Hi all, Steve Pratt here. For those of you who don't know me, I'm the director of CBC Radio 3 and CBC Digital Music. I'd like to welcome you to the latest incarnation of CBC Radio 3 and the all-new site for CBC Music.
First off, I want diehard fans of Radio 3 to know that everything you’ve loved about R3 is still here. If you were a registered member, your profile and playlists have been transferred intact to CBC Music. The friends and artists you know and love are here, too, and you'll be able to tune in to Radio 3 and participate in social radio as you always have. Even more important, CBC Radio 3 remains committed to 100 per cent Canadian independent music.
Now, as a high-priority part of a larger, higher-visibility service, the future of Radio 3 is healthier than it has ever been. And rest assured, it will continue to play a central role in CBC's online music strategy.
So what is CBC Music?
In a nutshell, CBC Music provides CBC Radio 2, and 12 genres of music (Classical, Jazz, Singer-Songwriter, World, Rock, Pop, Blues, R&B/Soul, Hip-Hop, Aboriginal, Country and Electronic), the ability to make their own communities in the same way all of you have helped make Radio 3 such a wonderful experience for anyone who loves independent Canadian music. In fact, without you and everything you've done to help guide Radio 3, this new website and new communities would not have been possible.
Since its inception more than a decade ago, Radio 3 has served as a living laboratory, where we've been able to try out new ideas. Our goal has been to do the best job we can for Canadian music and its creators. Until now, however, the R3 web experience has only been available to fans of independent Canadian music.
With the launch of CBC Music, fans of all genres can have an experience with the music they love. Here's a short list of what you can expect:
:: 40 new web radio stations. Some are all-Canadian, but most are a mix of Canadian and international artists.
:: A new CBC Music mobile app for iOS devices — iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads. You can listen on the go to any of 40 streams, plus Radio 2 and Radio 3.
:: A central online home for everything CBC does around music — our best music content, whether it's from Jian Ghomeshi and the Q team or George Stroumboulopoulos.
:: A bigger, better concerts section, featuring both audio and video for hundreds of concerts (mostly Canadian).
:: An expansion of the artist tools to allow any international independent artist who owns the rights to their music to create an artist page.
:: A CBC Music concert calendar that replaces the Radio 3 calendar and will feature music from a broader variety of genres across Canada.
:: The Radio 3 tools for music fans, including member pages and personal playlists, which will be offered to everyone in CBC Music. Your Radio 3 ID is now part of CBC Music, meaning you can comment in — and add favourites from — other communities.
A great amount of work has gone into the design of the new site, including user testing and borrowing many 'best practices' for ease of use, but this is just the beginning. New features are in the pipe, so consider this CBC Music 1.0. The new service has been primarily built by the Radio 3 web team, with some amazing work by CBC's digital operations team. They will continue to work on the site, and you will see regular updates, iterations, fixes and new features. We're keeping the “old” Radio 3 site live for the next week or two to help transition everyone smoothly (we're doing the same thing with the “old” Radio 2 site), but both old sites will be turned off eventually, and the new online homes for Radio 3 and Radio 2 will be inside CBC Music.
By now, you may be asking, "Why is there now advertising on Radio 3's landing page?"
For years we've struggled to find a way to pay the artists we play on CBC Radio 3. Recently, we signed an agreement with the AVLA, which represents more than 1,000 music labels, and are excited to report that artists played on CBC Radio 2, CBC Radio 3 and the 40 new web radio stations will be paid. As well, a large, new service like CBC Music has to be self-sustaining. This advertising revenue stream will hopefully allow us not only to survive but also to grow and expand CBC Music.
A favour to ask of you
Finally, I'd like to ask all of you in the Radio 3 community a big favour. You have been instrumental in making the strongest, friendliest, most supportive, smart and fun online communities I've ever seen. I would like to ask each of you for your help growing healthy, welcoming communities in our new areas of CBC Music.
:: If you love other music genres, please jump into the new communities and help show people around.
:: Please leave comments in some of the new communities and encourage others to start or join discussions about music, to meet each other, make member pages and so on.
:: Please let everyone know how a great online community works and help us make it fun and safe.
:: Please let us know as soon as possible if something is going off the rails or horribly broken, or if we're being terrorized by music trolls :-) You can let us know at: cbcmusic@cbc.ca
I know from what you've all done at Radio 3 that you will be wonderful ambassadors for what we're trying to do here. I hope it's not too bold of me to thank you in advance for treating all the newcomers as if they were new guests at your party!
Thank You
I'd like to again thank all of you — the music fans, the artists and the exceptionally hard-working and talented staff at CBC Radio 3. We are all indebted to you for your support, trust and passion for music. We will continue to work just as hard ever to make your experience with us exceptional.
And now over to you. Questions? Concerns? Suggestions? We're all ears. Post your comments below or drop us a line. Oh yeah, if you still wonder where you can find Lana and Vish, head on over to the new rock station!
Steve