
ClearChannel Launches "Pandora Killer" iHeartRadio Public Beta - byoung2
http://www.iheart.com
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bittermang
Clear Channel's self rebranding as iHeart Radio has been pretty interesting to
listen to.

Clear Channel had become something of this monolithic monster in the realm of
public opinion [1] for all of the reasons people grew to hate terrestrial
radio: corporate music selection, over playing top singles, too many
commercials, the death of the DJ and turning local stations over to robots.
Clear Channel had an image problem, and a bad one.

Enter iHeart Radio.

All of the branding and message has changed now, when you're listening to a
Clear Channel radio station. They're no longer a Clear Channel Communications
Radio Network, they're an iHeart Radio Channel. We've got this app, music on
demand and ad free to the end of the year! It's happy, it's light. It riffs
off of the wildly successful I (heart) New York tourism campaign. The message
is consistent and unified across all stations, to the point that it has made
me realize how many radio stations in the area are run by the same people.

It's been pretty remarkable, from a marketing standpoint. We'll see if the
people bite.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Channel_Communications#Cr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Channel_Communications#Criticism_of_Clear_Channel)

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kellishaver
I've been using the iHeart Radio iPhone app for a while and like it well
enough, and I stream my local Clear Channel station over the web a lot (Mix
94.5 out of Lexington, KY - I live about a mile out of range to actually get
it clearly on the radio). I could see myself using this quite a bit, but the
"you must Like us on Facebook" thing is a real turn-off for me, so for now I
think I'll stick to what I've got.

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butterfi
I think ClearChannel maybe missing the point. With terrestial radio you only
have some many listening options, and CC was voracious in taking over as many
stations as they could, then driving costs down by homogenizing across their
stations. But the net is all about personalization and choice. Their strong-
arming Facebook "like" clicks in exchange for listening is another tactic that
might work if you're the only game in town, but they're not. And most of the
people I know dislike their mediocre programming. I suspect the only people
calling this a "pandora killer" are CC's marketing people.

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mtogo
Hey, this looks cool.

> _Like us on facebook!_

Back to Pandora.

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nzoschke
I've only played with it for an afternoon, but this is a killer service.

It offers streaming of local radio stations, complete with title, artwork and
lyrics for what is playing if available.

Then if offers Pandora-like artist based radio stations.

I see no reason to only use one of these services, but this is def a viable
alternative to Pandora.

Is this a sign of the music industry starting to get a clue?

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wickedchicken
"It offers streaming of local radio stations"

As someone who has worked in college radio I find this statement strange --
ClearChannel defined itself by simulcasting automated radio shows across the
country. Their near-monopoly of commercial spectrum in the 90s rendered 'local
radio stations' nonexistent, and NPR took care of most of the non-profit
(under 92Mhz) spectrum as well.

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nzoschke
It only offers ClearChannel radio stations -- so no indie or non-profit.

But "98.1 KISS FM, SF Bay's Old School" is a local radio station, no?

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wickedchicken
The combination of ClearChannel's homogenization and the internet in general
means people have largely forgotten the actual cool part of local radio. It
doesn't mean that a particular transmitter is located in the Bay Area or that
your daytime commute comedy show hails from the Bay Area either -- talk to
someone who grew up listening to radio in the 70s. They will _tell you who
their late-night DJ was_ and _what records they introduced to the area_. This
person was as important as the music itself -- much like Arrington breaking a
story was as important as the story itself (for better or worse).

The rise of music blogs is the closest modern analog -- instead of centering
around a geographic area, people center around a 'scene.' One can also get the
same experience listening to amateur radio shows occasionally hosted on, for
example, <http://di.fm>.

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michaelcampbell
What if one doesn't have a facebook account? It's only a public beta insofar
as one does? Boo.

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mikeryan
I know most here won't like the Facebook thing (I'm not joining because of
it), but I think its fairly deviously brilliant marketing tool. If I were them
I'd be okay with losing some signups with the flip side being getting the
viral marketing done for free.

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timmaah
Isn't it against Facebook policy to use the like button in this manner?

<http://developers.facebook.com/policy/>

 _You must not incentivize users to use (or gate content behind the use of)
Facebook social channels, or imply that an incentive is directly tied to the
use of our channels._

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samstave
HAHAHA as if I would use anything by clear channel - I have been using Pandora
since launch and use it every single day on 4 different devices.

The only thing better than Pandora is Saver2

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vyrotek
Interesting. I've been hearing a lot of ads for this thing called
'iHeartRadio' on the actual radio for a while now. Mostly it was to advertise
some concert in Las Vegas - [http://www.iheartradio.com/cc-common/iheartradio-
music-festi...](http://www.iheartradio.com/cc-common/iheartradio-music-
festival/)

I had no idea this sort of service was associated with it.

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byoung2
The IHR music festival was to build buzz for the launch of the new IHR app.
The concert will also be livestreamed on the IHR site and app.

 _I am a ClearChannel employee_

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click170
Ignoring the deal-breaker Facebook requirement, I only have one question:

I live in Canada, is it US only?

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eslachance
I was interested, but when I tried in 2 different browsers, liking and then
logging on with Facebook didn't work - got an ajax loading GIF and then
nothing. Fail, they just lost me.

