The Power of Audio

Which is more powerful…

Audio or video?

Is what you see more powerful than what you hear?

What stirs your heart, your emotions?

If you have never been asked these questions, you should take some time to contemplate the answer before we continue.

The visual  is thought to be more powerful than the audio but it’s just not true.

Earlier in my life, I was a radio disc jockey.  I was the voice between the songs that played on the radio.  This was before there was a TV channel devoted to playing music videos.

MTV was just that at the beginning. 24 hours a day on cable TV MTV played the Top 40 Contemporary Hit Music Videos with real live V-J’s (video jocks) doing the kind of stuff I did on the radio.  It was wildly successful at first.

But there’s a reason why MTV is not a 24 hour music video channel anymore.

It’s not that the music videos are not any good anymore.  Nope, there is another reason.

Video took away an important element from the music.

Music Video’s stripped away the personal imagination and personal emotion from the music.

Before music video’s became widespread, each of us had a more personal experience with the music when it came on the radio.

We created our own personal story.  A unique personal story, all ours, not shared with anyone because it was written in our imagination and our heart.

Now I’m going to jump 30+ years to today.

Pretend you were in a coma and suddenly you woke up 3 decades later.  Or perhaps you prefer a time machine, that sounds less scary.

As we prepare for the next decade of the 2020’s I have been noticing a trend to personalized experiences once again.

I’m referring to entertainment and information.  

Instead of watching a particular TV show on Tuesday nights at 8pm, we now watch on our time schedule.  A personalized schedule. 

This has contributed to the decline in traditional TV watching on broadcast and cable channels and the increase in viewership to services like Netflix and other streaming services.  Binge watching?  Yes, that’s part of it, but it has more to do with creating our own personalized schedule.

You may ask, “What’s this have to do with playing music on the radio or music videos?” , that I was talking about a few moments ago…

Personalized Audio experiences are also on the rise.  Here’s how and why:

The options of what to listen to continue to grow.  

Podcasting is not a foreign concept, it is mainstream.  

Now the content that you find in the podcast world ranges from one extreme to another, and the quality varies tremendously too.

There are a couple dozen podcast networks that you can use to listen to your favorite podcasts with the big three currently being:

1. Apple or iTunes
2. Google Play Podcasts
3. and Spotify

If you are going to have a podcast, you want to make sure you are on those three platforms.

Something else that has lead to a resurgence in listening to audio is the growth of Smart Speakers.

This summer the Nielsen company released a couple reports that MarketingCharts.com shared that showed some interesting facts about all this.

A couple of key takeaways:

• 92% of American Adults listen to the radio every week.  What I find interesting is that in reality, they could be listening to a local radio station on a traditional car radio, at home through their smart speaker, out and about listening on earbuds plugged into their phone, or streaming on their laptops… it all counts and the relevance of local radio stations continues to remain strong.
• 2/3 of all “out of home listening” is in cars. The numbers show that the majority of our radio listening is done away from home. Also: For advertisers trying to get the attention of adults, the prime time for listening on the weekdays starts at about 7 a.m. and remains relatively steady until it reaches a peak between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. during drive time. I can verify this in the rating information I have access to for Fort Wayne, Indiana. 
• 9 out of 10 Podcast Listeners are also Radio Listeners. Now we’re getting to the connection between radio and podcasts. My radio station, WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne Indiana is a news and talk formated station.  WOWO has the largest number of weekly listeners according to the latest independant rating survey.  

WOWO and our other local Federated Media radio stations take the content that was first heard live on the radio and we make it accessible to listeners anywhere and anytime as podcasts too.  Did you miss an interview with the Mayor this morning during Fort Wayne’s Morning News?  You can listen to it via the podcast.  Same with nearly any interview on WOWO and some of the morning show content from our music stations too.

We also have created podcast only shows that get a ton of listeners also.  Podcasting has helped make the entire radio experience a personalized experience. 

And remember what I said at the very beginning about listening to music and not just watching the music video?  That is why our radio stations still are so popular even today.

By the way, these listeners to all this audio on the radio and podcasts are also consumers and I have ways for you to invite them to be your customers.  Contact me: Scott@WOWO.com 

Also sign up below to receive my free Sound ADvice Marketing Tips newsletter in the box below.