With the arrival of Amazon Smart Speaker products in Canada, I sought the expertise of Steve Goldstein from Amplifi Media to break down what these new toys -- Google Home and Amazon Dot, among others -- will mean for radio. I reached him at his office in Westport Connecticut.
For the moment, the race is on to secure names like Z100, Mix 96, and for podcasters like me: The Sound Off Podcast, but what else should we be preparing for? In this episode, Steve gives us the ins and outs of these new devices and explains everything we need to be thinking about: like the estimation that one in five households are expected to buy smart speakers this holiday season -- and one in six already do. In other words, the future is here and are you ready?
The big takeaway here is realizing that now that these are in the home, rather than just imagining a local station vs. station scenario, there are in fact, 400,000 podcasts, endless streaming options, and Amazon's default choices. While this may mean an even playing field, it also means that we need to move away from imaging radio as something that comes from a transmitter, to an "audio everywhere" wild west where whatever you're delivering, it'll need to be available wherever the customer finds himself, no matter the device. And that's a game-changer for broadcasters.
In the glass-half-full point of view, radio is making its way back into the home, enabled by shiny new (and affordable) tech. I wanted to know what all this means for broadcasters and was curious about the opportunities on the horizons and that's what you'll learn about in this episode.
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Steve Goldstein is one of the top brains in audio programming, marketing and management, with experience ranging from major radio formats to top American broadcasting companies. He has a reputation for developing brands and nurturing talent for broadcast companies, Steve was also founding partner at Saga Communications.
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