Satellite Radio

Satellite radio is a technology through which a consumer can receive streaming channels of music and/or talk to a special receiver (see Figure 11.6). Even though it is connected to the word “radio,” the activity has little to do with the technology of broadcasting as it developed over the past century. In 2008, the two competing players in the satellite-radio market, Sirius and XM, merged to become Sirius XM Radio. Sirius XM makes money from subscription (about $20 a month) as well as through advertising on some of the hundreds of channels it offers, with a wide variety of formats. The company produces the programs, sometimes in joint ventures with other firms (Oprah's Harpo Productions, for example, produces Oprah and Friends for the XM channel). The channels are uploaded to satellites and can be picked up in most places around the country by receivers that stores such as Best Buy sell. In addition, equipment. Some of the equipment is portable, making it possible to listen at home and while outdoors, not just in the car.

1. Sirius and XM both produce live and taped programming, ranging broadly from Alanis Morissette to sports and news.

2. The programming is beamed to satellites from dishes operated by each company.

3. The satellites broadcast the signal back to Earth, where it's picked up directly by receiver units. The signal is also received and rebroadcast by repeater stations in metropolitan areas. XM uses two geostationary satellites (right) that remain constantly above the United States. Sirius uses three satellites, two of which are always over the country.

4. A receiver buffers the broadcast for a few seconds, so if it loses the satellite signal it can use one from a repeater station, helping ensure a continuous broadcast. Overpasses and tall building are particular problems.

Sirius XM has made deals with major car companies to offer their receivers as original In the years leading up to the merger, observers worried that the combination could create a behemoth that would set prices and squeeze consumers. Yet by early 2008, Sirius XM had 19 million subscribers, not a small number but not the large proportion of the population some had predicted. Ominously for the firm, several years of high growth seemed to be slowing, and most new subscribers entered because of a free year of programming that came with a new car they bought. Even more problematic, the company had owed $3 billion to creditors by 2008, and only a last-minute investment by Liberty Media Corporation saved it from bankruptcy. Radio-industry analysts now believe that, although satellite radio may have an enduring role to play in the U.S. media system, it is not a fundamental threat to broadcast radio.

Internet Radio

audio streaming an audio file delivered to a computer-like device from a website so that it can be heard while it is coming into the device but cannot be saved or stored

Internet radio could more appropriately be called audio streaming, as it involves the flow of music or other audio signals from their originator to a computer via the packet switching technologies that are at the core of the internet. Unlike downloading a song from the Web, streaming music from a website is not designed to be saved by the computer through which it is playing; unless a special recording device cap­tures it and translates it into a saveable format (MP3, for example). Thousands of websites offer streaming music. Many earn fees when a listener clicks to buy a song from a digital music store linked to the site. Often the sites make money through the advertising placed on their sites; MySpace is an example. Sometimes the sites require subscription fees; think Rhapsody. Yahoo! Music is among the sites that shows you ads before streaming the song and has ads in the browser while playing it. But the ads are nothing like the commercial barrage on many commercial terrestrial radio stations.

At least as attractive as few or no commercial interruptions is the diversity of pos­sibilities. MySpace lets you “search for your favorite music,” in the words of its search box. Go to Rhapsody or Yahoo! Music and you'll note possibilities that sound like radio station formats—including “rock,” “today's big hits,” “classic country,” oldies,” “contemporary Christian” and the like. But you'll also find niche channels that would never make it on traditional AM or FM stations—“Celtic,” “India,” “Klezmer,” “naughty comedy,” “modern broadway,” “forgotten hits of the nineties,” and more. The music site Pandora goes further. Its software identifies patterns in the musical compositions a person chooses to stream and then offers music that fits those genres or combinations of genres. Its challenge to traditional radio is explicit: “It's a new kind of radio—stations that play only music you like.”

But these activities are only the start of the way people can shape music streaming to their own interests. Most music sites have forums that allow fans to talk to each other and suggest tracks or albums. AH.FM is a streaming music site and forum for techno and dance music. Napster is among sites that allow people to share music with others, imeem, supported by advertising, highlights what others have played among a large number of different music categories. Rhapsody trumpets the ability of its subscribers to share the lists of streams they have created. Say for example, you are interested in movie scores in Warner Brothers films. Clicking through Rhapsody you could create a se of list links to music that as a group would represent your understanding of Warne Brothers movie scores; it might be three hours long. You can then “publish” that on Rhapsody so that by clicking on a link any subscriber could hear all the piece you've strung together.