I turned on the radio for the first time in a long time this morning … i found their marketing slogans rather curious.

“Sydney #1 Hit Music Station” – Hit Music? What happened to the Best music, or the Newest music, or your favorite golden greats music.

If i was running a radio station, i would probably look to have a different slogan than “Today’s Hit Music”

What is Hit Music anyways? Who decides what a “hit” is? I’m pretty sure its not the consumers of the hit music, i’m pretty sure its a bunch of fat old cocaine using, yacht sailing music execs… I’m also damn sure at best its not a democratic process

I think increasingly today and tomorrows consumers like to see themselves as cultural entrepreneurs, people who find cool new songs, artists, video clips, blogs, website etc – and try to be the first to share it with their friends.

Hit Culture is fighting uphill against this trend, Hit culture is trying to tell you than because everyone else is listening to it that its the best for you, Not the other way around.

I mean, sure JT and Brittany get a lot of play, but i think less and less people want to be listening to stuff that everyone else is listening to. New economy consumers crave the niche, the new, the unique. They want to be the first.

Combine the attention economy, the long tail, consumer generated media, bottom up publishing, social aggregation and voting systems and we end up with a situation where consumers don’t need radio stations telling them what is cool to listen to today.

Sites like The Hype Machine consistently prove this. They ongoingly have the coolest music way before even the studios have released this music, and often enough some of the material the The Hype Machine makes great ends up on the radio.

On the other hand, im sure im a little bit wrong … some people just love turning on the TV and watching Today Tonight or E! Entertainment news…