[HN Gopher] On-demand audio passes linear audio
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On-demand audio passes linear audio
Author : giuliomagnifico
Score : 31 points
Date : 2023-08-25 14:27 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.edisonresearch.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.edisonresearch.com)
| elf25 wrote:
| [dead]
| politelemon wrote:
| I'm amazed to hear about the podcast numbers. I find I'm
| incapable of paying attention to podcasts, I can't do anything
| else while listening, yet I struggle to sit still during the slog
| that is an external conversation. I'm much more attuned to
| reading.
|
| But there are hundreds of millions of people, I probably walk by
| them frequently, who are listening to podcasts every day while
| doing other activities.
| Animats wrote:
| "Live"? The article says "linear". Listening to a recording being
| played over some one-to-many distribution system is not "live".
|
| Is playing a recording "linear" or "on demand"?
| anyfoo wrote:
| Context. I can say the sentence "I'm playing this record for
| you live on air now", and everyone knows what is meant. So did
| you when you read the headline, presumably. These are not
| mathematical terms.
| barryrandall wrote:
| It's a media industry-specific use that generally means "the
| broadcaster picks what to play and when" or "the opposite of
| on-demand."
| Animats wrote:
| That makes sense for "linear". Calling something "live" when
| it's a remote one to many system just playing out a playlist
| is a bit much.
| drewcoo wrote:
| Even more insular audio bubbles than programmed radio stations of
| the past?
|
| I'll stick with WFMU to get some weird in my ears, thanks.
| [deleted]
| JimtheCoder wrote:
| I can't remember the last time there was something actually worth
| listening to on "live audio".
|
| At the same time, not knowing in advance what the content will be
| is sort of a killer for me...on-demand has a bit of social proof
| through reviews and comments, whereas live audio is sort of a
| crap shoot.
| jjulius wrote:
| >I can't remember the last time there was something actually
| worth listening to on "live audio".
|
| https://kexp.org/
|
| >... whereas live audio is sort of a crap shoot.
|
| Crap shoots can be fun, though!
| dmonitor wrote:
| NPR is still pretty fun to listen to occasionally.
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| > NPR is still pretty fun to listen to occasionally.
|
| Agreed but with heavy emphasis on "occasionally."
|
| I grew up listening to NPR. It's not the same any more - and
| not just compared to way back when but even when compared to
| a mere ten years ago. The amount of (relatively subpar)
| content that is purely picked and broadcast for the purpose
| of showcasing <instance of behavior or existence of person
| meeting certain carefully selected bullet points determined
| by the political policy of the broadcasting station> makes
| the signal-to-noise ratio for non-agenda-sharing listeners
| rather poor.
|
| It's a real shame because there are such treasures on there
| that drown in the sea of subpar content picked only because
| it serves the agenda of the station in question, and doubly-
| so because the national NPR w/ independently run regional
| stations model is absolutely terrific for promoting local
| journalism.
| NotSuspicious wrote:
| Sometime in the past decade NPR became unlistenable for me.
| I'm not sure if they changed or I did but I rarely feel I get
| anything out of listening to NPR other than annoyance.
| Workaccount2 wrote:
| Seems like an unpopular opinion, but I am in the same boat.
|
| A few years ago I got a job where I could listen every
| morning again after a few years without. The virtue
| signalling was so intense that it came off almost like a
| comedy.
|
| To be fair though, I am talking more about the local
| affiliate station (WNYC) than NPR itself. However, NPR
| still doesn't stray far from the core demographics of their
| member stations.
| jononomo wrote:
| I was just talking to someone about this exact same thing
| yesterday and I also made the comment "I'm not sure if they
| changed or I did".
|
| For twenty years I consumed hours of NPR content per day
| and was even a contributor, but now I can't stand NPR.
| mcpackieh wrote:
| I haven't listened to it in some years, but IMHO the best of
| NPR was the pre-recorded programs like Radiolab. Live
| segments were mostly just yammering, in one ear and out the
| other, nothing said in such segments has persisted in the
| conscious portion of my brain.
