RAJAR’s recent figures were upbeat about listening to the radio on mobile devices. (They only monitor ‘listening via mobile phones’, despite many MP3 players also having FM radios built-in).

“Mobile phone radio listening has grown sharply, with the number of adults (15+) who claim to have listened to radio via mobile phone up 32 per cent from 9.4 per cent in Q4 2007 to 12.3 per cent in Q4 2008. The rise was particularly steep in the 15 to 24-year-old demographic, 31.1 per cent of whom say they have listened to radio in this way – an increase of 39 per cent year on year.”

Listening on a mobile device is very important for radio. Mobile is one of the environments that radio really shines – possibly one of the reasons why, at the BBC, my team (Future Media & Technology for Audio & Music Interactive) has merged with the Future Media & Technology team for Mobile.

However, common sense – or just looking around for the tell-tale white headphones – would tell you that listening to music on a mobile device has increased far more than listening to the radio.

This is partly due to Apple’s reluctance to add an FM radio to their market-leading iPhone and iPod devices. But for those devices that have both FM and MP3 in them, there would appear to be two reasons why consumers are enjoying their own music as well as the radio.

First, that many radio stations’ programming hasn’t evolved. Why listen to “ten great songs in a row” when I can hear twenty, better, songs in a row from my own collection? What reason do I have to listen to the radio, rather than my own music collection?

But secondly, the technology behind radio hasn’t evolved to give you the additional control and user experience that a good MP3 player gives you. The full-colour screen, the easy navigation between one station and another, the increase of available content – that kind of stuff.

To fix the former, we need radio programmers to understand the different world we’re now in.

But to fix the latter, we need to get the technology better. Technologies like RadioDNS, which adds IP-delivered extras to broadcast radio, will certainly help – and it’s just as valid for FM or internet delivery as it is for DAB. The specification behind RadioDNS is already powering a number of iPhone internet radio apps.

But maybe the most important thing is to continue adding radio into mobile devices. As this letter from NAB would show, some manufacturers understand why radio is important to include. Let’s hope others do, too.

Thanks to Daniel Nathan from Juice in Brighton for kicking off my thought processes for this post; and for a copy of the (public) NAB letter.

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