with the television cable network, Syfy. The promotion asks
users of Shazam to identify certain songs played during one of the Syfy
programs to receive special rewards .



These aspects of radio are not found inside a radio station building or
owned by one radio company.. These are industries created out of another
industry�s shortcomings. People rely on these new businesses for music, for
talk entertainment, and for music identification the way they once relied on
one radio industry.