This began to bug me a while back. And with the launch of RadioPlayer this month, we have one more “device” to consider when publishing associated metadata.
When you hear a new song on the radio, what’s the first question you ask yourself?
I think, for the majority of people, it’s the song’s artist they want to know. The title of the song is a secondary thought and might even be plainly obvious.
So, if you’re in charge of deciding how the song title & artist information is displayed on the various devices that your radio station is available upon, it would seem that the most sensible thing to do is to put the artist first when displaying “now playing” information. So, “Now playing – Glenn Campbell with Rhinestone Cowboy”.
This is particularly relevant when you consider the number of devices that scroll the text, rather than display it as a whole:
But, and I’m not sure whether this is some default setting in a piece of software somewhere that hasn’t been changed, it would seem that the opposite is true; certainly on the BBC national networks and on Absolute Radio, Classic FM, Heart & Capital brand stations and a host of others.
By putting the title first – particularly if it’s a title like “If you tolerate this (then your children will be next)” – on devices that scroll the text really slowly, you have missed an opportunity to present your data in the most accessible way possible.
This is a small example; it illustrates the need to think carefully about the way in which your information is displayed – upon which platforms it is displayed and the likely user experience that data will provide.
In addition, broadcasters should be wary of simply putting out the same data on different platforms. Stations that simply republish DLS text for DAB onto FM RDS text displays run a particular risk in the frequency of updates. DAB receivers will “queue” changes to DLS text – you don’t see DAB receivers that scroll text changing the message halfway through. FM receivers, however, for the most part are simply displaying a current representation of the RDS subcarrier. Where stations are updating DAB text more frequently than every 30 seconds, it may be on RDS scrolling devices that the previous message hasn’t yet run its full course. Again, by doing this, stations are reducing the quality of the user experience. I saw one station this week that updates its FM RDS text every ten seconds – that’s far too frequent and probably because they’re simply republishing – at the same frequency – the text they’re sending to DAB, where receivers handle it differently.
Take as much care over your metadata as you do with your audio.
Filed under: radio
Agree totally with your view that you need to take care and consider each platform when publishing metadata, although I think you can still use the same source – just apply whatever limitations you need to at the point of broadcast.
A few clarifications though – there isn’t a standard piece of software shared by the big players – certainly not used by Global anyway. The structure of messages are controlled editorially by the station themselves, so they choose how it looks based partly on listener feedback (certainly for Classic FM this is very important).
Also, Heart, Capital display their now playing information as ‘Artist-Title’, so not quite sure where you were looking. Classic FM is slightly different, but only because of the difference in describing classical music.
These are just a couple of examples – I saw another heinous metadata crime today. If your playout system is throwing out things like:
If you tolerate this (then yo
as the song title – or:
Ironic (Clean Radio Edit)
then you need to look again at how your information is displayed.
Sorry Ben, your post got caught in the WordPress spam filter for some reason.
Happy to be corrected on Capital – it was a “from memory” statement and I didn’t check that one before writing. Though I’ve just checked Capital South Coast and they’ve got title-artist. I think that’s where I picked it up from.
I also agree that the same source can be used – my point was exactly that, that at the point of broadcast it should be moulded to fit the platform.