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Internet Radio Going More Mobile [UPDATED]

Monday, June 18th, 2007 at 4:25 PM - by

Technology companies and investors are pursuing a new, possibly risky course: portable Internet Radio, according to the Wall Street Journal on Monday. Possibilities being explored include access via cell phones as well as dedicated devices.

Internet Radio has had some challenges. The most recent is the proposal to raise the royalty rates Internet radio stations must pay. Even while that issue is being addressed, and even though Internet Radio has not been considered a very good mobile service on small devices, several companies are pursuing that very goal.

"Some halfway solutions exist, such as music devices that allow people to stream Internet radio on speakers, or software that allows technology buffs to access Internet radio from their phones. But results can be glitchy, expensive and technically against the terms of contracts with mobile-phone service providers," Sarah McBride wrote for the WSJ. "Now, start-ups and giants are jockeying for position in mobile Internet radio, in a race that could rearrange the business model of music and broadcasting."

For example, the SanDisk Sansa Connect allows users in WiFi zones to listen to online radio stations from Yahoo Inc. Pandora announced that it is working with Sprint Nextel to make its radio service available on mobile phones. Slacker is working on a hand-helo Internet radio device.

Suddenly the portability of Internet radio could pose a new threat to both legacy radio stations and even satellite radio. Internet radio "will sweep into the car, and the traditional station is going to have to think about how they reprogram to compete," said Jonathan Jacoby, an analyst at Banc of America Securities.

Challenges, however, abound. Slacker systems require a four inch (10 cm) antenna that must be mounted on cars. Other companies like Sprint are skipping the car and focusing on traditional portable devices. How investors will see all this and how the various incarnations remains to be seen.

Apple, in contrast, believes that the best experience to date is iTunes on a desktop computer and a perfect digital download to an iPod or iPhone. Clearly, some other companies are looking for their niche. Moreover, no one knows what new features will be added to the iPhone in time. One thing is certain -- Internet radio has a strong following, 29 million users in 2007, and companies searching for a role in the music and talk delivery business aren't likely to ignore such an audience.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1018 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:49 pm

The biggest problem is bandwidth and interference.

That, and people probably don't give a rat's ___ about it to begin with.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:56 pm

I have been using Wolf FM on my cell phone for awhile now, but you're right, the iPhone's data network isn't as good as the data networks available to other phones. Just another way in which that decision is limiting the usefulness of the iPhone.

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Sir Harry Flashman said:

member since 08 Feb 2007 with 792 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:20 pm

No internet radio! Not even an FM tuner! That is a deal breaker! I was going to get an iPhone this November, but I think that I will stick with my Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

As Tiger said, there are some technical considerations and most of us probably don't care.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:37 pm

Most people who are macheads would buy the iPhone if it didn't even have a phone or any data network built-in.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:50 pm

"Guest"]Most people who are macheads would buy the iPhone if it didn't even have a phone or any data network built-in.

You're an Idiot! I've been a "Mac Head" since 92. I've had some serious hardware over the years for my Design business. Since Katrina I've replaced it with 2 G5 Quads (2.5ghz) and a couple of 30" monitors, as well as a full room full of high end printers, scanners and the like. As much as I think the iPod was a game changer and the iPhone will prove all of you FUD deliverers to crawl back into your caves and kneel to the blue screen of death, I do not own an iPod and I don't believe I'll NEED an iPhone. Of course like every other "Mac Head" we'd like to own one but most of us understand our priorities and neccessities. Why buy what you truly don't need.

Oh, and BTW idiot... if the iPhone didn't have a phone or data service... it wouldn't be an iPhone, it would be an iPod. Jackass. Get a brain and stop screwing with your superiors!!!

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BurmaYank said:

member since 22 Oct 2003 with 27 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:40 pm

Huh? Where is the announcement that the regular iTunes streaming radio stations or the Live365 streaming radio stations will not/no longer be working on the iPhone's iTunes?

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:07 pm

Bandwidth is definitely a problem.

Carmelo Lisciotto

http://www.carmelolisciotto.com

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:18 pm

Internet radio. GPS. 3G. Microsoft Office. I'm just waiting for someone to ask for the kitchen sink in the iPhone.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:33 pm

come on people its an ipod that can make phone calls and browse the internet. the reason you have an ipod is because you are tired of listening to redundnt radio spew.the reason for the iphone is so you can listen to your ipod and answer your call without reaching into you pocket to answer another device. the fact that you get a full blown web browser and google web apps are steps ahead of other devices. its not the hardware but the software that will win out just like itunes has proven.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:46 pm

Radio? Noooooooo, thanks.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:06 pm

Well, that's it, if the iPhone doesn't come with a kitchen sink, then I just won't buy one!

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 19, 2007 8:47 am

Why on earth would anyone want terrestrial radio on their iPhone? Radio sucks — that's why it's dying.

There are hundreds of podcasts that are far, far more interesting than anything on radio. Podcasts can be time shifted (you can listen to them when *you* want to), and if, when listening to a podcast, you miss the name of a performer new to you whose music you like, you can scroll back to get the name (unlike radio), or go to the podcast's show notes page.

