I read Paul Baldwin’s post Up a Ladder Without a Fiddle with great interest. I think he’s exactly right. With all the unique and creative programming on Internet radio these days, its potential power is being held back due to the ‘mobility thing.’ For the most part, one has to be chained to the computer in order to listen to Internet radio.
What Paul wrote made me think of what Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy recently said about Internet radio. Speaking at the RAIN Las Vegas Summit Kennedy said, “All of us recognize that over the next 3 to 5 years, transitioning Internet radio from a mostly ‘at work in front of the computer’ experience is the single most important thing…other than getting a royalty structure that enables us to survive.” He then added, “we’ve always thought the home is really the best near-term opportunity to get off the PC and get into the living room and kitchen.”
What Kennedy said about the best near-term opportunity being to get into the living room and kitchen may be true, but I think getting Internet Radio into the cars is going to be even more important.
I listen to Internet radio in the car right now. I know there are not a lot of people who do this – in fact I don’t know of anyone else who does this. But I do. And I do it because I want to be able to listen to what I want to listen to wherever I want to listen to it. Granted the way I do it is a bit clumsy. And it doesn’t provide a sound quality that is anything close to optimum. But at this point none of that really matters. The only thing that matters to me is that even though I live in the Washington D.C. area I can still listen to one of my favorite radio stations, which just so happens to be located 200 miles away in New York City, in my car! The station (sports talker WFAN) provides me with content that I really want rather than content that is just the best choice amongst limited available choices. Listening to ‘the FAN’ keeps me plugged in to the sports teams that are important to me (the New York Yankees, Giants, Rangers and Knicks) and it keeps me plugged into the whole ‘New York sports community’.
The clumsiness of my Internet radio in-car solution stems from the fact that I am listening thru my laptop, which I have propped up on the passenger seat with my Internet connectivity being provided via my data card and the Verizon mobile phone network. I’m listening through the little laptop speakers and yes, there are hiccups and some buffering issues – but again, none of that matters because I get to listen to WFAN in the place where I do most of my radio listening – my car.
So while the next step for Internet radio maybe getting it unchained from the PC into the home, the more important step is to get it into the cars.
Tagged: Cars, Internet Radio
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2 Comments
When you brake a little hard, do you then have to spend 5 minutes with your free hand putting your laptop back on the seat while you ferret about for the speaker rolling round in the footwell?
I really hope they put internet radio in cars quick before someone gets killed by the laptop flying through your window attached to two spinning speakers on cords spinning like nunchuckas while severing someone elses head when you have an accident.
Portable internet radio will happen, it’s inevitable. In the meantime, please spend a little more time concentrating on driving or, at the very least, put a seatbelt around your laptop.
Once again, although I admit it won’t be forever, terrestrial radio does it better.
Hi David,
Thanks for your note on my post. Funny. And I’m only listening to my laptop thru the existing built-in speakers – so no external speakers to sever anyone’s head! And as far as the laptop crashing through the windshield, I don’t know how they make cars where you live, but here the only thing that is going to damaged is the laptop as it crashes off the windshield and bounces back to the seat completely smashed!
And no worries – I completely concentrate on the driving aspect while I”m listening to my laptop, just as I would concentrate to the driving while listening to my “regular” radio.
And to your point about terrestrial radio doing it better, at least for now, well of course that depends on what you’re listening to – and in the specific case I was mentioning, the station I listen to in my car via the Internet, IS a terrestrial station.