Hi there! I'm Jose E. Ruano, the writer of The New Gazette. You are receiving this email because you signed up for it, a weekly newsletter about all things digital. Each time, a new story about a brand or person that is doing an amazing job on the internet. Thank you for being here. If this email was forwarded to you, subscribe by clicking the button below.
In the last few days of last year, I wrote this Tweet as I came to reflect on some habits that I stopped doing due to the pandemic. One of them was hearing radio shows.
I came with this one as it was something I did on a daily basis.
Growing up, my dad and I spent a lot of time in the car. He was my designated driver to everything: from school, the mall, a party, or a friend's house, we were going from one side to the city to the other almost every other day.
While we were doing this, we formed a habit of listening to our local radio, from morning news to late-talk shows about different topics.
Some were more formal as they talked about politics and what was happening around the world and some others were more like a normal conversation about relationships, love, and jokes here and there.
No matter the subject of the show, the hosts always gave a message at the end to reflect things like:
What are the crucial parts of building a good economy?
How can we be better citizens?
How can we love each other in a better way?
Why we can be less serious about life?
This created conversations between the hosts and listeners, you could call the station and gave your own opinion and learn from each other.
As the lockdowns started in 2020, commutes stopped for a while and you could hear the number of people hearing the same show dropped significantly. No one was calling to give their opinion and the hosts were a little afraid to continue and shared that they needed to find a new way to continue to do their work.
Making me question, in what ways this type of show could translate to the internet, and how audio-first content could become a crucial part of the internet?
Illustration from Scale
As the internet has evolved, many audio-first platforms have been created. Some focused on music, to upload and share songs writer do (i.e. Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and more) others focused on interviews (i.e. Podcasts on Spotify, Youtube, and Apple Podcast or livestreams) but neither of them could get the same experience of live radio shows.
I like podcasts but hearing an hour-long content can be exhausting sometimes if you’re not fully involved.
You could learn from whoever is speaking but you could not get the option of sharing your thoughts about the subject live with the hosts.
I understand the purpose of audio-based content like podcasts but if there’s an option to bring things like radio shows I used to enjoy to the internet could be really good.
There are options coming our way to bring this type of experience back into our lives, we may not go back to commute as before but we could welcome these radio shows into our house.
In recent months, some became mainstream, things like ClubHouse, which started as a place where you could join a conversation and connect with other like-minded people, Capiche, which is as they say “phone calls, live-streamed online.” or Twitter Spaces a new feature inside the app to continue or start doing audio content.
I’m bullish that audio formats like this could become a new normal, things people will enjoy being a part of and learn from each other.
These brands in my opinion are doing an exceptional job on the internet, trying to bring back something a lot of people like me enjoyed and make them not a local but global experience, that’s the reason I include them in this article.
There are some things still to figure out, regulations to make a safe space to talk, more rules and ways to allow more people to join but I’m optimistic about what’s coming
I read about it this week as Ari Lewis, the writer of one of my favorite newsletters, talked about audio and the future of this type of content.
He mentioned how this type of platforms are competing in a different game
Clubhouse isn’t competing just with podcasting or other audio-based apps. It competes with anything that is trying to capture your attention. That is the reason why Netflix lists Fortnite as "bigger competition than HBO or Hulu". Any app that captures a consumer’s attention is a potential competitor.
We now more than ever have thousands of options to consume content than before, we could spend hours watching shows on streaming services, reading articles on websites, or listening to podcasts but I would love a way to be more involved in the content I consume not just absorbed it as I normally do alone but to interact with others in real-time.
Hope these platforms could create a new way to interact on the internet.
What do you think?
Let me know by commenting below or replying to this email. I will be watching
Until next week,
Jose
I have partnered with Buy Me a Coffee, so if you like my work, you can buy me one and share your thoughts by clicking the link below!
The New Gazette Presents
As I talked about audio here are some podcasts I been enjoying recently
Business Casual from Morning Brew, the host Kinsey Grant is an amazing interviewer, the topics and the people invited to talk are really interesting. Go listen to it
Ryan Flaherty from Nike on his podcast Trained, shares how we could be a better athlete and have a more positive mindset in life.
As I mentioned Ari Lewis above, go see BrandStreet where He talks about the attention economy and how brands can get more clients by doing quality content, He has a free newsletter and a podcast about the business of brands