How Apple's CarPlay Can Tip The Balance In Music And Radio

Forbes ^ | 3/06/2014 | Bobby Owsinski

[a fool in paradise]

...radio is still the number one place where music consumers discover new music... It may be old technology, but it’s one that we still gladly live with.

With a vehicle that’s constantly tethered to the Internet, that balance of power changes. More people can leave radio in favor of their personalized playlists and channels on Pandora, Spotify and other online services, which means that the total dynamic of “drive-time” can and will transform. Sure, many will still listen to local talk or sports radio, but others will choose to listen to stations that they can’t get through terrestrial radio via their connected car .

And what of your local homogenous top 40 station run by a faceless multi-station conglomerate? It’s one thing to have CDs in a car as an alternative to radio, but imagine listening to music from so many other potential online sources with enough new tunes that you never get bored.

My hope would be that that this would strike a sword through the heart of conglomerate radio, making it so unprofitable that the many station groups would flee from the stations in smaller territories. That would leave the door open for local ownership, which would provide an outlet for local music and tastes, just like we had in the glory days of the business. Chances are that won’t happen though, as the less successful stations with music programming would just be morphed into talk radio as is frequently the case now.

The real key here is that music discovery will be more on a grass-roots level via the new easy online access in the auto...

This is ultimately a win for the music industry, as new music begets new trends, and new trends equals more consumer interest and excitement...

[a fool in paradise]

Mac cult utopian singing the praises of another iDevice, this one striking a blow against Clear Channel (boo hiss) and long ago locked baby boomer “classic rock” lists.

ATTENTION: THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IS STUCK IN THE MUD BECAUSE THAT IS HOW THEY WANT IT.

They cannot sell 3 new albums (slated to come out in 5 years) from some band they signed before their first 3 albums (all on the same label with the future prospect) if music forms are radically changing every season.

It’s much safer to set the trends than to be forever chasing them. And if you pwn the magazines and tv shows (to hype the bands on your label), you can keep them from leaving the plantation (without you, they won’t get seen on the big shows or the Rolling Stone cover).

[Vermont Lt]

iPhone radio is fine I guess. But you will need a robust data plan to keep that running while you are in the car.

[a fool in paradise]

There’s a few radio stations I would consider listening to if I could stream anything (especially archived, vs. live) from the web in my car.

But the songs there aren’t “new”, just some of the music may be new to me.

And I have never in my life turned to radio to find the records and bands I would track down the rest of my days.

[virgil283]

Thanks FIP....This ought to be a fine business opportunity here with cars having now with a plug-in port for media.

I was in a mega fuel center where there was a books on CD, like a Red Box service. You got the CD listened to and dropped it off at the next mega fuel center....or mailed it back.

[martin_fierro]

A couple of years ago I shelled out some pretty choice coin for an Alpine in-dash audio unit that plugs directly into an iPod.

Worked fine then, works OK now -- but I discovered that Apple & Alpine didn't coordinate very closely in keeping this unit's hard-wired connection compatible with later iPod OS updates. Apple moved on, Alpine didn't keep up.

The result: older iPods are still compatible with this unit, but iPhones aren't.

A Bluetooth connection is still an option but a PITA for various reasons.

Anyway, my hope is that an iOS-based operating system in a car audio unit would remain compatible with more Apple products, for longer.

[Gay State Conservative]

I have unlimited data on my Samsung Android.With it I can get every talk show I want (that's all I listen to in the car) via this link.Once again,Apple proves itself to be completely unneeded in my life.

[SamAdams76]

I am a subscriber to Sirius radio. Every time I bring up Sirius radio here, kneejerks quickly respond with variations on "Why pay for radio when you can get it for free?"

Well like anything in life, you get what you pay for.

You can spend your life drinking Boone's Farm wine and Coor's Light beer because you are too cheap to pay for the good stuff. But if you decide to do so, you might save a bundle of money, but you will lose out on the pleasures of discovering and enjoying high quality wines and microbrews.

Well the same goes with radio. Yes, you can listen to terrestrial radio for free in your car but what you will get is close to 35 minutes an hour of commercials and radio DJ pitter-patter in the "morning zoo" vein, with their lame banter, pranks and jokes. Then you have the totally useless "traffic" and "weather" updates. In between, you might get 20 minutes of music which are the same songs you've been hearing for nearly two decades now.

If you listen to any kind of "rock" station, you are sure to hear "Wonderwall" by Oasis, "100 Years" by Five for Fighting," or "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. If you listen to pop, you are going to get the Beyonce/Rhiannon/Justin Beiber/Jay-Z crap over and over again.

So yes, you can listen to radio for free if you want to.

With Sirius radio however, you have over 100 stations of crystal-clear commercial-free music in virtually any musical genre you can think of. If you are in the mood for old-time country music, there's a station (or two) for that. If you want to hear heavy metal from the 1980s, there's a station that plays nothing but that (Hair Nation). There's a station with nothing but Opera music. Or Jazz. Or Blues. And about a 30 different rock stations from classic rock to modern alternative.

What I like to do is capture songs I like on my SoundHound app so I can download the MP3s when I get home. They say no good music is being made anymore but they are wrong. There is tons of great music out there to be discovered. You just aren't going to discover it listening to "Wally in the Morning" on your FM dial.

[dangerdoc]

Sounds like a way to pay yet another monthly fee.

[dangerdoc]

I had a free year of satellite radio. It sounded overly compressed with strong digital artifacts.

I enjoyed the variety but the quality was lacking.

[SamAdams76]

For me, the quality of satellite radio is not much worse than the standard FM signal. However, I use it as a music discovery tool and will capture and download higher quality MP3s when I come across something good.

[a fool in paradise]

Sounds like a way to “rank” your listening habits and sell the market research info.

[minnesota_bound]

It would be nice to hear real music again instead of the pablum that is on now. Too few owners of music companies have ruined music. Radio stations that play the same bland stuff from country to rock (is there any other then oldies?). You can always hook up an mp3 player / smartphone to listen to what you want right now.

An always-connected car is one that the gov’t can track as can each app maker just like they do with your phone. They either sell this information or send you bills for speeding 5mph over the limit or exceeding your “allowed” mileage per day that the democrats deem to give you.