What Spotify's Evolution Means for Christian Radio

Spotify is on the move lately.

Besides ramping up video for podcasts and sprucing up creator subscriptions, Spotify has introduced:

1. The ability to ask questions about podcasts and get answers in real time - a new level of interactivity on a platform which made interactivity famous.
2. Memberships, allowing creators to own the relationship with their audience (whereas traditional subscriptions are often about selling access to a specific piece of content). Memberships are always-on relationships, not one-offs.
3. Personal Podcasts, a new experience that lets listeners generate and schedule short, private audio episodes tailored to their interests and their listening habits (soon, all you need to do is write a prompt, and Spotify generates personalized, private audio based on your input).

Note that none of this is necessarily about what folks went to Spotify in the first place for: Music. And all of it is about one thing and one thing only: Solving more problems for more Spotify fans (and making more revenue along the way).

This is the important thing for us to understand:

Music may be what made you famous, but solving as many problems as you can for your audience is what will keep you famous.

I still sense that broadcasters don't understand just how revolutionary this is and how important it will be for us to adapt to this new reality.

One of the key takeaways from the recent Momentum conference was the explosion of "creator culture" online. Any member of our staff can now make stuff and garner immense attention. That's a natural extension for our brands, the argument goes.

But to what end? To make our staff famous? To attract more listeners to our stations? But why will I listen to your station because you have a famous staffer who makes cool videos I can see without you? Why don't I just subscribe to her or join her member program.

For too long the focus has been on US.

Listen to US.

Enter a contest so you can listen to US.

Drive by a billboard and be reminded to listen to US.

Sure this is important, but it's also like Spotify reminding its audience that they can find any song they want on demand there. That's how you tread water, not how you grow.

You grow not simply by marketing to grow listening. You grow by solving more problems for your audience in more ways (and across more platforms) by leveraging technology.

And oh, the problems that audiences have!

Take mental health, for example.

I see an article in the radio trades about the mental health crisis, and when I read the piece I discover it's about the mental health crisis among broadcasters. Not to diminish the stress of a broadcasting career nowadays, but shouldn't we be primarily concerned about the mental health crisis in our audiences, not just within our buildings? What is your Christian media brand doing to address that real audience need?

Ask your listeners to define the challenges that they face in their lives that a Christian media brand can help solve.

And then help solve them.

Mark Ramsey Media does audience research for Christian Media - Perceptual research, digital studies, donor studies, underwriter impact studies, music studies, etc. Learn more here. Call Mark at 858-414-4191 or email markramsey@mac.com.

And if you want a strategy to solicit major donors to pay for your research, look here and download this Listener Impact Study solicitation for donors from WAKW-FM.

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