MUMBAI: In the broadest sense, for a mass radio network in India, the two pillars of content would be music and hard news. But since the restrictive Indian environment precludes hard news from becoming part of the content on private FM Radio Networks, that leaves the stations only music to play with. Ergo, an index of the popularity of music amongst target consumers becomes a vital input for a Radio programming head.

Why then, are there no takers yet amongst private FM Radio Operators for an annual web-based music rating service that RCS has been trying to offer private FM Radio operators in India for close to one and a half years now? The service, exactly on the lines of the international ratethemusic.com, would be completely web-based, and would come replete with the ability to work in incentives for consumers who come online to rate the songs the network is seeking feedback on.

Shankar Balakrishnan, GM India, RCS, who has been leading the effort of selling the RateTheMusic service to private FM Radio networks, believes that the biggest culprit has been the recent slowdown. Radio networks moved their internal research resources to other functions, and were using other data to indicate songs' popularity, like download stats, reports on song requests received by their stations, TAM's Music tv reports, popularity on CRBT and other VAS platforms, etcetera. The slowdown hit everyone. But they are more willing to invest now, and have the financial elbow room to sit down and seriously consider the possibilities of having such a service for their listeners. So I am confident that in the next couple of months,  we will have our first private FM Radio subscriber in India for the RateTheMusic service....

Balakrishnan feels it will take a minimum of two  months because true to its international practice, RCS will offer radio owners in India up to two months of use on a trial basis to help them gauge the relevance and contribution of a web-based system of music rating. I can confirm that our first trials will start very shortly, and we are confident they will fructify soon,... he says.

The web-based service will allow radio stations to do their own music research, and can be a part of -- and customized to look like -- the FM network's website. The network will have to drive end users to the site to rate music lists that the network needs feedback on.

RCS will create and host each subscriber's RateTheMusic micro site, replete with logos and promotional material. The network will prepare its own questionnaire for song ratings. If at the end of a month there are students, homemakers sand professionals who have left their coordinate and rated your music, and you have a good two or three thousand such users, it is first rate information from your own listeners, and would be very valuable for your programming head,... says Balakrishnan 

In the US, the service, depending upon category and profile, costs between US$ 8000 and 10000 a network, a year. That, word has it, will be the costs ball park in India too.

Balakrishnan says that a radio station can make the RateTheMusic service an interactive platform for its listeners, per the international norm. When a listener comes online to rate the music listed, as soon as he completes a questionnaire, his details are automatically entered into a contest that would make him eligible for a luck or skill gift or a mention on the radio station....

While the average radio station plays out around 100 to 325 songs a day, the RateTheMusic service can accommodate a  music list as big as 15000 songs. Of course, the programming teams would pare the focus lists drastically for targeted feedback and quick and effective inclusion in programming.

Even though the smaller cities would have a much smaller incidence of internet access and usage, Balakrishnan is optimistic. How well founded his optimism is, will be seen in a couple of months from now.