Radio on the iPhone? by Andy Grumbridge

15Jun

CBS and AOL have this week announced that they will stream their radio services on the iPhone – Andy Grumbridge looks a benefit of this from a UK / Golden Square perspective

With Apple opening up the iPhone for 3rd party developers there will be a surge of radio-listening apps for consumers to download – and we’ll be able to hitch a ride on most of them. We could get the Apple SDK to develop and market a bespoke app to listen to our service – but being on the generic ones that are popular is probably the way to reach audience

It’ll be a bit like the Internet Radio app for Nokia, if you’re familiar with that. I’ve got it on my phone – it works (most of the time)

What we really want is for operators to stop blocking music streaming over their networks so there is a one-click solution for internet radio listening! Downloading apps is still a niche activity, especially for our current listeners.

Meanwhile, most mobile listening is of course done via an on-board FM chip -

“A new study commissioned by the NAB found that FM radio receiver technology in cell phones could expand the reach of radio…” You don’t say.

Hope they didn’t pay too much for that insight. Finally, lovely as the iPhone is, at the moment it’s selling 20,000 handsets a day. Out of the 3 million handsets sold daily. Anything we do bespoke on the iPhone (and Touch) is likely to give us a return in terms of column inches rather than RAJAR.

I wonder how many streams have been served to the already established GCAP brands, Nick?

Read the FMQB post here

Andy Grumbridge

Comments (1)

LP @ June 17, 2008 at 1:18 pm | Permalink

Last week’s news that Apple are now opening up the iPhone to third party developers is interesting because it should mean that more people will realise the benefits of listening to the radio via their mobile phones. I do wonder why, however, it has taken this decision by Apple for the big radio players to get excited by the prospect of mobile radio listening over the internet/wi-fi.

(GCap’s big PR story of a few months ago – that you can now listen to most of their stations on an iphone at musicradio.com – made me squirm).

Why?

Well…

The fact that media players (like GCap) are getting excited about the iPhone must mean they’ve bought into (fallen for?) the hype surrounding this (admittedly very sexy) product. But the iPhone is surely not the only mobile platform to be investing in/getting excited about. Like many other people, I own a Microsoft Windows mobile phone. If you’re now saying “a what?”, then check out these links…

20 million Windows Mobile handsets were sold last year alone. (A figure set to rise, now that not just business-orientated handsets are coming with Microsoft Windows Mobile… more and more consumer-aimed models are too. And the prices are coming down. My £450 (sim-free price) handset was FREE on a £35 tariff).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/02/who_owns_your_mobile_1.html

And according to Steve Jobs himself, it says here, 4 million iphones had been sold. (Admittedly, this figure is set to rapidly increase now that there’s a 3G version of the i-phone. Welcome to the 21st Century, Apple!)
http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/158121/report-claims-iphone-sales-fell-short-in-the-uk.html

My argument may be flawed if there are more up-to-date iPhone v Windows Mobile sales stats around, but there are facts here which cannot be ignored. Like the fact that Windows’ mobile technology has been open to third party developers for years now. Actually, it’s bothered me for a while that a big radio player hasn’t created a bespoke application for Windows Mobile users that allows listeners to easily hear their stations via the net.

I’m no Bill Gates lover, but surely it’s common sense that any business in the IT/media/entertainment industries that ignores Windows as a platform, does so at great risk. So, less iPhone enthusiasm, please, and more excitement about the future of mobile listening on ALL devices!

Downloading apps may still be described as a ‘niche’ activity, but this must surely be all about to change. Apple are all but confirming this by opening up the iPhone to third party developers. The explosion of Facebook apps must surely now be proof that the man-on-the-street is ready to customise his mobile and get adding all sorts of apps. Not to mention that PC, Mac and now mobile phone displays are becoming fully-customisable in terms of screen layout. (Is ‘customisable’ a word?) The public must now be ready?

So… back to Microsoft Windows Mobile. Is there an opportunity here for One Golden Square?

I downloaded a program called Resco Radio for my mobile a few months ago which allows me to listen to stations over the internet for “free” at evenings and weekends. (Well, I pay Orange £5 a month for the privilege of unlimited data during these times). While it’s a great product, the presets that it comes supplied with are dominated by overseas stations, and it takes an extremely fiddly set of processes to add your own.

I’m surprised commercial radio body RadioCentre hasn’t created a UK rival (or at the very least, licensed a UK-skinned version of the program containing just UK commercial stations). Why don’t they?

Before the BBC does.

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iPhone - Tips and Tricks » Blog Archive » Radio on the iPhone? by Andy Grumbridge
@ June 15, 2008 at 1:05 pm

[...] One Golden Square placed an observative post today on Radio on the iPhone? by Andy GrumbridgeHere’s a quick excerptAnything we do bespoke on the iPhone (and Touch) is likely to give us a return in terms of column inches rather than RAJAR….CBS and AOL have this week announced that they will stream their radio services on the iPhone –…Finally, lovely as the iPhone is, at the moment it’s selling 20,000 handsets a day….With Apple opening up the iPhone for 3rd party developers there will be a surge of radio-listening apps for consumers to download – and we’l… [...]