The Dashboard Crisis Deepens

It's happening just like I said it would.  Check out today's post from radio consultant Mark Ramsey.

Panic is in the streets following two events this week:

First, a Mark Kassof study which revealed the unsurprising news that 83% of a sample of radio general managers and executives view Internet access in cars as “a threat” to “traditional radio,” (whatever that means).

A threat? What about an opportunity, Mr. Broadcaster?! Your experiences can be delivered by digital means, too, after all. And if they’re worthy, magnetic digital experiences, there’s nothing but blue sky ahead. So let’s stop the communal whine and get busy!

And I mean that with all due respect.

Second, a tidbit from Radio Ink’s Convergence Conference which reported the prediction of a panel of auto industry experts that AM/FM radios would disappear from cars in our lifetimes.

If you're in the radio biz (or if you just love radio), continue reading.

Yep, More Young People Are Getting Into Vinyl

Here's a fascinating article from the Huffington Post about how Millennials--Generation Y--are getting deeper into their parents' vinyl album collections.

Cleaning my basement the other day turned into a musical archaeological dig. I unearthed a Men at Work vinyl album from when I was 8, a bag of old-school rap cassettes ranging from Fresh Prince to N.W.A. and a flipbook of alt rock-era CDs from Alice in Chains and Beck to Smashing Pumpkins and Tool, each one of which I still know by heart from the first track to the hidden one. (Ask a Gen Xer, they’ll know what I’m talking about.)

Nowadays, most everyone, especially young folks, have ephemeral MP3s scattered across their hard drives and smartphones. Increasingly, they don’t even bother with downloads but simply stream songs via services like Rdio.

Click to read more ...

Notice Anything New About Facebook? Probably Not Yet. But It's Coming.

Yesterday, Facebook announced that they were giving the service a facelift, something to (a) make it more uncluttered for users; and (b) make it more friendly to advertisers.

For music fans, one of the most interesting parts of the new design was a tab that gives music its own newsfeed.  This means that you'll soon be able to filter that unmanageable firehose of information in your newsfeed by topic and sender.  

In an oddly retro way, they've divided the newsfeed into sections, just like we've seen with printed newspapers for decades.  You'll soon see tabs for local news, sports, business--and music.

The music feed option will be fantastic for people wanting to keep track of their favourite artists and the music-related people/things they follow.  

Read more about what's coming soon to your Facebook page here.

A Music Teacher Observes How His Students Consume Music

This eye-opener for old people comes via Digital Music News:

I teach guitar to about 34 students. Age range: from 10-early twenties. So that is pretty much the people that you would like to sell (your) music too, right? Pretty much the kinda folks that (we) try to convince to use legal music subscription services.

So what I gotta tell you about them is this:

None of them have an iPod. They all have cell phones with unlimited internet. What do they do with it?  Text, use WhatsApp to text even more and they sure as hell don't use a music subscription service that is legal - even though it doesn't pay a fair rate to the artist - etc.

Click to read more ...

Phoenix Video for First Single from New Album

Phoenix just released the clip for "Entertainment" from their upcoming new album, Bankrupt!, which is due April 23.

As an aside, this album will have something in common with Michael Jackson's Thriller.  The band bought the recording console used to make that album on eBay for about $17,000 and is using that for recording.  Full tracklisting:

1. 'Entertainment'
2. 'The Real Thing'
3. 'SOS In Bel Air'
4. 'Trying To Be Cool'
5. 'Bankrupt!'
6. 'Drakkar Noir'
7. 'Chlorophorm'
8. 'Don't'
9. 'Bourgeois'
10. 'Oblique City'