Apple is getting ready to take its marks on the starting line of a new era in radio; one that will see it deliver a global radio station with all the hallmarks of a regular listening experience - DJs, music and, in a blatant move to disrupt the current order - adverts.
“The Cupertino-based company” (the standard name-check reference which begins any second paragraph in a story about Apple) has already started to deck out the Moscone West building in San Francisco, ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference starting next Monday.
Sources in both the US and the UK suggest that Apple will use the conference to finally unveil the reason for its Beats acquisition – the long-touted $10 per month music streaming subscription package.
But, much more interestingly, speculation is rife that Apple will also shatter market expectations with a reinvigorated, remodelled, ad-supported global radio station, Apple Radio, clearing the way for the moment when it could disrupt both the music streaming market and radio networks across the world.
The signs have been there for some months. Apple made no secret of the fact, back in February, that it had hired leading UK-based BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe, who quickly relocated to California - no doubt with a hefty increase in salary and the promise of some sun on his vitamin-D deficient skin.
Furthermore, it was announced two months later that it had also poached three leading radio producers from BBC Radio 1, who joined Lowe at Apple two weeks ago.
The latest rumours also include speculation that rapper Drake and Dr Dre – one of the original founders of Beats – will also be hosting shows on the new, ad-funded station.
The ramifications, in terms of capturing audience share and the play for advertising dollars, could be huge.
The three commercial networks in Australia are already involved in a rough turf war: GfK figures issued last month for the five metro areas showed that SCA’s audience share has fallen year on year from 14.8% to 13.7%, while Nova remained flat at 14.3%.
However, on the plus side, more Australians tuned into live and local commercial radio throughout 2014 than ever before, with an average cumulative audience of 10.1 million people listening each week in metropolitan areas throughout 2014, up 4.13% from 2013.
ARN – the local operator and joint owner of American, online radio portal iHeart – which some might suggest is closest thing Apple Radio has in terms of a rival – was the only network to grow its share, albeit by 1.1 percentage points from 15.1% to 16.2%.
ARN CEO Ciaran Davis remains completely unfazed by the arrival of Apple Radio, presenting a number of strong arguments as to why his company has little to be concerned about.
Chiefly, Davis cites that radio listeners want to hear local news, traffic, personalities and music content, suggesting that a global operation is unlikely to cater to that need.
However, he admits that “there is a time when people are less likely to tune into live radio which features adverts.”
“People will definitely listen to curated shows in the evening and weekends, when they want to switch off from the world and they don’t want to listen to adverts. That is when platforms like iHeart Radio, which blends live and curated listening, come into play,” he says.
Davis is also keen to point out that the media buy in radio has changed, which proved to be a strong theme at this year’s Media Summit in Sydney only two weeks ago.
“Buying media is not just about buying spots,” he said. “It’s about being able to deliver integrated content across a whole range of assets and offering up complete marketing solutions.
“That is what we have that goes above and beyond what the likes of Pandora and Apple are able to offer.”
Elsewhere, SCA has this morning, in a rather timely, but less ground-breaking fashion, launched the beta version of its free mobile app, cleverly entitled ‘RadioApp’, allowing users to access its stations and engage with them with “one swipe”. It is available on the Apple Store.
Pandora, SCA, Nova and Spotify failed to comment by time of publication.
Email Nicola at nicolariches@yaffa.com.au.