By providing a direct, two-way channel to consumers, the mobile handset is an ideal medium for marketers, who can send out tailored advertising messages and study people's reactions to them. As music preferences are a key indicator for segmentation, bringing mobile FM radio into this context gives marketers even more insight into consumers' behavior.
This is thought to be one of the core ideas behind the concept of visual-radio, whereby a radio show and interactive visual content are simultaneously sent to a user's handset. The content could include, for instance, track and artist information or links to concert-ticket sales. Finnish station Kiss FM launched a visual-radio service over TeliaSonera's network on March 4, and a number of other stations are set to follow suit.
Sony has also tuned into the market with a product it says is the world's first personalized-radio service for mobile phones: Sony StreamMan. In addition to providing set streams of music, StreamMan allows users to create their own channels, helped by personalization features that suggest songs they might like. While the service has met with limited success to date, Sony must be credited with recognizing that the creation of personalized, on-demand streams is the way forward.
This is evidenced by podcasting's recent success. Taking its name from Apple's famous iPod digital-music player, podcasting is simply a way of distributing audio or video content from a server, where it is stored for users to download or view at their leisure. A number of companies have started to experiment in earnest with commercial podcasting, including beer producer Heineken, Dutch broadcaster BNN, the BBC and Virgin Radio.
Mobile operators are also looking at the opportunities presented by podcasting. For instance, at times when traffic on their networks is slow, such as in the early morning hours, operators could upload tailored podcasts to their subscribers' handsets – giving them something fresh to listen to each day while commuting.
Ericsson is currently working with operators on a solution that addresses the growing market for personalized radio. Ultimately, Ericsson's system will allow users to easily download songs they heard and liked, while features that note a listener's preferences will be used to tailor streams. Ericsson's platform already supports many of the key elements for such a service, and the company plans to introduce it gradually together with radio-station partners.
