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Radio is dead-Long live the Radio.pdf - Universidad del País Vasco

Radio is dead-Long live the Radio.pdf - Universidad del País Vasco

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Welcome to <strong>the</strong> third age of radio: understanding radio's present from radio's past<br />

Licensed music radio did not reach Britain until 1967 when BBC <strong>Radio</strong> One was establ<strong>is</strong>hed.<br />

There were stations that broadcast pop music programming from outside<br />

Britain first from land-based <strong>Radio</strong> Luxembourg, and <strong>the</strong>n ships based in <strong>the</strong> Engl<strong>is</strong>h<br />

Channel. These stations were often best heard at night, and <strong>the</strong> smaller and cheaper<br />

radio allowed <strong>the</strong> young l<strong>is</strong>tener to retreat to <strong>the</strong>ir bedrooms (Barnard, 1989). Here<br />

<strong>the</strong> portability of <strong>the</strong> radio allowed a separateness of radio consumption within, ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />

than outside, <strong>the</strong> home, which was character<strong>is</strong>tic of Brit<strong>is</strong>h radio l<strong>is</strong>tening culture<br />

through to <strong>the</strong> late 1960s.<br />

5. The new age: music radio and online music services<br />

When I d<strong>is</strong>cuss my interest in internet radio with people outside academia, <strong>the</strong>y most<br />

often draw on anecdotes about <strong>the</strong>ir own music consumption to character<strong>is</strong>e contemporary<br />

change. In <strong>the</strong>se personal stories it <strong>is</strong> online music services like Last.fm,<br />

Pandora, or Spotify which are seen as <strong>the</strong> major innovation in <strong>the</strong>ir music l<strong>is</strong>tening,<br />

and <strong>the</strong> services are often presented as having <strong>the</strong> best qualities of l<strong>is</strong>tening to music<br />

radio or to records from a personal music collection. On <strong>the</strong> one hand, I am told,<br />

<strong>the</strong>y offer up new and unheard music but, on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r, th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> set within a bespoke<br />

‘playl<strong>is</strong>t’ of known music, all selected because of <strong>the</strong>ir ex<strong>is</strong>ting tastes. These services<br />

seem to be valued most, <strong>the</strong>refore, because <strong>the</strong>y provide a bespoke playl<strong>is</strong>t to each<br />

l<strong>is</strong>tener. In th<strong>is</strong> <strong>the</strong>y offer a challenge both to traditional radio l<strong>is</strong>tening and to <strong>the</strong><br />

practices of collecting and playing records.<br />

It <strong>is</strong> interesting that, in <strong>the</strong> anecdotes, <strong>the</strong> differences between <strong>the</strong> services tends<br />

to be seen as matters of personal taste, especially in terms of <strong>the</strong> music which <strong>is</strong> offered<br />

or <strong>the</strong> costs involved. There are, though, important differences in <strong>the</strong> way <strong>the</strong>se<br />

services operate. Last.fm combines a number of functions to de<strong>live</strong>r its service. At<br />

heart it presents art<strong>is</strong>ts and music selected on <strong>the</strong> bass of <strong>the</strong>ir popularity on <strong>the</strong> service,<br />

and <strong>the</strong>n offers <strong>the</strong>m as l<strong>is</strong>tening in its music radio-like play-out of tracks. Th<strong>is</strong><br />

play out can unfold automatically, or be changed by <strong>the</strong> l<strong>is</strong>tener. It <strong>is</strong> also possible<br />

to install a data scraping application called Scrobbler onto one’s computer, and Last.<br />

fm <strong>the</strong>n uses information about all <strong>the</strong> music played on that computer to determine<br />

what to offer in its bespoke play-out service for <strong>the</strong> individual l<strong>is</strong>tener. Last.fm gives<br />

prominence to <strong>the</strong> idea that <strong>the</strong> popularity of music <strong>is</strong> most important through a section<br />

devoted to charts of <strong>the</strong> most-played music on <strong>the</strong> service, and it also uses th<strong>is</strong><br />

information to recommend music tracks or information on <strong>live</strong> events to <strong>the</strong> user.<br />

The prominence of th<strong>is</strong> d<strong>is</strong>course of popularity, however, d<strong>is</strong>gu<strong>is</strong>es <strong>the</strong> way that music<br />

tracks are selected for <strong>the</strong> bespoke play-out streams. These are selected because<br />

o<strong>the</strong>r users whose l<strong>is</strong>tening profile resembles your own have l<strong>is</strong>tened <strong>the</strong>m to. In<br />

The <strong>Radio</strong> <strong>is</strong> <strong>dead</strong>. <strong>Long</strong> <strong>live</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Radio</strong>!<br />

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