One of the nice things about not having a radio gig is the complete freedom to listen to what I want. Now don’t get me wrong, when I have my hands on a radio station I can’t get enough of it – but I’m a human and there would be days where I would want to listen to Springsteen but instead “had to” check out Laugh USA.
These days, I am tied to nothing so I choose what I want. And the first thing I do is…
PLUG MY IPHONE INTO A CASSETTE ADAPTER
Yep. As much as a pain in the ass as that is, I plug my iPhone into a cassette adapter. A big old stupid wire hanging out of the cassette deck (they still had those in 2006 when I bought the car) and my phone sits in the cupholder.
Why?
It plays what I want.
12,000 songs. All perfectly curated by me.
My Springsteen is better than Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Radio. Bruce plays some songs I don’t like. John’s “Springsteen” playlist has only the best Springsteen songs.
“Buffett Car Mix 2012” is way better than Radio Margaritaville.
And I have even solved Discovery. I don’t want to become a dinosaur. I like hearing new music. I have become a fan of the iTunes Alt Top 50 or whatever it’s called. I’m a consumer, I don’t need to know what it’s called, I just know I like it and I know how to get to it and it plays songs I like. If I don’t like it I skip it. If I like it a lot I buy it so I can add it to “Alt Mix” which is a playlist of things I have bought in the last month on iTunes.
I’ll occasionally punch over to WCBS-AM if I see that we’re coming up to an 8 (when they do traffic and weather), but not at 58 because they have trained me that they always do “cheap weather” because the unnecessary transit report runs long (are subway riders really getting their updates from WCBS-AM? No, it’s an excuse for a billboard).
I like the concept of sports talk but I don’t like any of the choices offered to me, so I abstain. And my life sails along just fine. I can get my sports news from twitter or the occasional Mets-related podcast.
But back to the dash….I’m barely using that AM/FM button, occasionally the CD, but it’s CASSETTE that is getting the workout.
Why do I bring this up? Connected car, baby. What’s going to happen when you don’t have to have the cheesy wire. What happens when you get in the car and your phone and all its apps just sync to the touchscreen dash?
More disruption, that’s what will happen. And folks will seek the content. Best content + easy consumption shall win.