Through A Glass, Darkly.

[ceemage]

Following on from a Twitter conversation last night, a couple of radio/new media predictions for 2013:

1. Mixcloud (or, given the internet’s ability to ensure that “the second mouse gets the cheese,” [*1] more likely a Mixcloud clone, with fewer features but easier to use) will become big. Really big. As with all forms of self-publishing, 99.9% of it will be complete and utter rubbish. The remaining 0.1%, however, will push the medium of radio in new and interesting ways that stuck-in-the-mud types like me would never have thought of.
2. Chris Moyles won’t return to Radio One, or indeed to free-to-air radio at all. Once he finally gets sick of tacky dating shows on Sky, he’ll start a subscription-only podcast, reckoning that a million fans at £5 a year must represent a business model of some sort. It won’t be as big a success as he hopes, but neither will it be the flop that his bitterer critics predict. Lots of earnest articles will appear in the analytical end of the print media about whether or not this represents “the future of radio.”

[*1] See Altavista/Google, Hotmail/Gmail, or (especially) MySpace/Facebook.

Comments

Twitter

[(Anonymous)]

I find it interesting that our conversation on twitter sparked this thoughful state. I agree with your views that Mixcloud (or similar) will become really big, however will it be of any real quality or will it become just a passing phase?
Chris Moyles plans for a podcast will not flop as he has proven to many he is worth listening to. He has however done a little damage to his reputation by appearing on so much crap TV. What are the chances of him trying to make it big in TV now he has, in the eyes of some, conquered radio. Sure he can look to develop and pave the way for the future of audio broadcasting but if it's accessible to everyone what can he do to stand out aside beyond using his name?
-Anna

Relevance

[(Anonymous)]

I'm no luddite, but I find little of relevance to me in either of these subjects... why would I want to create (or listen to) anytning on Mixcloud?

And who is Chris Moyles? Should he be on my radar?

Robin

Re: Relevance

[ceemage]

Whilst I recognise that most of the stuff on Mixcloud is hardly to your taste (lots of bedroom DJs playing Drum & Bass), the significance of Mixcloud is that it is the audio equivalent of blogging - it opens the medium up to lots of minority tastes that would never be commercially viable under the old structures. I note that Mixcloud has a whole section of "Classical," at least some of which must be obscure enough for your tastes...

And, in the spirit of learned counsel's response to Mr. Justice Cocklecarrot's question "Who are the Rolling Stones?" I should explain "Mr. Christopher Moyles is a radio presenter, Your Honour. Of some notoriety amongst the youth of today."