| rat87 wrote:
| I listen to NPR all the time. Through my podcast app. Very
| rarely do I listen to them live (mostly if android auto is
| temporarily on the fritz)
| progrus wrote:
| Fresh Air has become an audio tranquilizer for old black
| ladies and their old white "allies". There is a clumsy
| attempt to shoehorn race-baiting into nearly every story,
| followed by a commercial for neuropathy medicine.
|
| I can't even begin to imagine how one can have a positive
| reaction to that gruel.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| I was just listening to On Point they were talking about
| music's effect on physical health (heart rate, blood
| pressure, inflammation, etc)
| slillibri wrote:
| I think the closest thing to live audio I listen to is the lofi
| girl channel on youtube, and even then I'm not really listening
| as it's more just on in the background. Otherwise I have my own
| music that I listen to.
| ynac wrote:
| Free-form radio is still alive and well. https://wfmu.org is a
| monster in the field as well as a leader in live radio
| innovation. Their live commenting, archive, and multi-headed
| station broadcasts, are all remarkable achievements in both
| technology and community building. I'll give a shout for my two
| favorite shows, but there are dozens worth tuning in for:
|
| Serious Moonlight Sonatas - https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/MJ
|
| Techtonic - https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/TD
|
| And a bonus: Radio Ravioli - https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/OB
|
| WFMO out of Tuft's has some great stuff as do MANY Northeast
| colleges.
|
| Even tiny schools like KUPS have some interesting shows.
|
| The days of WBCN from the 60s-70s will be missed (if they are
| gone), but there's no reason why these things can't happen again.
| It isn't like there aren't great things to share and talk about
| it.
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| I find it distressing how centrist streaming services are.
| Whatever seed I ask for, there's like 60 bands that are very
| likely to populate half the generated playlist.
|
| Most commercial radio is very boring & normative. But gee there
| are so many stations out there that are independent or community
| run, where people are out there with interesting vibes & picking
| select music styles to play. So many stations that try to
| increase exposure. Which is so unlike what I find on streaming
| services.
|
| I also deeply miss shoutcast being a vibrant place. Chromewaves
| Radio had amazing surf/punk vibes. Amazing reggae and electronica
| stations galore. There's still some life yes, but it's a mere
| glimmer of what it was.
| nradov wrote:
| Use Pandora in discovery mode, and add variety to the station
| with multiple artists. You'll probably find something new that
| you like.
| onetokeoverthe wrote:
| [dead]
| seydor wrote:
| I miss radio streams though. there's value to the idea that
| thousands of others are listening to the same thing in realtime.
| Damn those personalized streams, i dont want to listen to music
| alone
| irrational wrote:
| But, how do you know that anyone else was ever listening to the
| same thing in realtime? Maybe you were the only one every time.
| Unlikely, but possible. I honestly don't see the difference. If
| it makes you feel better, try pretending in your mind that
| thousands of other people are listening to your personalized
| streams in realtime. Functionally it is the same thing.
| seydor wrote:
| You re probably not old enough to remember radio
| jhoechtl wrote:
| Which phrased that way sounds as if radio would be dead.
| squeaky-clean wrote:
| I like the Apple Music radio stations for this reason. Not the
| personalized stations, they have 3 live stations: Hits (generic
| pop), 1 (modern pop), and Country (obviously country).
| Fricken wrote:
| I love tuning in to whatever local station I can find while
| road tripping through some obscure part of the country. With
| radio I feel connected. Isn't that supposed to be a big part of
| what music is about? I'll go to any live show at a bar, it
| doesn't even have to be that good or my kind of music for me to
| appreciate it.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| As someone who lives in an obscure part of the country,
| almost all of our radio stations come out of the same
| building which has maybe one actual on-air personality for
| the ~7 stations broadcasting. What makes our stations "local"
| is the extensive advertising.
| rascul wrote:
| I don't miss the ads. Every time I listen to the radio it seems
| like there's 10 minutes of ads for 5 minutes of music. I know
| that's not actually the case but it doesn't usually take me
| long to find something else that doesn't have so many ads.
| fasterik wrote:
| I think the main advantage of radio for music is human
| curation. Spotify is still far from being able to give me a
| high quality playlist of music I'm likely to enjoy but would be
| unlikely to find on my own. However, podcasts and DJ mixes
| mostly fill this role for me. Internet radio still exists (KEXP
| is great) but I don't find myself using it much anymore.
