Over the past few years, hardly anything in the world of the Internet has gathered as much attention as music. From the death of terrestrial radio to the delayed worldwide releases of sites such as Spotify, we’ve run the gamut of ideas, choices and opportunities. Why has it been so difficult? It turns out that a service you’ve likely used before, Last.fm, has some unique insight into the ecosystem that is online radio.
Let’s go back a few years. It’s somewhere in the 1980’s and my dad is working at a radio station called Star 101 in Orlando, Florida. He had done radio for as long as I could remember, so I grew up in and around radio stations and developing a fascination with them.
When Did it Hit You?
If memory serves me correctly, I was 11 years old (which would put this at 1987, if I remember how to do math) and there was a song by Genesis called Tonight, Tonight, Tonight. I was being the annoying boss’ kid, hanging out in the studio with the on-air DJ, but he was kind and let me pick a song that I wanted to hear. I played Genesis.
To my surprise, a few seconds into the song, the phone rang (or more appropriately, a strobe light flashed telling us that there was a phone call). The caller on the other end of the line told us how it was such an amazing song and they were so glad that we played it. For me, this was the moment of my addiction.
Growing up, we taped songs off of the radio. We recorded compilations of these poorly-recorded songs for boyfriends and girlfriends. We passed them around and found new favorites while reliving old ones. We never looked at what we did as wrong, we were just sharing great music.
Along the way, though, something happened. Blame the artists, blame the labels or whomever you want, but the industry that we grew up on, the industry that we loved had changed. Instead of doing a favor to friends, we were now criminals. Our actions hadn’t changed, but the enforcement of them certainly did. That which we today see as purity was suddenly gone, replaced with accusations, lawsuits and jail time.
Going Digital
It was around here, in 2001, that I left radio myself. I still had a deep love for what it could be, but I certainly had no love for what it had become.
Fast forward a few years and we’ve seen CD’s, CD recorders, MP3, Napster, the iPod, DRM and the entire surge of the digital age of music. I remember the sinking feeling that I had in my stomach when I heard the words “terrestrial radio is dead” for the first time.
As much as I love what last.fm does I have to say the customer service isn’t very good.
Well, it wasn’t simply “terrestrial radio is dead”. There was an “unless ” attached. Terrestrial broadcasters had an option; they could simply be jukeboxes and they’re dead. OR they could embrace the thing Pandora, Napster or satellite can’t do…. be local, relateable create value to the audience through these attributes. The radio station I programs has over 1.5 million different listeners each week in a metro of 7.5 million. There are 60+ stations that reach the market. How do we create value for 1.5 million listeners? We talk about things about which they care- and they have to care NOW! Otherwise it’s just yacking. So, when terrestrial radio fails to create value, it’s done. For those that do it well and understand how to be more than a jukebox, there remains a long and vibrant future.
Stephen,
Drop me a note at Last.fm (I’m here: http://www.last.fm/user/jukevox) and I’ll listen if you wanna tell me what we’ve been doing wrong.
My suggest goes for Last.fm to be able to “listen” to music via microphone and scrobble that way like a few apps. I think the whole car idea isn’t a good one.
Last.fm should invest more in mobile platforms since that is what got the music services of the digital age going in the first place. If you’re mobile than you can already set it up in your car, bike, plane, train whatever. I just think instead of investing in specialized services like that the money and time could go towards portable and making that experience better. The 360 is doing well because it is stationary and setup in most people’s rooms attached to speakers and such so sure it’s a great idea to listen to music while you’re at it. Also as mentioned the social aspect is severely lacking but I do use Last.fm often to chart my music still.
My suggestion goes for Last.fm to be able to “listen” to music via microphone and scrobble that way like a few apps. I think the whole car idea isn’t a good one.
Last.fm should invest more in mobile platforms since that is what got the music services of the digital age going in the first place. If you’re mobile than you can already set it up in your car, bike, plane, train whatever. I just think instead of investing in specialized services like that the money and time could go towards portable and making that experience better.
The 360 is doing well because it is stationary and setup in most people’s rooms attached to speakers and such so sure it’s a great idea to listen to music while you’re at it. Also as mentioned the social aspect is severely lacking but I do use Last.fm often to chart my music still.
“So is Last.fm the return of the mix tape? From where I’m sitting, yes.”
There’s a very important distinction between Last.fm or other radio-like streaming services and traditional mix tapes: you don’t choose the music. Due to legal restrictions, users can only generate a non-specific genre or artist-based music feed. True mix tapes are a highly curated list of songs, used to express ones music tastes. While I enjoy using Last.fm, I find it lacks the ability for me to share my favorite music (scrobbles are usually just a feed from someone’s iTunes shuffle history) or create a playlist for my friends.
@Ryan Hoover I guess that, more appropriately, I should have asked if Last.fm was the return of receiving mix tapes. In this case, Last.fm is sort of like your anonymous friend, picking songs that they know you’ll like.
@Brad McCarty That’s an interesting way of looking at it. I would agree. Last.fm is more of a consumption site than a UGC and socially powered community.
Excellent article. I’ve been a user of Last.fm for the last three years, but when I got my Android, and I used Last.fm to scrobble all the music I played…the results were amazing. The artists Last.fm would suggest for me were dead on to the kind of music I enjoyed. I discovered bands and entire genres of music that I would have never listened to if Last.fm hadn’t suggested them. About 50% of the music that I play nowadays comes from their Mix radio – a blend of music you love and know, with music Last.fm suggests.
My next suggestions for Last.fm would be offer a better “high quality” stream option to mobile devices (192k or preferably higher) – I’m confident I can stream a higher bit rate, even with Sprint’s 3G, let alone Wi-Fi. Next…the interface for Last.fm apps across platforms should be standardized and streamline for ease of use. The app on my Xbox 360 vs. the app on my EVO 4G are wildly different.
Fantastic look at Last.fm and the days of mixtapes Brad. I listened to Tonight Tonight Tonight while I read it.
As someone who still remembers rewinding and fast-forwarding to get the exact right cue before mashing that record button I love Last.fm but would love to see one of their premium features in the future be the ability to choose precise songs.
I still remember the day my cousin gave me a black plastic cassette with a ratty label. It had Beastie Boys on one side and Concrete Blonde and The Pixies ‘Doolittle’ scrunched onto the other side.
That tape literally changed my musical life forever. It was a magic time and a huge turning point for my cultural tastes, and it all happened because of a mixtape.