Spotify is making an interesting move with Spotlights in the podcast segment (or podcast behavior), fairly expected I would say. In one way it seems like a small addition to the core that is audio streams, but from a use case perspective it’s a rather large move from device in pocket (passive) to device in hand (active). This new use case is the interesting thing to look at, not the technology or new media type attributes.
Will be interesting to see how that plays out. I for one would love some cured tech news podcast type stuff. I can also see the value in added visuals and a new type of story telling and communication. But at the same time, am I now going to relate to, and use, Spotify like I relate to, and use, Youtube?
Personally I’ve been on about (simple prototypes proactively to Swedish Radio) at least experimenting with visual media as they explore what radio is in this technology paradigm. Everything about the definition has changed. Broadcasting music, stories and news over audio frequency (and nothing else) doesn’t mean working with radio primarily has to worry so much about that anymore. It was one mean to an end.
The media convergence happening now, combined with our attention situation/challenge, actually puts radio (or rather audio-first…) in a very interesting position. So far text (text first) based publishing seem to have been best at merging media types.