|
| For the live element, it seems like Twitch streaming still has
| a lot of potential if they can figure out the copyright issues.
|
| For conversations and news, I think a well edited long-form
| podcast is superior to radio in every way.
| channel_t wrote:
| Yeah it's funny, after what feels like at least a solid decade
| of on-demand audio I'm finding myself seeking out more live
| audio wherever I can find it. Miss the feeling of at least
| passively participating in something. I think the isolation of
| the pandemic kicked some of that into gear.
| autoexec wrote:
| I guess I can understand the desire to be a part of
| something, but I can't see that feeling ever driving me back
| into the clutches of the commercial FM/satellite radio. I
| think I'd rather track down some popular pirate streamer or
| better yet just start going to concerts.
| darkclouds wrote:
| I'd rather have been at Glastonbury listening to this
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POTjcZGLKuY for the whole
| immersive crowd vibe, but watching it on TV wasnt bad.
|
| I prefer Norman's sampling and MC'ing to David Guetta's.
|
| Armin still does live streams all these years later!
| https://www.youtube.com/@arminvanbuuren/streams
|
| And the BBC Essential mix
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wkfp is now streamed
| online around the world every Friday night and thats been going
| since 30 October 1993 via the radio!!!
| jjulius wrote:
| Funny, I've been listening to Essential Mixes since the late
| 90's and I don't think I've ever listened to them 'live'.
| canadianfella wrote:
| [dead]
| [deleted]
| nullandvoid wrote:
| I'm a fan of garden radio for anyone who hasn't used, always fun
| to tune in to radio stations from other side of the world.
| jhoechtl wrote:
| I love radio
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| There's an interesting court case happening in Dallas right now
| between two former radio hosts and their former employer.
| Basically, the hosts were unsatisfied that they didn't own their
| own material and that they couldn't get corporate to bump the pay
| of the producers and board operators who helped make their show
| work. So they proposed a solution where they would record
| additional content in the form of a podcast and use a
| subscription to that material to pay these other guys more money.
| While the hosts were slated to make ~$250K each for 3 hours of
| airtime a day, producers usually make around $35K, and board ops
| less.
|
| The corporate side said no, and thus the hosts resigned. This
| began the enforcement of a non-compete agreement that the hosts
| thumbed their noses at, immediately starting up a podcast in the
| same format as their radio show, with a similar name. They were
| promptly sued for violation of the non-compete and currently have
| a TRO until they have mediation next Monday. They had accumulated
| around 4000 subscriptions at $6.90 a month in about a month's
| time.
|
| Twitter-adherent people might be familiar with one of their
| lawyers Matt Bruenig, who is a socialist lawyer with a strong
| internet presence and has been involving himself in NLRB related
| matters since he was in college. He's a friend of one of the
| hosts and is apparently using this as a test case to try to at
| least limit what non-competes in the entertainment industry can
| enforce. At one point, two of the drive-time show hosts went to
| corporate and asked to have their current contracts rewritten to
| have their contracts end at the same time as the proposed new
| contract of these hosts. They were shot down. This will be
| brought up in court as a strike against collective bargaining.
|
| For example, it's standard in radio non-competes that you do not
| broadcast within the listening area of your market for the
| duration of the non-compete. The format and name of the show is
| owned by the radio corp. And should you decide to negotiate with
| any third party during the course of your contract or non-compete
| for better pay, you are required under the terms of the contract
| to disclose these to the company because they have the right of
| first refusal. The argument of these hosts is that they are not
| technically competing with the radio station because they took
| their show online and do not release the show until late in the
| evening after the station's unsyndicated content has run its
| course.
|
| The hosts claim that the non-compete is unfair. The station
| claims that they've spent considerable money promoting the hosts
| and would suffer financial injury if hosts could just roll off of
| a contract and directly into a podcast. IMO they both have valid
| points.
| bwanab wrote:
| I love on-demand, but I'll never stop listening to Radio Paradise
| - at least while Bill is still around. They've got better taste
| in music than I can ever come up with.
| yndoendo wrote:
| My GOTO for steaming too.
| block_dagger wrote:
| Bill will have a superior AI version.
| [deleted]
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