Read the blog? - now watch the movie

Who are the bloggers? Who are the podcasters? Why do they do it? Do they think radio is obsolete or alive and well? Are they partners or competitors? With broadband take up increasing and the rise and rise of Facebook, My Space and Twitter, social networking effects and personalised media have become mainstream. But what does it mean for radio when everyone is a publisher? Those were the questions asked at the Radio Academy Conference in Cambridge last week, and the video above was made by Nick Reynolds from the BBC to help answer them.

All three videos of bloggers shown at the Radio Festival are now available on You Tube. Radio Five Live’s Pods and Blogs did a special programme on the Radio Festival which can be heard here. Rory Cellan Jones posted some photos of backstage activity on Facebook, as did Matt Hall, while Jemima Kiss gave her thoughts afterwards on Media Guardian.

I must say it is great to see someone in the BBC encouraging debate about the future of radio. Well done Nick Reynolds and his colleagues.

Antony Pitts resources via this path, Jonathan Harvey via this one. And this path will take you to more than seventy other composers well worth investigating.
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Classical internet radio - a user's guide

Email received in response to my post This is the future of radio ~ First, we appreciate very much your On an Overgrown Path coverage, including Antoine’s very kind words after using Radeo. We had noticed it, with the help of Google Alerts; and we’ve noticed a number of other blogs covering you since. And, we’re having some great classical activity on Radeo, some of which is apparent on Most Listened under Search!

I was surprised by the comment posted feeling that Radeo is primarily podcasts, and appreciated your response that we are first more than 10,000 radio stations around the world. Our first priority is programmed stations, the simulcasts of broadcast stations and Internet only stations. Shows and their Episodes from Stations is our second priority. And, Podcasts included as Shows and Episodes is our third priority. We have many great podcasts, but that is not primary and some use and exploration should easily confirm that.

Regarding the BBC iPlayer, our view is that this is focused on downloading video programming, and radio is an after thought—the multiple current BBC Players get incorporated eventually. It’s limited to the BBC; and there is no personalization—no presets, interests, or sharing. Our Radeo player is focused on streaming audio programming and video is secondary (although very present). Radeo offers the largest database of audio and video programming worldwide, and encourages easy personalization—presets, interests, share and news emails. Try “The BBC” under our Search tab for essentially all of BBC Radio and much of the rest of their audio and video offerings—easily from one page.

We would like to suggest several ways for you, Antoine, and your readers to share classical music recommendations:

1. First, anyone can Signup with only name, password and email address and begin storing their personal preferences—fast, free and easy. That’s PC and Mac: Windows and Mac OS X operating systems; Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari web browsers; and Windows Media, Real, and QuickTime players. And, with confirmation of their email address, they can Share email their recommendations including descriptions and links which will open Radeo and begin playing the recommendation.

2. Second, anyone can Share their Listener Name and Password with others to allow access by others. Others can be signed in and playing with the same Listener Name at the same time; the preferences are saved when the last person closes.

3. Third, we can fix your preferences as a Profile for your readers, so that anyone can open and play Radeo with your preferences; but only you can Login and change the preferences. And, any Signup from within the Profile, starts with those preferences (rather than our standard Demo preferences). Most easily, this can be a Radeo link from your Blog, which opens the Radeo player with your profile preferences.

As for some recommendations, Antoine seems to be doing well working through our offerings. WGBH Classical HD 2 Station and WGBH Classical Performance Show are very good, in addition to WGBH 89.7 FM Station. Hopkinson Smith lute—recently in Most Listened—is a particular favorite of mine. Radio Latvia Three Klassika is a favorite Station. And, Naxos Classical Music Spotlight Show has great offerings. And, our MyBBC Demo includes Playlist D with latest Episodes of a dozen BBC classical music shows. Also, the Vatican Stations offer some good listening. As you are listening, check under the Related tab for additional, related possibilities—which can be previewed and websites visited, while you continue listening. For links to these stations see below.

We are involved with music. Our recommendations are sincere. It’s worth going through our Standard and MyBBC demos; everything there is considered. Maintaining and expanding our database is a continual process. In addition to our ongoing checking and sourcing, listener tuning attempts with no connection are investigated; and recommendations are appreciated.

And, we also very much look forward to internet radio being available away beyond a computer. But, some computer is now with very many of us much of our day—and radio listening is greatest in the office, followed by commuting. Tabletop alternatives are improving. And, mobile players, including Wi-Fi access, are now appearing and improving. As internet access becomes more constantly available, streaming is generally more appealing than downloading. Try our Radeo companion version beta. The 12 x 4 presets from “desktop” preferences are easily available on a mobile phone with Windows Mobile which including Windows Media Player—with no additional setup: http://www.radeo.net/mobile/.

We look forward to communicating with you further.

Sincerely, Darryl Pomicter, Ressen Design

Links to the stations mentioned above:

WGBH Classical 89.7-HD2, Boston, Massachusetts
Click to Listen

WGBH Classical Performance, Hopkinson Smith plays lute music of Robert Ballard - WGBH Classical Performance
Hopkinson Smith has been described as "one of the world's real masters of the lute". We were honored to have him visit our studio at WGBH to play music of an early 17th century French master lutenist, Robert Ballard, as well as a couple of pieces by his English contemporary, John Dowland. Robert Ballard (Works primarily from the Premier livre de luth, Paris, 1611): Entrée de Luth; Courante [...]
Click to Listen

Radio Latvia Three Klasika, Latvia
Click to Listen

Naxos Classical Music Spotlight, Classical Music Spotlight Special Editon - Class of '38 - A Conversation with Composer Ellen Zwilich
Raymond Bisha chats with composer Ellen Zwilich about her most recent work.
Click to Listen

Ultima Thule Ambient Music, UT 559
A post-classical excursion with Vangelis, Philip Glass, John Tavener and Arvo Part.
Click to Listen

Download the Radeo internet player here. Internet radio is the future, which is why we should all be very concerned about this.
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Here comes water cooler television

'The BBC yesterday unveiled its long-awaited iPlayer catch-up service, hailing it as the biggest change in the way we watch television since the introduction of colour 40 years ago. After more than three years in development, the corporation said the free catch-up service for all BBC programmes would launch on July 27.

