Music radio APPs in Spain and Portugal. Old strategies in the Self-Communication era

Resumo

The transposition from radio to smartphones is a new phase of radiomorphosis, which has expanded its communicative potential due to the characteristics of this distribution platform. Assuming smartphones as screens where content and communication converge give the radio the opportunity to enrich multimedia messages, explore new ways of distribution and advance on medium’s customization. Also, the connectivity of those devices and location technologies multiplies the potential for local information, enabling contextual experience consumption. Smartphones and mobile broadband penetration in Spain and Portugal have led into a favorable context for mobile radio development. Radio stations, being conscious of this, have expanded their online universe to this platform, expansion reflected in the growth of applications for an optimized content access and net-radio channels.
However, in its change to mobile platform, these radio stations show significant divergences; especially in structural complexity and usability of these applications, and also in contents essence and distribution.
In the case of music stations, the growth of music on demand distribution
platforms as Grooveshark or Spotify has led into intense competition for specialized radio, which must find new ways of engagement listeners, also on mobile.
This paper aims to analyze the transposition of main Spanish and Portugal music stations to the radioAPPs, in order to determine the appropriation degree of this new distribution platform, using several items like content, content format, functionality, navigation levels of these applications or the possibilities of customize access and consumption. An analysis has identified trends in the appropriation of these platforms around three perspectives: volume of listeners, nationality of these radio stations and operating system developed in (iOS and Android).