By: Dan Russo
We are met with the constant belief that “x form of media is dying.” It is a lot more complicated than that. Media is simply just changing. When is it not? TV isn’t dying, it’s converting to a more streamer-friendly market. Next day episode airings and streamer exclusive programming are becoming incredibly common. So much so that it can be argued that we are right back where we started with tons of different new subscriptions to juggle.
Another common media form for this type of “it’s dying” discourse is Radio. Despite being one of the oldest forms of broadcasting in a lot of ways, radio has been unchanged for quite a while. Largely, radio has not seen a major shakeup in its long tenure. Services such as Sirius XM have attempted to emulate a premium sort of experience for your car, with thousands of stations for any style or mood.
But the dawn of the internet has caused some to rethink the way that radio can reach its listeners. At the same time, radio no longer has to be for general audiences. It can be laser focused now Spain’s Radio Primavera Sound has been seeking to update the radio experience for a modern audience that likes everything on demand and with more modern ideals. One of the forefront believers in Primavera is Marta Salicrú. She is a former music journalist and is now the programming director of Primavera.
Primavera is mostly focused on on-demand streaming through apps such as Spotify. While they are on other apps such as apple music, they all pale in comparison to Spotify’s overwhelming popularity in Spain. Primavera is the host to tons of different radio shows and podcasts, ranging from day-to-day life to true crime.
Deforme Semanal Ideal Total is by far the station’s most popular podcast. It is about feminism in modern culture, viewed through a comedic lens. It is hosted by a journalist and a writer. It also has heavy influences in literature and classic cinema, as evidenced by the Doris Day song used as the introduction. The podcast has become very famous in not just Spain, but Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile. It has received multiple awards from the Golden Ondas, for best podcast.
There is also an overwhelming demand for live renditions of the podcast. This is something they have been working to get off the ground for years. Initially, there were small crowds of people, all coming for free. This was discouraging, but eventually, they had lines wrapping around the building. It got so crazy that Primavera had to start charging for a ticket, which is seen as a net win for the company. Many large podcasts in the United States are having similar styles of events, to massive popularity. These live shows would also eventually become a staple of the other main thing Primavera is known for.
Primavera are also the purveyors of a music festival, which has been rapidly expanding. They have nabbed artists such as LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead, and the Jesus and Mary Chain in the past. This year they have gotten Kendrick Lamar and Depeche Mode to headline the festival. Both are hot off new releases and are as popular as ever. Just. A testament to the scale of growth of this festival in the past few years.
Organizing a festival of this size is no small feat. Planning the Primavera festival takes years of planning and a lot of debates over who should be the headliner. More times than not, the planning for the festival starts two years before the festival even begins. Not to mention, the planning for the next one goes seriously underway the day after the previous one wraps. How artists are chosen relies on their current popularity, popularity as a legacy act, or who Primavera would like to foster a good relationship with for the future.
In this regard, Marta deliberately mentioned the experimental hip-hop phenomenon JPEGMafia. In between his own solo stuff and acclaimed recent collaboration album with Danny Brown is seeing a well-deserved surge in popularity. Primavera is keeping an eye out for the future of music and making sure to let artists in on the ground floor. What results is a stellar lineup.
Marta mentioned a desire to want to convert this festival into a sort of Coachella for Europe. Coachella could use some competition, and with the last few Coachella lineups being largely seen as lackluster, it seems like it is getting just that. 2019’s festival saw 220,000 people in attendance. In 2022 there was a staggering boost to 460,500 tickets sold. While Coachella in 2022 sold around 700,000 that boost is nothing to scoff at.
As mentioned above, Primavera is utilizing the internet to garner a specific niche, and many of the other stations around Spain are following suit. Spanish station Rock FM is run very similarly to something we would commonly hear in the States. Primavera is more focused on cutting out its niche and ultimately fostering a good relationship with the listeners.
“The thing is that the podcast revolution kind of made these more traditional types of radio stations realize that they are losing their listeners, and need to adapt to what the listeners want. They want to keep the old-school way of doing things, but they keep the same middle-aged white men staff that their station’s main audience is also comprised of. A bit of variety, please.”
As far as advice for aspiring DJs goes, Marta’s best advice for carving a new niche and getting your show off the ground is to find some guests that share your interests. It’s also important to just keep throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. People have the capacity to get famous for the smallest things, so nothing is off-limits.
The future of the radio is on the internet, and it is not going anywhere. Primavera provides a window into the future of radio. The future is podcasting and more niche programming. The old style isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but it will certainly be interesting to see how traditional radio changes. In any case, we can expect Primavera to be at the forefront.