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THE END: RADIO

Podcasts, satellite radio, mashups and downloads, mp3, p2p, wma, burning, ripping, streaming. So many busy new music activities and listening methods, and none of it coming from the good old fashioned radio. What's a poor broadcaster to do?  If radio is dying, what do we need to know about what's replacing it? "Soma FM started because I couldn't find a station that played music that I liked," claims Rusty Hodge, the program director of internet radio station Soma FM. One of the most popular of the thousands of internet stations broadcasting online, Soma FM offers listeners a choice of seven unique radio stations.

Unlike traditional radio, internet radio caters to niche audiences and offers a much larger weekly playlist of over one thousands songs. "One of the things people say when they listen to us is:'I never knew music like that existed.'" And better yet, there's no advertising because Soma FM is supported by listener donations.

Other musicians are finding ways to reach out to their fans directly. Michael Butler started sending out his band's music to fans across the world in a podcast. (see glossary) It evolved into The Rock and Roll Geek Show, a weekly podcast all about the latest rock/metal music from independent artists.

There are now more than 10,000 amateur podcasts available on the internet. And according to Tod Maffin, a producer at CBC Radio, it's made radio better. "Amateurs make a different kind of sound. And that's great. And the irony is those podcasters sound like they come from the days of live radio. Stuff will drop on the floor and you'll hear them say hang on just a second, and it was in the days when radio was live and exciting."

Mainstream radio is catching on too, offering many of their programs as podcasts to capture new audiences. Listeners can subscribe to podcasts so that new shows automatically download to their computer ready to be heard anytime - or anywhere - on an mp3 player.

Canada's newest satellite radio project, XM Satellite Radio is hoping to find listeners who will actually pay for their service.  Satellite radio offers one hundred channels of digital quality music, sports, entertainment, news and information that's completely mobile. You can listen to it in your home, your car or at the park.

"It's a phenomenal evolution of choice and this is all about choice. If you don't want it, you don't have to pay for it. But those who want it buy it. Those who buy it love it," Stephen Tapp, the president of XM Canada. But it does cost, up to $400 for the hardware and a $13/month subscription fee. Still Tapp projects that they'll have fifteen millions North American subscribers by 2007.

But Rob Farina, Program Director at CHUM FM says satellite radio only reaches a niche audience. "They get a lot of ink as the shiny new toy but the reality is at 75,000 subscribers one mainstream station in Lindsay reaches more people."

CHUM FM thinks the future is in digital radio. "DAB Radio is the next level of radio. It delivers CD quality sound and it also gives radio the opportunity to stream information back and forth," says Farina. And he points out that CHUM FM is still the most listened to fm radio station in Canada.

Ralph Simon, Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum says people's listening habits have changed. "People don't want to be tethered in front of a computer to get their music download. They want immediacy. They want it now. They want to be able to experience something because a part of this whole new music world is, it's called a "show me" culture."

Bands are no longer dependent on top 40 playlists and MTV to get their music out. The under 25 generation shares ideas and music on the internet and social networking sites like My Space are changing the music industry.  "Today if you're number one on My Space, that's more important than MTV and radio combined," says author Gerd Leonhard.

With 70 million members and 1.5 page views every day, My Space is serious business.  In 2005 Fox News bought the site for $580 million US.

Music services like Yahoo, Rhapsody and Napster are taking a different approach. "We think most consumer value come in the subscription environment because it gives the opportunity to personalize, develop play lists and try out new music," says Bob Roback from Yahoo Music. Launched in 2005, subscribers have access to over 1 million songs for just $5 US a month.

Bob Lefsetz, author, disagrees. "It's rent vs own. And people want to own." He believes that pay per download sites like iTunes are the way of the future. And he may be right. Since launching four years ago, iPod has sold over 43 million units.

And for people who don't have the time to go out and find music? There's Pandora, an online streaming music service that suggests new songs based on ones you already like. "We would like to be the best radio station in the world for everybody," claims Tim Westergren, the founder.

Professional musicians at Pandora have spent the last six years analyzing songs based on 400 different musical attributes called the music genome project.

"We have this DNA of music and when you come to Pandora you type in the name of a song you like. Pandora takes a looks at that song's DNA and tried to find musical neighbours."

KCRW is a traditional radio station, 89.9 on the dial in Los Angeles, that offers all the alternatives - podcasting, streaming, downloading, simulcasts, video, music sales - as well. And it's working. Subscribers are paying to listen from every U.S. state and around the world.

"One thing that we do is pick the music we play. Everywhere else the dj has to come in and sound like they're interested in the music they're playing," explains Nic Harcourt the host of KCRW's program, Morning Becomes Eclectic. "At the end of the day you can never take the person out of radio. It's a real live person making choices, handling cd's and vinyl and there's no real substitute for that."

The staff here isn't threatened by the new options, they see it as a way to send their programming out to more listeners. But it comes with a price. "Consider podcasting. It costs money. You pay for every person listening. And the broadcast model is the opposite: 1 listener or 1 million listeners, it costs the same."

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