Satellite Radio Playground

By Tom Taylor

The following article comes from Tom Taylor’s newsletter, Taylor on Radio-Info.

Clear Channel stakes a big chunk of its future on iHeartRadio, now available in a Pandora-hunting Beta version.

Yesterday’s companywide employee call was to communicate the surprise release of the muscle-powered iHeartRadio app and website. That’s a relief for people who’d been told going into the Labor Day Weekend that they’d be on a national call this week (September 2 TRI Newsletter). CEO John Hogan lays out some of the company’s plans, revolving around the multi-platform iHeartRadio website and app. For years he’s been saying that Clear Channel (PINK:CCMO) is a content company, with distribution not limited to broadcast towers. Now the major investment in the updated iHeartRadio – and the September 23-24 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Vegas – shows the commitment of controlling shareholders Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners. The announcement about a Pandora-targeted player that combines Clear Channel’s own 800 stations with a custom radio player probably smacked Pandora (NYSE:P) stock around a little. It dropped 11% on the day to $11.02, basically at its lowest point since it went public on June 15. Clear Channel’s aggressive stance may actually cheer up the entire radio sector, and regain some mind-share on Madison Avenue.

The new iHeartRadio can do tricks.

Clear Channel can advertise “Better music intelligence capability”, based on “millions of dollars worth of ongoing music research and the expertise of Clear Channel’s leading radio programmers.” There are also “Social media tools to show users what songs their friends have recently listened to, and the songs and artists they like.” Another thing Clear Channel is counting on – quantity. They’re touting “A massive catalog of more than 11 million songs and 400,000 artists.” Clear Channel says that’s “more than 10 times the number of songs offered by Pandora.” Also different from Pandora – no monthly cap on listening hours. And through the end of the year, no commercials. (Pandora’s basic level serves up a few short commercials.) Take your own tour of the re-tooled iHeartRadio here.

The Sean Ross “First Listen” to iHeartRadio.

Sean, the Executive Editor of Music & Programming here at Radio-Info.com, was eager to road-test Clear Channel’s new vehicle, applying the same tests he put Pandora and CBS’ Radio.com through. A couple of his observations – “Like Pandora, but not Radio.com, iHeartRadio allows you to base a station on either an artist or song. Like Radio.com, it does not allow you to modify those stations based on additional variables. For the purposes of consistency, I used artists, not songs.” And what a wide range of artists – #1, Lady Gaga. #2, Music Explosion, the Ohio garage-rock band responsible for the 1967 hit “Little Bit of Soul.” Sean says “One smart feature is a slider bar that lets you choose ‘familiar artists,’ ‘more discovery,’ or a point in between.” He likes the “scan” button (“after you’ve selected a station, you have the ability to punch quickly among eight or so others from the same genre”). Ross says “The new player is clean and good looking. Like the last major revision of Radio.com, however, it looks like a Web-page, not a standalone streaming player.” Sean’s asking for your own “First Listen” impressions. Get his expert thoughts at Radio-Info.com, here.

Tom Taylor is the Executive News Editor at Radio-Info.com.
Contact the Author: tom@in3media.com