Better user interfaces in cars change radio listening

All the links and more here: https://james.crid.land/update/user-interface-car-radio

This was first published Oct 24

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello, I'm James Cridland, the Radio Futurologist, and well, I'm supposed to record this whenever

(00:06):
I write a new newsletter, but clearly I haven't been doing so. But nevertheless, that means
that I've got plenty of test stuff for something that I would like to test. So this is partially
a test and partially something about better user interfaces in cars changing radio listening,
which I wrote on the 23rd of October. So if I don't really know what I'm reading, that's

(00:30):
probably why. A fascinating bit of data from Edison Research came out then, showing the
effect of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on car audio listening. It seems that AMFM is
still the number one source, but total listening goes down by a third if you have CarPlay or
Android Auto. Everything else doubles – music streaming, podcasts, all of that kind of stuff.

(00:54):
It's the effect of a decent user experience, of course. If you make it simpler to listen
to other things, people will. It's why things like Radio Player that aim to make a decent
user experience for all of radio are so important. As a case in point, I was in Adelaide over
the weekend, the hire car had Android Auto in it, and I didn't listen to the radio once.

(01:16):
I just asked YouTube Music to play music from My Mix, and it did. How did that compare with
the radio? Well, we did some listening in a cafe – Power FM, I think it was – but
on a Sunday morning it was just non-stop music punctuated by one, quite eager local news
bulletin and a number of commercials. And non-stop music really isn't much of an alternative
to My Mix, which is also non-stop music, but the music that I like. Radio's selling point,

(01:42):
a shared experience, and a human connection is important here, you'd think.
In Australia, some interesting corporate manoeuvring as ARN launches a hostile takeover bid of its
competitor, SCA. The broadcast radio market is worth $1.7 billion, which is $1.1 billion
US. And this would be the equivalent, I guess, of Bauer trying to take over global or Odyssey

(02:07):
taking over iHeart. There's a phrase that is aged considerably badly. Anyway, the radio
ownership rules in Australia allow for Analog Radio, one company, to own two radio stations
in each broadcast area. And I linked to the Brisbane RA1, the licence area for Brisbane,

(02:28):
and the Ipswich RA1, the one for Ipswich, and most of the city of Ipswich, is in the Brisbane
area as well. So when ARN bought grants a few years ago, the Ipswich station River 94.9
meant that they had to sell a station in Brisbane. And if ARN is successful in taking over SCA,
of course they'll have four stations in many areas, so the plan there is to have two broadcast

(02:50):
radio companies run separately in much the same way that global and communicorp exist.
But that regulatory requirement isn't relevant for streaming, or for DAB+, or for podcasting.
And looking at the recent Australian podcast ranker, ARN and SCA represent 69% of all podcast
downloads in Australia. That's quite the behemoth. So I don't really understand whether the ACCC,

(03:15):
the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, would have the same concerns as the UK's
CMA, but it's certainly interesting times for the industry ahead.
In other news, Eric Newsom has written a content strategy for US public radio, three strategies
actually. It's worth a read. You'll find it linked in our show notes and our newsletter.
In South Africa, happy 30th birthday to the NAB. I was honoured to speak at the NAB's

(03:41):
30th anniversary event via my home office. The deeply unsatisfactory result of the Voice
to Parliament referendum in Australia led to the presenter of Triple J's Blackout, which
is a show playing Indigenous artists, to make a protest speech and then play the same song
for an hour. That was promoted on the ABC's website. And think of how that would have

(04:04):
gone down at the BBC.
And Sean Ross suggests that the first thing that US radio must fix is the add load. I'm
always mystified why US radio doesn't understand how much to charge for its airtime.
It says here, coming up, I'm speaking at the following events, which I will skip past because
all of those are in October and November, and it is no longer October and November. I'll

(04:25):
tell you that. Supporters, at the point that I wrote this were, thank you to Broadcast
Radio, Clyde Broadcast, Richard Hilton and James Masterton, Brun Audio Consulting, SOMA
FM and Media Realms Meta Radio. If you'd like to support my work in any way, you can buy
me a coffee. You can do that at buymeacoffee.com. I believe you can also follow me on Master

(04:48):
Don. I'm James at bne.social there. My professional website has more detail about who I am and
what I do and whether I can help you further. You can hear this newsletter being read to
you on a podcast playing near you. It says, gosh, you've been listening. You've been waiting
for a long time. Just search for James Cridden Radio Futurologist. Well, that's this. Anyway,
anyway, thank you for listening. I hope that was good. Sorry, it was about six months too

(05:13):
late. Well, October, November, December, January, okay, three months too late. But anyway, at
least this gives me a chance to test a number of things. So we'll do that and I'll speak
to you again soon and keep listening.