RAB CEO Jeff Haley has sent an email to all radio broadcasting CEOs, calling attention to the growing demand for song tagging across the radio listener base and to more broadly adopt the RDS RT+ radio text functionality to make that tagging possible.
“Radio has long enjoyed a position as the number one source for new music discovery. Recent products launched by Apple and Microsoft are a testament to our success and the enduring strength of Radio. The broader distribution of the FM signal on mobile devices will change Radio misperceptions and drive more listeners. Our next opportunity will be to drive greater listener satisfaction through the direct purchase of music from our programming. Device manufacturers and telcom carriers will be key partners to help broaden our distribution and make interactive commerce happen from our broadcasts. As consumer adoption of this evolves there are many other opportunities including incremental revenue streams and interactive advertising.
I believe it is imperative for our industry to more broadly adopt RDS RT+ radio text functionality. To that end I am asking your help to complete the survey below so we may benchmark our progress. Over the next several weeks we will share the results of this survey and help facilitate broader adoption of the RDS standards. It is my hope that we rapidly adopt this platform and tie listenership and digital music purchasing more closely together.”
Thanks,
Jeff
Haley also issued a survey:
GROUP HEAD SURVEY 10/22/09
In order to better assess the industry adoption of RDS and itunes tagging we would like to know the following at your earliest convenience. The RAB will coordinate activity to develop better penetration of RDS RT+ and itunes tagging to support the new mobile devices currently on the market from Apple and Microsoft. Thank you for your participation.
1) Are you encoding RT+ across all your stations? Please provide detail to what extent if not completely.
2) Are you implementing itunes tagging over RDS across all stations? Please provide detail to what extent if not completely.
3) Please provide an engineering contact for this project where we might be able to direct some assistance if needed.
Information on RT+ can be found in the link below. Information on implementing itunes tagging can be found from your itunes affiliate rep or vendors Jump2go and Audemat.
http://www.rds.org.uk/rds98/pdf/R06_040_1.pdf
