For the radio industry, there may be no better symbol for
the challenges of adapting to the digital age than two candy-colored mobile
apps, writes Ben Sisario in the NYTimes.
The apps, iHeartRadio and TuneIn, are aggregators — conduits
for thousands of online radio streams. With a few taps on a smartphone, a
listener can dart among a pop station in New York, gospel in Atlanta and talk
almost anywhere.
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| Tune-In logo |
Both have quickly amassed big audiences. TuneIn, which
offers 70,000 streams from around the world, announced last month that it has
40 million monthly users. IHeartRadio, owned by the broadcasting giant Clear
Channel Communications, has been downloaded 95 million times and has attracted
more than 12 million registered users.
For broadcasters, these aggregators can help reach audiences
in the growing but increasingly fragmented world of online radio, which can
mean anything from a customized playlist on Pandora or Spotify to an iTunes
stream.
At the same time, many broadcasters say they worry about the
rising costs of online royalties; the plans of the companies behind the apps;
and the possibility of being lost within the aggregators, like needles in
enormous digital haystacks.
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