Fresh Air is an essential manual on marketing radio stations and the radio industry, by Mark Ramsey. Read the CBS buys Last.fm - and what it means
CBS today will announce the acquisition of Last.fm for $280 million.
What is Last.fm, you ask? It's a popular social network built around musical tastes, says the LA Times. But what it really is is personalized online radio. It's radio that learns what you like and gets better - for you personally.
I don't think I need to spell out the implications of this, do I?
Fast-forward two years and you'll see Last.fm integrated in all of CBS's radio websites which, for the first time, will enable customized versions of the analog stations you love - and whatever else your heart desires. Stations that could ultimately be available via mobile technologies. Stations that could theoretically include advertising.
It is inevitable that radio - or aspects of radio - will become personalized.
If personalizing advertising makes Google virtually priceless, what effect on listeners does personalizing radio have for CBS?
All of this is theoretical at this stage, of course, and I don't mean to sound breathless. But this is where I think things are headed.
Instantly, the value of a huge "variety" of channels or stations will be obliterated. Because ultimately nobody wants a hundred diverse channels or stations. They want THEIR one or two or three diverse channels or stations. A hundred stations is what you provide when technology limits you from doing better.
Now you can do better.
Bad news for HD. Bad news for satellite. And bad news for you if you expect your station's future to be strictly tied to terrestrial broadcast.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/9344/18903562
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference CBS buys Last.fm - and what it means:
» CBS buys Last.fm -Inspired from Pete's View
Mark Ramsey reports that CBS has bought Last.fm.
Mark speculates that in two years well see Last.Fm integrated into all of CBS’s radio web sites delivering the personalized online radio that Last.fm is famous for.
While that my be true (except for th... [Read More]
For the price of a full-market signal FM in Los Angeles, CBS buys an international property that can complement and be applied to each and every radio station and website the company owns. Smart purchase.
Posted by: Vytas Safroncikas | May 30, 2007 at 12:47 PM
If this analysis is correct, so what? CBS will take personalized radio and ruin it just like its ruined its terrestrial properties. These guys are about greed not entertainment and responsible broadcasting. Who will listen to personalized radio with 24 minutes of commercial content? They know no other way.
Posted by: frank gagliano | May 31, 2007 at 02:06 PM
Whether there will be advertising is not a hypothetical question - CBS is an advertising company. Besides, how else would they make money? Check out the Ad-Supported Music Central blog:
http://ad-supported-music.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Marc Cohen | June 03, 2007 at 06:37 PM