As 'old media', radio embraced new media early on - on the BBC website and with things like Yahoo Radio's 'my station' (now discontinued), which produced a unique playlist in response to a listener's feedback. So how can radio evolve in a Web 2.0 world?
The answer may lie in a British start-up, Mixcloud, which brings many of the now familiar elements of social media to audio sequences (they still call it radio but that's really only to help us understand the concept).
Mixcloud wants to be "the YouTube of radio". Whether it becomes as popular as YouTube remains to be seen, but there are more immediate similarities: users are invited to upload their own music sequences for others to rate, share and search, with extensive interlinking with Facebook and Twitter.
The idea would seem to have a following wind, being part of several trends that have led to success for other start-ups:
- It blurs the distinction between the amateur and the professional. Popularity is the only currency.
- It liberates a (sort of) radio experience from transmission time and technology platform.
- It offers a unique experience depending on personal choices and feedback.
- It appears to have no business model, except for a few ads - which didn't stop Twitter, YouTube or Facebook.
And it follows on the heels of Last.fm, another British start-up that grew in the East End for five years until it was bought two years ago by CBS for £140 million, turning its three British founders into UK tech stars.
The Mixcloud founders, many not long out of Cambridge University, have produced a slick service. Now they have to wait and see how many people find and use it.
As for its possible impact on broadcast radio, Mixcloud points to an increasing expectation that a service needs to be responsive to every listener's choices - with the resulting personalised service easily assembled and shared. What does that mean for BBC Radio 4?
