At Radiodays Europe, Xperi’s Joe D’Angelo Makes Case For Radio’s Place In Digital Dash.

Keeping radio at the forefront as new vehicles roll out with connected car technology is a goal of Xperi, and not just in the U.S. Speaking at Radiodays Europe, Senior VP of Global Radio and Digital Audio Joe D’Angelo says the company is jockeying with big tech companies to gain prominent real estate in digital dashboards.

A dozen global companies are looking for positions on the digital dashboard. These companies account for 900 million registered users to the services that help the companies rake in $41 billion in revenue, according to Radio Info Australia. The top three companies – Apple Music, Google and Amazon Music – have a combined user base of two billion. These groups, however, are not radio companies, D’Angelo noted pointedly to attendees.

“Audio is not their primary business but they are using it to leverage an advantage for their primary businesses,” he said. The advantage these companies have is their technology. “Once a car manufacturer puts in one of these services, they know they don’t have to worry about the technology because the developers will service and upgrade them continually, and they will always work.”

He says Xperi, which owns and licenses the technology for HD Radio, is working with car manufacturers to provide a level playing field for radio on the dashboard. He says his company is partnering with the global radio industry to combine the best of IT services and discovery into the dash display.

Xperi’s DTS AutoStage hybrid radio platform supports operations in 60 countries and currently is in market in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

“No driver wants to manually tune up and down a dial anymore and wait to hear the station before deciding if they want to listen to it,” he explained. “Metadata and voice interfaces are very important now. With simple voice commands, a driver wants to be able to select a favorite station or mood of music instantly. Once a driver or passenger has decided what they want to listen to, Xperi’s services interrogate the metadata to deliver the artist or station genre.”