In this week’s Programming To Win, Fred Jacobs poses a question that was also asked during a panel at Sunset Sessions Rock!: “Is Pandora Radio?” A common topic among programmers this year, Jacobs tackles the question using data from recent Jacobs Media surveys (which was also used during the SSR panel)
Fred Jacobs
By Fred Jacobs
At a number of recent broadcasting and digital conferences this year, there’s a common topic that seems to surface in session after session – namely, is Pandora radio?
And part and parcel of these conversations is the debate about whether broadcasters should be worried about Pandora from a competitive threat standpoint. Or whether Pandora is simply a different type of entertainment that while viable, simply isn’t on the same platform in the collective mind of the audience.
Pandora’s Tim Westergren must have been grinning from ear to ear.
At the heart of this conversation is whether a pure-play Internet music service like Pandora is truly competitive with broadcast radio, and why or why not traditional brands should care about it.
I remember hearing some of these same arguments back in the early ‘80s about MTV. In those days, MTV was breaking a lot of the music that had been heretofore exposed on the radio. And the teens and twentysomethings of that era watched it in droves. And everywhere you went, it was “I Want My MTV.” MTV didn’t have to be just like FM to make radio feel like it had suddenly become the red-headed stepchild.
Ironic perhaps that one of MTV’s original movers and shakers, Bob Pittman, now is moving Clear Channel in very progressive directions in the digital world, including buying Thumbplay. And in the process, Pittman has been one of the leadership voices that has questioned Pandora’s radio-ness.
And not surprisingly, Clear Channel’s Digital COO, Gerrit Meier, argued on a recent panel that “Pandora isn’t radio,” and there’s no danger that it will take “radio’s lunch money.” In fact, Meier referred to Pandora as a “feature” rather than a station.
In fact, Pandora was referred to as “anti-social.” And to support that theory, Cumulus COO, John Dickey, stated that it wasn’t Pandora (or Facebook) that kept Alabamans informed about their tragic weather during that area’s crisis – it was local radio.
But not all radio stations are live, local, and staffed with DJs and personalities. Many successful operations like Jack-type stations or those that are highly music-intensive are not full-service in any sense of the term. These stations are simply a collection of songs, separated by produced slogans (and of course, commercials). Many of them excel in the ratings, and provide a great deal of ROI to their owners. And they are radio.
So at times like this in order to gain clarity, perspective, and wisdom, my inclination is always to seek out the advice of insiders and experts. And that means consumers, real people, and yes, radio listeners.
We recently wrapped up our Techsurvey7 – more than 20,000 core radio listeners who are in the email databases of more than 65 Rock/Classic Rock/Alternative stations in the U.S.
We learned several things from this year’s study:
1. More than a fifth of our entire sample listens to Pandora on a weekly basis or more often.
2. A majority feel that Pandora is better than most broadcast radio stations when it comes to music.
3. And Pandora has momentum.
To illustrate this last point, we focused on the top three sources for Internet radio among those in the sample who stream, and we trended it over the past five years. And keep in mind, most of these people are broadcast radio’s most loyal listeners – “The 20% part of the “80:20 Rule
Among those who stream, the gray bars that represent Pandora tell an amazing story. In the last three years alone, Pandora streaming has doubled, and there’s no reason to believe that it won’t continue to grow as it makes its way into more smartphones, devices, and platforms. The announcement that there’s now a Pandora comedy service ought to send a very loud and clear message that “spoken word” is very much going to be part of the Pandora brand.
But all the charts, graphs, and analytics in the world won’t help radio understand what Pandora is all about because enjoying music and audio entertainment is emotional. The true answers can be found by talking to people – real consumers – and getting a sense of how they use and perceive Pandora.
So, my second group of “experts” is the 18 people we interviewed in the ethnographic study we conducted for Arbitron last year, “Goin’ Mobile.” They are smartphone owners, many of whom listen to Pandora on a regular basis right on their phones, sometimes at the expense of broadcast radio.
They call it “Pandora Radio” or “Internet Radio,” and their P-word is “passion” for Pandora.
In “Goin’ Mobile,” we learned that while the Facebook mobile app was #1, the second-most common application was Pandora. It’s a channel that was enjoyed by a diverse group – men, women, people of all ages and different ethnic backgrounds.
So perhaps instead of choosing the denial route about Pandora, broadcast radio operators ought to go to school about this brand and what it means to their most important constituency – the audience. There are ways for radio to effectively counter-program Pandora, but traditional broadcasters will only develop smart strategies once they understands this service and what it does well – and not so well.
Instead of debating what Pandora is – and what it isn’t – isn’t it time to get serious about understanding how it works, what it provides, what it means to consumers, and what it could be down the road? And what can radio do moving forward to provide a better customer experience for the millions and millions of people who have been listening for decades?
What is radio?
If we define it as audio entertainment that can be heard wirelessly by millions of people, I’d like to offer up a theory:
Pandora IS radio.
Fred Jacobs is President of Jacobs Media. The Southfield, Michigan based firm consults many of America’s most successful Classic Rock, Mainstream Rock, and Alternative stations. Fred can be reached at (248) 353-9030 or fredjacobs@jacobsmedia.com. – See more at: http://www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=2208742#sthash.CDtveQyK.dpuf
