Emmis stations add iTunes stores to their websites
Listeners to hip-hop bastions WQHT New York and KPWR Los Angeles have a new way to enjoy music — at 99 cents a pop.
The two Emmis Communications stations recently introduced the first radio-branded iTunes music stores on their Web sites. Jay-Z handled the ribbon-cutting duties, announcing the store openings on-air. Busta Rhymes welcomes store visitors when they go to the site.
By July, Emmis plans to open customized online stores for the rest of its 23-station chain, which includes modern rock WKQX (Q101) Chicago, top 40 WNOU Indianapolis and country KZLA Los Angeles.
The goal is “to curate in a manner that is relevant to our audience, while giving the user all the ease of use and flexibility of iTunes,” says Rey Mena, VP of Emmis Interactive, the division that spent six months setting up the online stores. Unlike iTunes, which peddles repertoire from 540 hip-hop artists, the WQHT and KPWR stores offer artist catalog only from the roughly 200 artists they play.
In-studio and station-festival performances are on the drawing board at Emmis as well, along with exclusive artist remixes of tracks.
While Emmis is the first broadcaster to strike an affiliate deal with Apple, scores of stations owned by Greater Media, Citadel Communications, Bonneville International, ABC Radio, Clear Channel Radio, Beasley Broadcasting and others have been selling Windows Media downloads from individually branded online stores developed by New York-based Music to Go. XM Satellite Radio has partnered with
Napster to sell music downloads, and future models of high-definition radio receivers are expected to include a “buy” button.
GROWNUP PURCHASES
The Windows Media-based radio stores sell from 100 to 1,000 songs per week, according to Music to Go president/CEO Jeff Specter. About 10 percent to 15 percent of store visitors make a purchase, he says, with adult-targeted rock, country and adult contemporary outlets generating more sales than younger-targeted stations, where visitors browse more and spend less. Specter says the average purchase is seven or eight songs.
The big win for the stations isn’t a payday from tracks sold — the amount they earn per digital download is 5 percent, according to sources. Rather, as Specter says, “The real payoff for the radio stations is the (Web site) traffic they’re getting.”
Building a stronger bond with listeners, establishing a tech-savvy image for stations and incorporating free music download cards into ad packages are other benefits, programmers say.
Mena expects the Emmis iTunes stores to produce four times as many sales as their Windows Media equivalents because Apple controls 80 percent of the digital music market. “If we focus on the product and work with artists and labels to really connect artists with music in a way that radio hasn’t been able to do before, sales will follow,” he says.
Radio giant Clear Channel hasn’t made the retail plunge yet but plans to. “Yes, radio will be a player,” Clear Channel president of online music and radio Evan Harrison says.
But Specter warns it is going to take awhile. “The growth is going to be in middle America, the consumer who has heard about (buying digital downloads) but doesn’t know how to do it. Then, boom, radio, their trusted source for music, takes them by the hand and shows them how to do it. The song they just heard is right in front of them.”
Reuters/Billboard
