ZURICH: The European radio industry aims to maximize the use of digital technology by providing music with a large scale internet platform. With internet and social media acting as key factors in radio today, the Swiss radio industry too sees the opportunity as a move to expand the medium into newer avenues.

Shedding light on the use of internet in music and radio today, the International Radio Festival commenced its B2B forum on 12 September in Zurich, Switzerland.

The first session 'Music formats: a wind of change’ reflected the importance of internet for radio stations in today’s age. The presentation was given by mx3.ch founder and CEO Samuel Vuillermoz.

As technology is  advancing, the increased use of mobile and internet has made its presence felt in radio too. Today, you can find the latest tracks you hear on the medium on social networking sites like facebook and more. Vuillermoz explained, “Today if you hear something new on radio, you can find it on the internet as well. You share everything on the web today, so infact radio is helping the internet and vice-versa. Mx3 also has a mobile app and a mobile version of its website so that displays the importance of web now.”

The music portal has also developed a unique software by the name ‘Create your own radio’ where users can register and act as DJ by creating a program or stream of their choice and style of music which is on-air. Another user tuning into the site can select their favourite stream of content and listen to it.

Bringing along a wind of change in Switzerland, such technologies have helped the music broadcast which has grown to more than 60 per cent now. “Radio has re-discovered the use of local music production through these technologies which has helped it grow to such a large extent. The future is so bright now,” he claims.

Launched on 15 September 2006, mx3 is an online music portal with around 18,500 bands, 64,000 songs and 30,000 users. The user can pay around 2000CHF a month and download unlimited content. The portal provides latest tracks and sells its service to national broadcasters and mainly earns revenue through advertisements and partnerships. They are also currently working on deals with BBC and a station in France to create a DJ tool with their database.

The session also threw light on key factors in making a music programme a success. Some ideas exchanged brought out the fact that regional content holds the string of success in radio and stations should provide information apart from the regular rotation of tracks throughout the day.