Media Alliance for Impactful Narratives
Powering an AI-ready, Trusted & Discoverable European Radio Ecosystem
Making trusted audio easier to find, richer to experience and more valuable.
Unite. Empower. Amplify.
MAIN IBC Discovery Tour
- WHAT WE LEARNED -
From Metadata to AI Discovery
Metadata is the invisible infrastructure of AI-ready radio.
At IBC Amsterdam, MAIN brought together European radio leaders, experts and technology partners to follow metadata across the complete discovery chain — from governance and enrichment to connected environments, AI activation and retrieval.
The central conclusion:
RADIO DISCOVERABILITY IN THE AI ERA DEPENDS ON A CHAIN, NOT A SINGLE TOOL.
Metadata must be owned, reliable, enriched for a purpose, orchestrated, distributed, measured and retrievable.
8 MAJOR TAKEAWAYS FROM IBC DISCOVERY TOUR
What the IBC Discovery Tour revealed about radio’s path from metadata foundations to AI-ready discovery
What radio explorers can do next ?
Turn the IBC takeaways into action. Choose one challenge, explore it with peers and partners, and test what works.
How ready is your metadata?
Assess ownership, completeness, consistency, visibility and update speed across priority services and platforms.
Possible next step: a focused benchmark identifying gaps, priorities and practical improvements.
Who owns what, and how does it flow?
Clarify responsibilities, standards, KPIs, publishing routes and escalation rules across editorial, technology and distribution teams.
Possible next step: map the current operating model and define a simpler, accountable metadata workflow.
Is your workflow connected end to end?
Connect a real content or playout source with enrichment, orchestration, distribution and monitoring.
Possible next step: test one observable workflow from source to selected audience destinations.
Where can music intelligence create value?
Explore semantic and contextual music intelligence for programming, recommendation, personalisation or contextual experiences.
Possible next step: select one use case and test whether richer descriptors create measurable editorial or audience value.
Explore with Musimap — semantic music intelligence for moods, context, intent and recommendation.
What do listeners actually see?
Review how your station, programmes and content appear across connected cars, screens, apps, voice and other priority environments.
Possible next step: compare real-world representation, identify inconsistencies and prioritise fixes.
How can archives become active assets?
Enrich a selected archive so content can be searched, retrieved, reviewed and reused.
Possible next step: test a bounded collection against real editorial, repurposing or discovery needs.
Explore with Eon Media — AI-powered enrichment, indexing and activation of audio archives.
The MAIN metadata/discovery framework
OWN / STANDARDISE → ENRICH → ORCHESTRATE → DISTRIBUTE → DIAGNOSE → RETRIEVE → EXPERIENCE → LEARN
FROM METADATA TO AI DISCOVERY IBC TOUR
A curated route through IBC combining expert guidance, selected demonstrations, practical use cases, peer exchange and direct conversations with technology innovators.
PREPARE
From Metadata Readiness to Trusted AI Discovery
How can broadcasters build trusted, interoperable metadata foundations that power future AI discovery experiences?
At the EBU / RadioReady opening stop, the Tour explored metadata readiness, governance and interoperability through the RadioReady Metadata Manifesto, with a demonstration of EBU Neo, showing how trusted public-service news content can become accessible through source-transparent conversational AI.
ORCHESTRATE
Orchestrating Metadata Across Media Workflows
How can enriched metadata move reliably between systems, workflows and audience platforms?
With Pluxbox, the Tour explored how metadata, content intelligence and automation can be integrated and orchestrated across the media supply chain — connecting systems, streamlining workflows and enabling more consistent, efficient multiplatform activation.
ENRICH
From Music Intelligence to Intent-Based Audio Experiences
How can richer music metadata drive smarter programming while enabling more contextual, personalised and connected listener experiences?
With Musimap, participants explored how semantic descriptors such as mood, situation and musical characteristics can transform basic metadata into actionable intelligence for programming, recommendation, personalisation and next-generation discovery.