Even one of the very best shows on NPR (This American Lfe) is available as a podcast.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:59 am

Guest wrote:
Internet radio. GPS. 3G. Microsoft Office. I'm just waiting for someone to ask for the kitchen sink in the iPhone.

Those are just what people expect in a "smartphone" since most all the smartphones are already capable for Internet radio, location based services and sync'ing with the most common productivity suite in use today. Maybe they should remarket it as something other than a smartphone if these are the types of things it will not be capable of doing. Sorry if the expectations of smartphone users exceed what you think Apple should be capable of delivering.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 19, 2007 4:19 pm

guest:"come on people its an ipod that can make phone calls and browse the internet. the reason you have an ipod is because you are tired of listening to redundnt radio spew.the reason for the iphone is so you can listen to your ipod and answer your call without reaching into you pocket to answer another device. the fact that you get a full blown web browser and google web apps are steps ahead of other devices. its not the hardware but the software that will win out just like itunes has proven."

i disagree. most people would want radio because they do not have every single song on their ipod/iphone, and they do not want to listen to the same things over and over. plus, radio is not very redundant, and you would get many songs without paying $1 for each song.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Jun 19, 2007 4:58 pm

Guest wrote:
i disagree. most people would want radio because they do not have every single song on their ipod/iphone, and they do not want to listen to the same things over and over. plus, radio is not very redundant, and you would get many songs without paying $1 for each song.

I'm sorry, but you have no idea of what "most people want," unless you run a worldwide marketing research firm, which, given your language skills, is unlikely. You only know what YOU want and maybe what a few people you know what. Don't make the error of projecting your desires onto other people. That's one reason Apple never built an FM radio into the iPod. (Another is that it would have made it larger, heavier, and more complex.) Apple left it to the individual consumer to decide whether she wants an FM radio: several companies, including Apple, sell FM radio adapters for the iPod. Same with voice recorders. Lots of other music players offer both FM radios and voice recorders, but the iPod outsells all of them put together--two to three times over in the US.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:40 pm

yes, gslusher knows what everyone wants. listen to him, he's omnipotent. FM radio doesn't make the device bigger, i have several mp3 players with FM built in that are smaller than the iPod. in case you're wondering, the antenna isn't even inside the device, your headphone cord is the antenna. judging by his comments, very few people really wants a mac, they all WANT windows. sorry, but marketing has a huge effect on iPod sales, many people aren't even aware of the other mp3 players that do support these features.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Jun 22, 2007 4:17 pm

If you want to get thousands of internet radio stations on your hand-held device then we at StreamFinder.com have a mobile channel optimized for viewing on all handheld

devices. http://www.streamfinder.com/mobile provides the following:

* view the latest 10 stations to list in our directory - with accurate

"Now Playing" data

* browse stations by genre - with accurate "Now Playing" data

* keyword search for stations

* contact us with feature requests or technical issues

All from your mobile device.

We hope you will try streamfinder.com/mobile soon.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Jun 22, 2007 4:19 pm

Guest wrote:
Why on earth would anyone want terrestrial radio on their iPhone? Radio sucks — that's why it's dying.

There are hundreds of podcasts that are far, far more interesting than anything on radio. Podcasts can be time shifted (you can listen to them when *you* want to), and if, when listening to a podcast, you miss the name of a performer new to you whose music you like, you can scroll back to get the name (unlike radio), or go to the podcast's show notes page.

Even one of the very best shows on NPR (This American Lfe) is available as a podcast.

TAL is so pretentious and whiny. You want regular radio maybe to listen to a baseball game or traffic news?

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:32 pm

I already listen to Internet Radio via my Tmobile cell ( Tzones GPRS for $5.99 / month ) search for Tzones hack and you will find out how. If internet radio makes it to Car Stereos it will hurt broadcast radio. Viacom and others don't want to loose billions in revenue from this. This will hurt Local Radio stations more than the MP3 hurt CD sales back in the napster days. This would also practically bankrupt SIRI and XMSR overnight, unless they could adopt Video broadcasts, but then surely Internet TV would soon follow shutting down this idea as well. I just can't believe no one saw this coming years ago like I did.

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A guest said: (hide)

Sun Jul 29, 2007 10:30 am

what a convoluted set of postings. I do work for a major Internet company and look at the data, but what really is interesting is having flexibility in your handheld.

I have a video iPod and a Treo 650 and recently bought an iPhone rather than update to a Treo 755. What the iPhone does is it let's me have an ipod-let, plus more authentic Internet browsing, more authentic IM plus a phone with nice integration. So why Internet radio? Well, contrary to what some have said, for me, Internet radio is not only terrestrial radio on the net. I look for custom "stations" that give me more of what I like and either no ads or fewer ads. Sure, I could listen only to my iPod or iPhone iPod-let, but Internet radio streams give me another option when I'm tired of what I brought with me. While I do subscribe to podcasts, I also use my iphone to go to source sites and listen/stream the latest content that has yet to hit iTunes.

I am mainly a PC guy, but own a G5 tower and a G4 laptop and I have to sat that those Mac ads are false advertising.

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