StarCD

StarCD was a short-lived service of a short-lived dot com company called Connexus. It was a service using the Comcast Metrophone and BDS radio-monitoring data. In test markets those customers could press the buttons *CD (*23) and a short menu would direct them to select the station they were listening to and it would tell them what the song was with an audio clip. Then it gave the option to buy the CD on Amazon.com.  In the era before downloadable music and smartphones that was pretty cutting edge.

"*CD uses a patented computer technology to monitor radio broadcasts and identify songs as they air. Before new music is released, a master recording is obtained from the record companies and scanned into the systems computer-- creating a unique digital fingerprint. *CD's computers monitor local radio stations ever day of the week, every second of the day--processing the digitized broadcast and comparing it with thousands and thousands of patterns. Once a song is recognized, the sytem records the exact time, date, and station on which it played."

Connexus had only one test market that I'm aware of—Philadelphia. Their test panel was limited to WXTU, WMMR, WSTW, WYSP, WXXM, WPST, WUSL, WPLY, WBEB, WIOQ, WYXR, and WDAS. 

But the service hit some snags. Comcast wanted out of the cellphone business. They acquired AMCELL in 1988 and Metrophone in 1992 but by 1999 was backing out. While the *CD was ramping up in 1999 Comcast was selling Metrophone to the San Antonio-based SBC Communications. More here. Connexus struggled for a few more years and then found new life as a part of radio-monitoring platform serving ASCAP and Yes networks called Mediaguide. By the time the iPhone came out in 2007 StarCD was long dead. In some ways it predicted later smartphone apps like Shazam, but it was too far ahead of it's time.

Radio Monitoring

 I see it as a sign of the health of the entire industry. Over the last several years we have seen the total number of broadcast monitoring companies dwindle. Verance stopped over 5 years ago, Video Monitoring services (VMS) closed just last Fall. The RCS subsidiary Media Monitors company bought out Mediabase, and as of yesterday, Mediaguide has closed as well. Rumors are abound that Civolution/Teletrax and ACNeilsen BDS are not exactly robust. But of all these I am most concerned with the departure of Mediaguide.

Mediaguide was the only radio monitoring company that actually quantified the airplay of non-commercial radio. A few trades noted the news in mid February: Radio-Info, Inside Radio, FMQB, and All Access, all dedicated a few paragraphs to their passing, but none of them noted that unique service. It's possible that Media Monitors might expand their footprint somewhat to accommodate some of those non-commercial customers. But the high variability in non-com airplay is a unique problem; a unique problem that only Mediaguide had attempted to solve. They monitored a large number of fringe formats that all the others had forsaken: not just college radio, but also public radio, community radio, even Cajun, country oldies, standards, classical and jazz. I remember in the 1990s a mentor of mine at a record label predicted to me that this service would come into existence, that college airplay would become quantified and vindicated for it's "taste-making" power. It was nice to see that come to pass, and it's been very sad in turn, to pass by.

I went into my files and found that I still had an original Mediaguide Promo flyer from a music conference I attended in 2003. I've scanned it and posted it here for download. It's a cute flow chart cartoon only an MBA could love, but it's all I've got. Vaya con dios.