Bye bye linear radio. Hello on-demand.

If you work in radio you've probably heard of Smart Speakers by now. But have you prepared fully for the on-demand opportunity / disruption? At the bottom of this article there's a seven point checklist, see how you fare!

Amazon's Echo and Google's Home lead the market in smart speakers with Apple and Facebook trundling along behind.

They are the key devices in the Battle for the Home where each tech giant is seeking to own your household's gateway to the internet for a new medium, voice, in a new context, the home.

It's a category growing 48% per year, now with 90m devices in the US alone. And, there's plenty of room for more growth: many households, including my own, now own more than one (one for kitchen, one for living room right now). There's utility in having a smart speaker in every room.

So far so ya, the internet and tech disrupting again, nothing new. But what does this mean for radio?

Radio has already been disrupted you'd think. We already have podcasts for talk radio and we have streaming for music.

Yet linear radio (listening to what's on now) has yet to really budge.

That's because the radio receiver itself hasn't really changed - digital radios, internet radios are still designed for linear radio (tuning in to a channel).

Smart speakers represent a sea-change: finally facilitating hands-free on-demand listening.

Take a quick glance over my recent smart speaker history from our own household:

• Radio 2
• The Poo Poo song
• The Wiggles
• Cool FM
• Wiggle featuring Snoop Dogg explicit (oops!)
• What's the difference between raisins and sultanas?
• Timer set for 5 minutes
• What time is sunset?
• Top songs from Buena Vista Social Club
• What's the weather?
• Captain Underpants theme song
• Captain Underpants theme song
• The Poo Poo song
• Havana by Camila Cabello
• What's the weather
• Media Show podcast
• Timer set for 5 minutes
• BBC Radio 2
• Havana by Camila Cabello
• Havana by Camila Cabello
• BBC Radio 4
• Havana by Camila Cabello
• Havana by Camila Cabello
• BBC Radio 2

And so it goes on.

Linear radio is in there but, and this is the key point, it's now competing for attention on parity with on-demand requests - whether that's me (The Poo Poo song.. .just joking) or the kids, we all now have equal access to both linear and on-demand radio.

So with the arrival of smart speakers, I've finally thrown away the old radio set and, as with TV, we now consume radio on-demand.

So assuming we're your average early adopters, and this is a coming sea change to all consumer behaviour, how should you prepare now if you're working in linear radio today?

Here's my seven point checklist!

1. Invest in strong content branding. It's the number one rule of on-demand - brand is king. If people can't remember the name of your show, they can't demand it.
2. Make sure your content is available in on-demand formats, for example as a podcast.
3. Release shorter formats specialised for on-demand content snacking. e.g. a 5 minute briefing.
4. Market your show relentlessly - if you're not front of mind, you're nowhere when it comes to invocation.
5. Plan for binge listening. I'm not sure what this will look like exactly but we know people binge watch TV, no reason to suggest they won't do the same on smart radio now it's easier.
6. Understand and build for smart speaker integration points e.g. lists, skills and daily briefings. There will be more.
7. Seek first mover advantage on key intents (the voice commands) around your content brand (e.g. if you run a radio show called the Media Show, why not build and market an Alexa skill called "Ask the Media Show", or perhaps a "Media Show weekly quiz")

So seven ways to prepare, and to quote those Disney songwriters, it's a whole new world. Which reminds me...

Alexa, play whole new world...