Indonesian online radio Ohdio.FM today announced an addition to its streaming channels in the form of artist selections. Ohdio now features a section called Radio Artis which allows listeners to automatically create playlists based on the band or the singer that they have selected. The new feature is being made available on the desktop first and will be making its way to the mobile interface in the coming weeks.
Playlists created through the Radio Artis feature will consist of songs by the selected artist or band as well as songs by other acts with a similar sound. The contents of those playlists are generated by Ohdio’s algorithms which identifies the genre and the characteristics of the artist or band. So what happens when the artist does not stick to a particular genre? That’s for the listeners to find out.
“The Radio Artis feature was developed by Ohdio.FM with the hope that it will make it much easier for people who love Indonesian music to discover and listen to their favorite Indonesian songs as well as to be a place to find new Indonesian songs and artists that may become their new favorites one day”, said Yoga Nandiwardhana, CEO of Ohdio in a statement.
Ohdio, which was launched last year, was revamped a few months ago to make it easier for listeners to discover music. Instead of having listeners create their own playlists manually by selecting songs one by one as it was in the beginning, Ohdio’s service now lets listeners pick playlists based on their moods. The handful of mood selections each carry a dozen or more curated playlists containing over a dozen songs each which will play in a loop. This saves listeners lot of time and lets them enjoy Indonesian music in no time.
Ohdio’s Radio Artis may seem very familiar for iTunes users as Apple’s music service offers a Genius mix which let’s people create playlists based on a single song. iTunes will then build the playlist based on the song’s artist and characteristics. What Radio Artis offers here is very similar. The difference being that iTunes relies on a person’s collection of music on their own iTunes library while Ohdio’s selection is based on Ohdio’s entire library which allows listeners to discover new music as Ohdio expands its repertoire.
There are several rather obvious ways for Ohdio to monetize and they’re relatively simple to implement. It seems that advertisers at this point are just waiting for the listener numbers to soar before they commit to a deal with Ohdio. Unfortunately Ohdio isn’t willing to talk statistics just yet at this point.
Indonesia’s musical preference is very heavily leaning towards local songs. In every music oriented event, it is always pointed out that the local music industry holds around 80 percent of the market. With little preference to foreign music, the market is very much there for the taking for Ohdio. It’s not difficult to identify the market segment that will accept what Ohdio offers, but it depends on the company’s ability to understand that market, deliver what the market is looking for, and take advantage of the size of that demographic to fuel its own growth.
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