IHeartRadio is just Clear Channel flexing its corporate muscle |
The music industry never fails to live up to pure entertainment. Varying groups create award shows to potentially portray their niche importance. Then you can have large radio conglomerates that want to leverage their own business model by showing how vast of a reach their business model is by creating an awards show, new theater and a vehicle for huge advertising dollars. Yes, corporate radio is still alive and well in 2014 and Clear Channel wants you to believe they are breaking new music with the syndicated playlists that dominate their 800+ radio station charts.
This once again proves that ya gotta pay to play. Unless that is, you are DIY and realize that Youtube is by far the largest tv network, radio station and media channel combined and available to anyone and everyone far and wide. Go get creative and make life happen on your own terms.
"The March 26 announcement
of finalists for the first-ever IHeartRadio Music Awards featured
typical names: Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Drake, Maroon 5, Taylor
Swift, and so on. It doesn’t matter who will win on May 1st. All that
matters is the rapid growth of this very unique brand.
The big budgets of Clear Channel allow you to download an IHeartRadio app for any device you want. Unlike so many tech startups that usually feature apps only for Apple and Android devices, IHeartRadio apps are available on Windows (MSFT), Kindle (AMZN), and yes: Blackberry (BBRY).
The IHeartRadio Theater in Burbank, CA |
Having big-wallet backers allows some interesting experiments, such as playing the same song repeatedly in an endless loop for 13 days. It has facilitated cross-promotional branding on Clear Channel’s radio stations, a music festival, and now the award show.
That’s why it doesn’t matter who wins the awards. The true winner is Clear Channel, which has found a way to marry the old-school strengths of ubiquity and publicity with digital, customizable content. Clear Channel manages to stay modern as it expands its streaming site into a full-fledged brand."