Is digital music the death stroke for radio?

Personally, I like the effort the industry and the labels are willing to go to directly "interact" with consumers. The radio has become a place of conformity where if you want something played it better sound like everything they are currently playing or will play (or so it seems, this opinion could be negligent to what radio "really" does). Of course these sentiments leave out the satellite radio networks (NASDAQ:XMSR, NASDAQ:SIRI), which announced a merger yesterday. I don't think radio is on the way out, despite my opinions and assumptions. There is still enough reliance on the medium to distribute new material to consumers.

Pending on the continued growth of digital media, the success of the plan to distribute media on file-sharing networks will be one to watch. Of course, like the author says these are only teaser files, so the real place to watch will be the sites where redirected consumers can find the full length versions.

For a user such as me, these teasers are interesting ideas, in part because they sound like the promotional discs that are occasionally packaged with magazines (music-related for this example). If the industry is willing to make this step, then Steve Jobs' hopes may come to pass and the DRM will be long gone.

Of course, CDs do not contain the DRM, so the continued, though slowing, sales of that format will continue to matter in the decision as well as the market. For this reason, digital music does not seem like the end of radio. It will only take another bite out of radio's mouth and influence.