Music Radio Stations Hard Hit by Personal Digital Music Revolution

ORADELL, N.J., June 7 /PRNewswire/ - Music radio
stations are facing increasingly powerful competition
from the modern music culture says a newly published
study by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence. And what's
more, listener bases are changing, and not for the better.

"Listener bases appear to be shrinking," says
Constantine Kambanis, an analyst at TechnoMetrica. "Moreover, they may be losing some of their financial value, with perhaps the most economically important listeners leaving radio for the modern music experience."

According to Kambanis, the synergy between digital music formats, portable digital music players, personal
computers and the Internet has created better and more alluring alternatives to traditional radio, forcing music
radio to either adapt or die.

"Part of the appeal of things like the Apple iPod and online music services like iTunes and Napster is that the
listener's music experience can be completely customized. You just can't do that with traditional radio."

Comparing what he dubs the "modern music experience"
to traditional music radio programming, Kambanis says
that downloading gives such music a certain degree of ownership and permanence not found in radio. Beyond
that, the quickness and ease of downloading music and
the absence of time-consuming and irrelevant
commercials diminishes the value proposition of
music radio programming.

According to the report, music radio will have to come to grips with the fact that technology is fracturing the overarching listener base while simultaneously personalizing consumer's interaction with pop culture.

"Technology is having a profound impact on music radio's mission statement. It's forcing the advent of greater specialization and more genre-specific content. The future
of music radio probably lies in highly targeted
entertainment and in introducing new artists and music products into highly specialized markets."

About the Report:

This study surveyed a random sample of 1,002 adult American consumers on their perceptions of various products and services as well as buying habits. Beyond looking at the overarching modern music experience and
its impact on the music radio industry, the report examines ownership rates, demand for portable digital music players, online music service subscriptions, trends in PC usage for downloading music, downloading vs. buying music CDs, music piracy, consumer familiarity with Sony's Walkman Phone, its market viability and how it stacks up against Apple's iPod.