The news this morning is that Google is launching a music streaming subscription service called Google Play Music All Access to compete with the likes of Spotify and Microsoft’s Xbox Music. Initially to launch in the US, the Android based service will soon be rolled out in the UK and other countries.
Last Sunday, I was enjoying a rare moment of relaxation reading the newspaper whilst listening to the radio. There is something about both the written and spoken word which is quite special and should be savoured. It was therefore unnerving to read Jeremy Clarkson’s piece (‘Pah to apostrophes!’) that day on why we should not get all worked up about grammar and that we should get rid of the alphabet altogether. Read more on It’s only words and words are all I have…
Last night, Daniel Day-Lewis deservedly won the Best Actor BAFTA for his portrayal of President Lincoln. Indeed, 150 years ago this year, Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg (“four score and seven years ago”) address during the American Civil War. Closer to home, 1863 was also quite a year as two iconic English brands were born. The Football Association laid out a set of rules, which were first followed in a match between Barnes and Richmond (0-0 draw) and the very first journey on the London Underground took place between Paddington and Farringdon.
For what is a truly remarkable feat of Victorian engineering, we moan about the Tube a lot. We moan when they are late, on strike or when someone jumps in front of one. We moan when people force their way on before you have a chance to get off. We moan when people don’t move down the carriage to let people on or when the closing doors are squeezed open. But we smile when we read one of those Poems on the Underground or when the driver has a sense of humour. We feel good when the elderly or pregnant are offered a seat or an 80s pop star breaks into song. We also marvel at the Harry Beck designed map that is so pleasing on the eye (personally, I’m more fascinated by the equivalent geographically accurate Tube map).
Read more on From Lincoln to Abbey Road – an outdoor media trip…
A young man gets on the train and I can see his ineffective white earphones from my seat. I glance at the empty space beside me and, as I inaudibly sigh, the inevitable happens. Yes, the music was loud but something intrigued me that I have not experienced in this situation before. He was listening to the radio on his smartphone over his 3G connection on the train. More precisely, he was one of the 6.7m listeners tuning in to Nick Grimshaw’s new Radio 1 breakfast show that week. Now this is progress for digital radio and keeping younger listeners engaged with the medium. Read more on I can hear clearly now the train has gone…
For reasons that aren’t worth explaining here, from time to time I find myself seeking out songs about radio. And on every occasion I am reminded that for every song extolling radio’s virtues, there is another with a slightly more tarnished or cynical view of the medium.
Maybe this is partly a generational issue. For example, both ‘Radio Radio’ by Elvis Costello and the Attractions and ‘Capital Radio One’ by The Clash attacked the music policy of contemporary radio stations which predominantly played mainstream chart hits but little, or no, punk music. The Ramones ploughed a similar furrow in ‘(Do you remember) Rock n Roll Radio?’ with the lyrics “We need change; we need it fast…’Cause lately it all sounds the same to me”. Read more on POP POWER! Exploiting radio’s populism isn’t a sell-out…but it will help things sell out!…
The first thing to note is that young people do listen to the radio and always have done; they are just listening for less nowadays. On average, 15-24 year olds listen to the radio for 17 hours a week, compared with 22 hours for the population as a whole. But radio, which turned 90 last week, is a medium that has always been favoured by the older generation, so what is the concern?
There has always existed an expectation that people grow into radio. The big unknown today is whether the lower radio consumption of the younger generation will be maintained as they get older. Read more on Radio turns 90 but are young people tuning in or dropping out?…
It was 50 years ago today that The Beatles released their first single, ‘Love Me Do’. It peaked a few weeks later at number 17 in the UK charts. This was quite a feat in those days as they had not undertaken any radio or television appearances before then, certainly no iTunes and the only social media around was word of mouth in the small pubs and clubs up and down the country. Anyway, the rest, as they say, is history.
Let’s fast forward to 2012 and how many of today’s new artists will the nation be thinking about in 2062? Quite often their instant, global fame precedes an equally rapid fall into obscurity – let’s call it the Ex-Factor. Money can’t buy you love. We live in a fickle online world where the young, connected generation want instant communication, adoration and gratification. I don’t get it myself as I would quite happily spend a week without any media and I have done. But, of course, I’m not 15-24 anymore. Read more on When I was younger, so much younger than today…
I do like the Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, and given he survived unscathed from the recent severe Government reshuffle I guess so does the Prime Minister.
There is something of a charm about him and he appears very much more engaged with the media industry than some other Ministers I won’t mention. I was therefore very pleased to be invited to speak at his DCMS Communications Review on Radio seminar, which was a round table industry discussion on the public value of radio, the commercial challenges and how Government can drive growth through regulatory change. Read more on Government needs to chillax on radio regulation…
It’s been fun, if not a bit, well hairy at times. On 14 September after 8 years and 8 months, Chris Moyles signed off as the longest serving Radio 1 breakfast presenter since the show was launched almost exactly 45 years ago with Tony Blackburn.
The average lifespan of a Radio 1 breakfast DJ is 3 years and 4 months (if we exclude Mark Goodier who was always going to be temporary). This really puts Chris Moyles’ tenure into perspective and, coupled with his regular weekly audience of 7 million listeners, should give his replacement Nick Grimshaw something to think about. One headache for the BBC is that the station’s average listener age is 32 and older than the 15-29 target. Grimshaw is ten years younger than Moyles and there is hope that the audience will get younger too.
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