Apps

Stop for a moment and look at your smart phone.  How many apps have you downloaded out of the "hundreds of thousands of possibilities?"

How many do you actually use on a regular basis?

My point, if you're a radio station or a radio personality, is not to discourage you from creating your own custom app, but before you do, think about what daily, hourly problem for your listener does your new app solve.

Especially if your app is going to be free.  There's no point in spending the thousands of dollars it's going to cost if it doesn't have a sustainable way to make money with it somehow well beyond that investment.

Of course, if you can create a fun, viral app that you can sell for 99 cents and gets downloaded 50,000 times in a day (which happens daily, of course), GO for it.  If you can replicate that trick once a month, you have earned the right to be called an app genius.  Maybe Apple, Google or Microsoft will buy you, turning you into the next Mark Cuban (or at least Fred Jacobs, who'd be the first I'd ask if I wanted to build an app since he has built a going business around apps)

I have downloaded almost 100 apps to listen to A&O&B client radio stations and even though they pay me to do it, I still seldom actually actually use them.  I find it more convenient to simply bookmark the station's streaming page and get there that way.

I admire TuneIn, SHOUTcast, iHeartRadio and the rest for what they are trying to do, but I find myself using Real FM Radio on my Android Phone where I already have my local fav preset.

Don't bother building an app for me unless it offers something better than that.  At the very least, include an "alarm" to wake me up to my favorite morning show, but the one already in my phone works well enough that I'd have to love your program a lot to go to the trouble to download and set it up, compared to just turning you on when I want to hear you.

Am I unique?  Perhaps I am, but at the very least put yourself in my shoes before you build your new app.

You Already Have A Smartphone App. It's Free. It's Twitter.

Of course, if your station is fortunate enough to have your own smart phone app, that's terrific, but really the only important function your own app has (hopefully) is an alarm which awakes your listener first thing in the morning to your stream.

And, of course, they have to download and install it.

For the majority of your audience who don't know what podcasts are and will never download a radio station app...

Thanks, Holland Cooke, for sharing so many actionable ideas in your Talkers 2013 presentation last week (click to watch it).

And, yes, I am going to Tweet this post.

Why Your Station Needs A Smart Phone Alarm Clock App That Wakes Listeners To Your Steam

Pew Internet: MobileUpdate, December 2012

Bye Bye Alarm Clock (Another Reason That Smart Phone Needs A Radio In It)

Smartphones and tablets, loaded with features and apps, are replacing other technology devices for many consumers, according to a recent mobile survey conducted by Prosper Mobile Insights™ among smartphone and tablet users on their devices.

A majority of smartphone/tablet users say their mobile device has replaced a traditional alarm clock (61.1%) and a GPS device (52.3%). 4 in 10 smartphone/tablet users say their mobile device has replaced a digital camera (44.3%), a personal planner (41.6%) and a landline phone (40.3%).

More than a third no longer need a separate MP3 player (37.6%) or a video camera (34.2%).

The mobile survey included 149 smartphone and tablet users from the SSI Panel who completed the survey on their devices.

The survey was collected from 6/22 - 6/27/11. 41% of the sample was male while 59% was female, and the average age of the sample was 39. The data reveals that many consumers are replacing “older” technology devices with smartphones and tablets, and the majority would be comfortable using their smartphone or tablet like a credit card to make purchases in a store.