After installing the iPlayer on a PC, viewers will be able to download almost any programme from the previous seven days at will and store it on the computer for up to 30 days, after which it will be automatically deleted. Viewers will be able to search for their favourite shows via a linear schedule, genre or channel. Links to the iPlayer will also be scattered liberally around the BBC website and flagged up after BBC shows.

BBC Vision director Jana Bennett predicted the iPlayer would revolutionise the way we watch television, allowing more people to participate in drama "water cooler" events while at the same time allowing them to discover lesser-watched shows. The BBC's director of future media and technology, Ashley Highfield, said it would become the default means of accessing its programmes on demand as technological advances allowed viewers to watch television "any time, any place, anyhow". He predicted the service would have 1 million users within a year' ~ reports today's Guardian.

But classical music isn't going to be on tap from the digital water cooler. As was revealed On An Overgrown Path in January classical music will be excluded from the BBC's download services because, according to the BBC Trust, "there is a potential negative market impact if the BBC allows listeners to build an extensive library of classical music that will serve as a close substitute for commercially available downloads or CDs." Which means the future of serious music broadcasting lies with the long-tail of radio made accessible by tools like the Radeo internet player.

Lots of interesting back links flow from my headline, including Martini music making and music like water
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BBC launches time travel technology

The photo above was taken at Masaaki Suzuki's wonderful Aldeburgh Festival recital in Framlingham Church yesterday morning. He played Jean Adam Guillaume Guilain, William Byrd, Henry Purcell and J.S. Bach on the Tamar organ seen here, which dates from 1674.

The BBC recorded the recital, and their microphone array, with four crossed transducers, can be seen to the right of the organ. I have written here about the much-hyped BBC iPlayer. This may not yet be launched, but it certainly promises some mind-boggling time shift possibilities. Masaaki Suzuki's recital took place on 21 June, here is the note from the Aldeburgh Festival programme booklet:

This performance is being recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast on Lunchtime Concert on 11 June.

Now, for more time travel, follow a path which leads from Framlingham Church to Glenn Gould.
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This is the future of radio - and new music

The BBC's iPlayer may have finally been given the go-ahead by the BBC Trust, but it has yet to launch and in the interim commercial radio has stolen a march. Under the guidance of the RadioCentre's energetic chief executive, Andrew Harrison, the trade body has launched its own version - the RadioCentre Player. Although it is initially being positioned as an internal tool to get exposure for all of the UK's 300 or so commercial stations, it has the potential to go way beyond a bit of in-house marketing.

So what does the player offer? At its heart is an existing piece of software developed by a US company, Ressen Design, which adapted it for the RadioCentre. This is how commercial radio has got the player out so fast; in contrast the BBC's iPlayer is being developed in-house.

The RadioCentre Player features 12 preset stations, including the national services, Classic, Virgin and TalkSport; other big stations such as Heart and Capital, and a few smaller regionals from Channel 103 FM to Lincs FM. The selection of the preset list is not based on audience or any other consumer measure but on who sits around the RadioCentre board table, hence the bizarre mix.

Putting such political nonsense to one side, the player gives access to every single station in the UK, either in an alphabetical format or by group ownership basis. This means that you can listen live, in real time, for free, to any station in Britain. Whether you are a record plugger wanting to assess a music format (or, more importantly, find out whether a station really is playing your artist's song), or a media buyer checking out the target audience, this is a brilliant tool. It is quick - almost every station buffers and streams live in less than 10 seconds - and there are fewer clicks than going on to the BBC website to "listen again".

But it goes further than that. The player also gives access to thousands of internet-only and licensed radio stations from around the world: 10,227 stations, in fact, including 3,794 from the US.

Now that the RadioCentre Player is launched, the genie is out of the bottle, and it will inevitably become a consumer tool because listeners will want it.

That report comes from the Media Guardian, and follow this link to use the RadioCentre Player in the UK, for other readers download the version from the US site. Software applications like RadioCentre Player are disruptive technology, and they are going to revolutionise radio in the same way that blogs have revolutionised journalism.

To see the real power of the RadioCentre Player click on the Search button above the presets window, then click on the + symbol on the tree that appears to expand a branch, Worldwide Radio > Stations by Format/Genre/Style > Classical gives a choice of 170 stations. If the station doesn't stream through the player (some connections seem to be flaky) connect to the stream direct from the station website which appears in the centre window in the player.

There are now more than ten-thousand radio stations available on your PC, or stream them to your stereo using Squeezebox. You can search by genre, and any station anywhere in the world is now just a couple of mouse clicks away.

This is a fantastic opportunities for classical and contemporary music to reach new audiences, and this blog will be part of the revolution. The photo below shows me working in the studio yesterday on the radio version of On An Overgrown Path. Watch this blog, or should that be radio station?


Now read more about the future of radio
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk