Does AOL Radio Mean The End Of Traditional Stations? - By: audiogadgets

Online radio such as AOL Radio, Slacker, Pandora and Last.fm have gained attractiveness recently. In addition, several cordless products such as mobile phones support these platforms. Are local radio stations doomed? I will take a closer look at online radio to try to answer this question. In particular I will investigate the effect of online radio on local broadcasters.

I seems that local radio stations are on their way to become extinct. They are being threatened by the advance of online and satellite radio. These competing services usually offer hundreds of music and entertainment channels. Some of the channels are even commercial-free. The internet has enabled access to a nearly indefinite number of online radio stations.

A lot of online radio providers such as Pandora are now accessible on portable devices such as mobile phones and other wireless audio products via suitable apps. This adds mobility to online radio which has still been the trump card of local radio stations.

AOL Radio offers in excess of 200 music channels in addition to 150 national CBS radio stations because it employs CBS radio as its platform. The underlying platform "play.it" also has a feature that permits listeners to create their own radio stations by entering preferred albums, artists and so on. The individual tracks of each music channel are also available for storage on an iPod through 3rd-party software such as iGetMusic.

Pandora and other online radio providers have in the same way started to offer customized music. The user can enter music-related information such as artist, track or album name. These channels will then choose tracks which are similar to the information entered. On the other hand, most online radio broadcasters lack the ability to create fully customized radio stations such as the "play.it" platform.

Does online radio mean the extinction of local radio? The rising number of choices clearly is going to reduce the market share of traditional radio broadcasters. Online radio is especially useful for niche broadcasters who have been unable to broadcast due to the high price tag and licensing of frequency space.

Online radio broadcasters have found it hard to be lucrative. The main reason is the enormous number of competiting channels which is diluting listeners. The lower cost of online radio at the same time permits making of more interesting content than local radio by serving niche markets and inserting less commercials.

One big benefit of local stations though is local content including news or current events. Thus far the poor audio quality of FM radio has been a big disadvantage. Nonetheless, latest digital radio broadcasts are set to enhance the audio quality. One of these technologies is HD radio. The big factors that will ultimately decide the destiny of each technology are content and convenience. Online radio and conventional radio each have their own niche in terms of offering exclusive content and both offer high mobility and convenience so there will almost certainly be no clear winner.

About the Author

You can get additional information regarding AOL Radio and wireless audio products at Amphony's website.

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