The Death of FM Radio According to One Musician

"Even downloading MP3’s will soon be a thing of the past, as none of us need 50,000 MP3 files hogging up HD space on our laptops. Therefore, streaming will be the go-to source for all music listening habits, both new and old."

The Homicide Called FM Radio By Matt G @MGMuzik

A few months ago Google bought the popular streaming music service Songza for a reported $39 Million. Recent studies show that Pandora is actually the most popular radio music service in 14 of 15 of the top FM radio markets in the entire country. Spotify continues to make business headlines with their remarkable deals and growing 10 million plus paid subscriber base. With the near future of the YouTube music service and the the emergence of Beats Music, as well as other transitions in the industry to add more diversity to the online streaming music world its obvious the way we listen to and will be listening to music will continuously change over the course of the next decade. Its no secret that times and trends have changed, thus birthing a completely new music consumer.

In the past 10 years as digital downloads have replaced CD sales and pirated music has become all but a regular day-to-day music consumption ritual for anyone aged 12-25, the entire means of how we listen to and share music has completely evolved into new avenue of socialization.

Major labels have lost millions and been forced to merge in order to save what’s left of an unfair, and archaic business model. As streaming music comes into full-force we are looking into the future of how music is played and what music is played.

To not be weary of the future of FM radio is to be not only naive, but archaic in one’s perspective to how the business model has changed in the past 15 years since Napster, and is continually changing day by day with the emergence in new capabilities of technology. So here’s my take on the annihilation of FM radio and why its doomed to a slow and painful death over the course of the next several years.

When mainstream music listeners search through their FM radio dial, chances are they are probably going to only hear less than 30 artists, regardless of the station or genre they are interested in hearing. Those of us who have experience in the industry know why that is, and those of you who play consumer to the products being shoved down your throats don’t know any better because either you aren’t paying attention or just don’t care. Thus the cycle continues and instead of a new, and engaging artist from Seattle in regular rotation, you’re forced to listen to Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Big Sean, Rihanna, and an old Maroon 5 record from 8 years ago. Once again, there’s a reason for this and if they can convince you that these artists are the only ones worthy of radio-play then you’ll buy into the hype and everything else they’re selling.

Head over to MattGMuzik for the rest of this article...