Is The Norway Switch-Off The Beginning Of The End For FM Radio?

Norway’s Minister of Culture announced this week that the country will be switching out its national FM radio stations in favor of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) in 2017. This marks the first country to make the big switch from an analog communications service that was a staple of the last century to a more modern digital version.

Many give FM radio credit for pushing music to new heights in the late 60s and 70s thanks to experimental playlists that deviated significantly from the tight Top 40 oriented ones featured on the large AM radio stations of the time. The fact that FM also featured a much higher quality audio signal that was broadcast in stereo during a period when hi-fi systems were a staple of every dorm room helped change the face of the music business and the audience alike in the U.S. By 1978, FM radio listenership had eclipsed AM.

FM does have its limitations, one being that it’s range is limited compared to AM, but a major reason for Norway making the switch is the operating costs. The Culture Ministry estimates that it costs eight times less to currently offer 22 DAB channels than it does for five FM channels. That amounts to a savings of around $25 million per year.

Another thing in DAB’s favor in Norway is that 56% of people already listen to it, with about 20% having that ability in their cars. DAB has failed to make the same inroads in the U.S. however, with 90% of the population still listening to FM at least once a week, according to a Pew survey.

One fear among Norwegian broadcasters is that they’ll lose too much of their current audience when the switch is made. The hope is by setting a switch-off date several years in the future, it will give its citizens enough time to equip for the upcoming change. The problem is that this could be just the impetus to switch even further into the digital realm by bypassing DAB altogether and going to an Internet streaming service like Spotify instead. Read more on Forbes.

---

Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this blog at no cost to you (just click here).

Is Music Discovery An Impossible Dream?

With VCs and investment bankers willing to open their pockets at seemingly any online service that contains the words "music discovery" in their mission statement, it makes you wonder about the validity of the idea that it's still the holy grail for every company offering music online.

Don't get me wrong, I understand why music discovery is a hot topic. After all, if a listener can find new music that they like, they're more likely to buy or stream it, which means a potential additional income stream for all involved. At least, that's the theory.

What I'm beginning to disagree with is the idea that music discovery can be done electronically thanks to a smart algorithm that learns your tastes. Sound good on paper, but that's not actually the way that we've discovered music over the last 50+ years, or even today for that matter.

Think about how we found recent breakout artists like The Black Keys and Alabama Shakes. Did most people find them via a Pandora recommendation or Spotify? No, most people found them the same way that new artists have always been discovered for decades and decades. There was a groundswell buzz that you couldn't avoid, and it was both offline and online. When enough people begin to talk about an artist, it doesn't take long for the word to get around. Do you think that's ever happened thanks to an algorithm?

If you think about it, radio has always been the major means of music discovery - 50 years ago, and still today. YouTube ranks as #2 at the moment. In the 60s and 70s when FM was at its peak, the disc jockeys were the unquestioned arbiters of musical taste, and we listened to their show based specifically on those tastes. We knew that whatever they played was in line with what we liked, and we were open to new suggestions as a result. This has happened a bit on the web with sites like Pitchfork (who's influence seems to be waning a bit), but there's really been nothing like similar to the radio experience yet. We keep on waiting for the taste of a computer to take over, when it's really the human one that we crave.

Perhaps all the money chasing music discovery is just good money after bad purchasing fool's gold, because it still comes down to people talking about an act both on and offline to break it. Let's hear it for the humans, until the algorithms can prove us wrong.

----------------------------------

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Interested in the Music 3.0 archives? Buy The Music 3.0 Guide To Social Media. The best of over 800 posts.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.