I’ve had a rather good day, all things told: it’s not every day that you help launch a pretty clever new service.

Radio’s still the best place to discover new music. 82% of all our listening-time is to the radio, according to the BBC’s Eartime research – time that also includes listening to your own music collection or online services. 75% of young people (15-24s) say that radio’s their number one place to discover new music, according to the RadioCentre’s Big Listen research. And the list goes on.

Which is why I’m quite excited by FlowSongs, a new service launched by PURE, who I’m working with at the moment.

Listen to any radio station on your PURE connected radio – on FM, DAB, or online (because the future of radio is multiplatform) – and when you hear a song you like, just press the FlowSongs button. The radio tells you what the song is (what album it’s from, too): and, if you like it, you can buy the song there and then. The way it works is clever, since it uses audio recognition (to make sure it works on all 12,000+ radio services available).

What’s clever, too, is that the song you buy is both downloadable as an MP3, but also streamable on your radio as well: just select the song on your set and away you go. It means the music you purchased is always available, which is kind of as music should be, really. After all: I’ve bought it, shouldn’t I have access to it on devices I own?

This is a world first – both in terms of technology and rights – and is just one of the cool, clever things that hybrid radio can do. And while I’ve not been able to blog about it for the last three months or so, I’ve been itching to tell people about it.

The future of radio’s multiplatform: and now, your radio doesn’t just introduce you to new music, it helps you buy it, too.

Next, I’d like to order a pizza by hitting the button during a pizza advert, please. Can you do that for me too, PURE?

Tags: radio | Permalink | Comments RSS