Burn, burn let the radio burn

August 5, 2002

Last month, the Internet Debacle made the rounds of Lower Blogistan. Now, Janis Ian writes about Fallout-- a Followup to the Internet Debacle

Do I still believe downloading is not harming the music industry? Yes, absolutely. Do I think consumers, once the industry starts making product they want to buy, will still buy even though they can download? Yes. Water is free, but a lot of us drink bottled water because it tastes better. You can get coffee at the office, but you're likely to go to Starbucks or the local espresso place, because it tastes better. When record companies start making CD's that offer consumers a reason to buy them, as illustrated by Kevin's email at the end of this article, we will buy them. The songs may be free on line, but the CD's will taste better.

Also, on related themes, Doc Searls writes about More on what's fucked about radio

Commercial radio's customers are its advertisers. It's consumers are its listeners. Its business is selling air time to advertisers. It raises the value of that air time by attracting the largest possible number of listeners, in the most desirable demographics. How it does that is irrelevant to the business itself.

Wired News is running a series on the effects of Clear Channel's domination of the US radio industry, focusing on the San Diego market: Clear-Cutting the Radio Forest

Over the past three years, Clear Channel programmers sacked San Diego disc jockeys and replaced them with voices from out of town, hoodwinked listeners by airing national contests as if they were local, and rolled out cookie-cutter radio formats designed elsewhere. Meanwhile, the company sweet-talked Mexican station owners across the border and tore through legal loopholes in order to build its mini-empire.

I'm probably going to run out of lyrics from Radio King to use as post titles before running out of this topic...