The news, the traffic, the sports and talk shows - the typical things associated with listening to the radio on your way to and from work. Now, more than ever, that's all radio is. And the biggest listeners are the older generation.

Meanwhile Spotify Free has taken over the planet. Users listen to whatever music they desire, whenever they desire. Across the largest cities in the United States, Spotify is in the <a href="http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/06/16/spotify-free-bigger-radio-stations/">Top 10</a> for weekly listeners.

Gone are the days when you sat by the radio, ready to hear a favorite hit record, hoping the DJ doesn’t talk over the end of it.

Like YouTube, Spotify it has come under intense pressure to shut down its free service, with claims that it's having an impact on artists and labels.

But it’s just radio though, right?

Radio through another medium. Radio that's tailored to your musical taste. Radio where you can build your own playlist or choose a preloaded playlist for your current mood or activity. Uou can listen to music while you work, without being distracted. You can find an energy-fueled mix to get you through spin class. So perhaps this isn’t radio. Maybe it would be more appropriate to refer to Spotify as a jukebox.

Access to Spotify Free doesn’t necessarily mean that users won’t join paid services. When you think about it, Spotify Free opens your ears to music that you might not normally listen to. Because it’s free you're more willing to give it a listen and check it out.  Kind of like tapas allows you to taste new things.

Advertisers are aiming at the millennial crowd because they’re not capturing their attention on traditional radio. Spotify Free holds a pretty powerful sway on that front. Especially when it comes to those 34 and under, which makes up 69% of Spotify Free Users. Other stats: ages 35-54 accounts for 26% and the over 55’s just 5%.

Spotify Free offers a unique opportunity for both users <em>and</em> advertisers. Advertisers know who they are tailoring their ads to, and users can customize their playlists to exactly what they want to experience at any given moment.

It’s basically everything that we’ve ever dreamed of and it’s now here and it’s free. A nerd’s paradise.

Does this mean that radio is over? Is Spotify even radio? Or is it a personal jukebox? Does it even matter?

As long as we're able to use this amazing service to listen to the music that we like whenever we like...what’s the problem?