Building communities of new listeners


Email received from the developers of the Radeo internet player (above) in response to my post The day the music died:

Thanks Bob! A large part of our motivation to create Radeo comes from the belief that there a many important and significant audiences that are not being served by traditional radio. Terrestrial radio, due to costs and the requirement of geographic audience density, are economically driven to serve the mass market. But there are large audiences, geographically dispersed, that are looking for "more". Perhaps more focused on a style of music, perhaps more musically challenging pieces -- the personal motivations will vary.

We hope that Radeo can play a role in aiding the individual find and listen to radio that is meaningful to him/her. We also believe that a part of the historical success of conventional radio is that it gives shape and definition to "communities" of listeners -- that the radio listening experience, while an individual experience, is also an important link for listeners to a larger group that they identify with. Radio, in a very real sense, has always been a key component of social networks.

We hope that Radeo can help create and support new forms of communities or social networks around radio/audio content. Personally, we're not into the social networking in the style of MySpace with its millions of personal pages and probably 100's of millions of uninteresting stream-of-consciousness messages.

We value that which has historically always been of value -- quality content, matched to (and shaping) personal interests via thoughtful and informed "programmers". While Radeo will not get into the "programming" of specific content inside a stream, we are exploring ways that we might add more capabilities for "meta programming" that link/gather/repackage streams to help listeners find stations and listener communities that enhance their listening experience.

Best regards, Paul Cosway



Now click on the image above and listen to Bayern 4 and other fine classical stations while you read about those moments that are rare in radio.
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