NPR’s “All Songs Considered” is a show representative of the station’s embracing all things new media. Through digital tools like podcasts and streaming video, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, the show has gained serious clout with both fans and musicians. While much of NPR’s older audience may stumble upon “All Songs Considered” between radio news programming, the new media tools enable NPR to reach a younger audience. This audience comprised of multiple generations attracts musicians to the show, as they see the potential for new fans and national exposure.
“All Songs Considered” was recently featured in The Washington Post as gaining the reputation of an indie rock tastemaker. Though perhaps not as scientifically sound as other methods, a comparison of the show’s Facebook page to that of other indie music blogs affirms this characterization. Indie music blogs Indie Rock Café and Stereogum respectively have 4,098 and 3,622 “Likes” on their Facebook pages. “All Songs Considered” has 12,839.
Is such a comparison even fair when considering NPR’s advantages? Probably not. Most indie music blogs do not have national radio shows, fully equipped studios, and salaried employees. NPR has clearly learned, though, from how these popular blogs engage an audience. Both Facebook and Twitter enable fans to comment on what songs they love or which new artist should be featured, while web polls allow NPR to track what listeners are enjoying the most. One recent episode of “All Songs Considered” focused on listeners’ picks for the best music of 2010 so far. Fans cast thousands of votes on the NPR Music website.
With “All Songs Considered” embracing a new media model and receiving a good deal of exposure for it, NPR helps to bridge a generational gap between young people and their parents. For those of older generations who do not download podcasts to their iPhone, they may end up reading about “All Songs Considered” and NPR music in The Washington Post or The New York Times (read the New York Times article here). Both these articles discuss the prominence of the website, podcasts and a new iPhone application, which may lead members of an older generation to put down the paper, go to their children or grandchildren, and ask, “How can I download a podcast?”
In this way, the rise of “All Songs Considered” represents a recurring cycle in our society today: the new media attracts the traditional media and the traditional media audience is intrigued to learn more about new media.
Stay tuned to see whether or not this leads to 20-year olds and their parents listening to the same music.
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