Recording company watchdog misunderstands FM chip

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Next Radio HTC OneA blog post from musicFIRST made a genuinely funny remark about the FM chip, saying adding old radio technology to modern mobile technology was like putting rabbit ears on an iPad. But the blog missed the point when it said the chip is just another form of streaming.


musicFIRST calls it the “NAB’s FM Chip Scam,” and uses it to attack the lack of an over-air performance royalty for AM-FM radio.

It notes that internet audio services that rely on streaming to get their programming out to the public pay royalties, and then says, “Today, the NAB is touting its app that makes the AM/FM radio look kind of, sort of like a real streaming app, or a real music library. WITH ARTWORK AND EVERYTHING!”

musicFIRST continues, “Consumers don’t need to import old technology into their smartphones so they can listen to music – they can already do that, and the experience is getting better as technology advances.”

RBR-TVBR observation: This diatribe swings hard, misses and strikes out.

For starters, the FM programming received on a mobile device is not streamed, it is broadcast. We will not get into the airplay for content quid pro quo debate at this time. We will simply point out that when radio stations stream music, they pay royalties like all other streaming services. All the FM chip does is house an FM receiver in a mobile device, sort of like housing a camera there. And the artwork is a product of digital broadcast, not digital streaming.

Strike one!

Second, while it is true that citizens can already stream music on their mobile devices, that ability comes with a price – mobile ISPs love to charge for streaming. The only charge required to pick up programming via an FM chip is for the device’s battery.

Strike two!

Finally, the biggest reason for adding the FM chip is entirely within the public interest. As anybody who has been through a recent natural or manmade calamity knows, mobile devices are quickly rendered all but useless. The infrastructure required to accommodate mobile’s one-to-one delivery model is quickly swamped and citizens can no more stream an audio service than they can make a simple phone call. Not so with FM radio – citizens will not be streaming at all, they will simply be receiving audio carried on radio’s one-to-many delivery model, with vital public safety information making it to citizens where they are and when they need it most. If they also get entertainment and news/info value out of the FM chip, that is merely an added benefit.

Strike three, you’re out!