DISTRIBUTE
From Metadata Distribution to the Connected Dashboard
How does enriched metadata become a better and more consistent listener experience in the car?
Xperi automotive expert showed how metadata powers hybrid radio, visual information, service following, station and content identification, voice-driven discovery and next-generation connected dashboards.
DISCOVER
From Metadata Diagnostics to Better Discovery
How ready is your radio metadata for AI-driven and connected discovery?
Radioplayer provides broadcasters with a practical way to assess the quality and completeness of their metadata, identify gaps and understand what needs to be improved to make radio services more consistently discoverable across digital, automotive and future AI-driven platforms.
DISCOVER
From Content Enrichment to AI Discovery
How can AI-generated metadata turn live and archived radio content into discoverable, reusable and more valuable assets?
With Eon Media, the Tour demonstrated how AI-generated metadata can make long-form radio searchable and reusable — supporting editorial discovery, archive activation, repurposing and new contextual or commercial opportunities.
DISCOVER
From Semantic Search to RAG & Conversational Discovery
How can broadcasters turn enriched media content into AI-ready retrieval for
applications and agents?Meilisearch showed how enriched metadata and media content can become an active retrieval layer: indexed, searchable by both keywords and meaning, and ready to power discovery, recommendations, conversational interfaces and AI/RAG experiences.
Discovery Tour Partners / Contributors
Musimap — Music Intelligence
Turning richer music metadata into smarter programming, recommendation and contextual discovery.
Musimap brings semantic music intelligence to the Tour, showing how deeper understanding of music can support programming, personalisation and intent-based audio experiences.
EBU — European Broadcasting Union
Advancing trusted media technology, standards and innovation for public service media.
The EBU brings a strategic and technical perspective on how metadata, interoperability, data and AI can help broadcasters prepare for future discovery environments while keeping trust, transparency and public value at the core.
Strategic guide connecting the Tour’s technology, business and audience perspectives.
South 180 brings a futures and strategy perspective to the Tour, helping connect emerging technologies with the decisions, priorities and impact they create for media organisations and their audiences.
Eon Media — AI Content Intelligence
Turning live and archived media into searchable, reusable and more valuable assets.
Eon Media demonstrates how AI-generated metadata can transform unstructured audio into content that can be searched, contextualised, repurposed and discovered through emerging AI interfaces.
Radio Ready for Connected Cars
Making radio metadata fit for the connected-car experience.
Radio Ready for Connected Cars helps broadcasters improve the quality, consistency and governance of radio metadata so services remain easy to identify, discover and experience across modern in-car dashboards and hybrid radio environments.
Turning rich, consistent metadata into a more visual, seamless and discoverable radio experience in the car.
Xperi brings the connected-car perspective to the Tour through DTS AutoStage, showing how broadcaster metadata travels into modern dashboards to support station identification, visual content, hybrid broadcast/IP listening, service following and next-generation discovery experiences.
Pluxbox
Connecting metadata, content and workflows across the media ecosystem.
Pluxbox helps media organisations integrate and orchestrate metadata across connected workflows, turning structured information into automated, consistent and multiplatform experiences.
Resource Center
A shared resource center gathering key materials about MAIN initiatives
IBC DISCOVERY TOUR MATERIAL
IBC Discovery Tour Major Takeaways
8 practical lessons from metadata ownership to AI discovery
Download the report →https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MCp1coSRF240bCpf_0SX6LSJL6ouXcDa/view?usp=drive_link
IBC Discovery Tour Press Release / original executive brief (in English)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y6ntLVIkYMurnpcUsglrqYpUHX51N99q/view?usp=drive_link
IBC Discovery Tour visuals
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zqpZQaEmDMgfkiXdJbJ9HCYwD9AyAL4x?usp=drive_link
IBC Discovery Tour Pictures
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1n97zw6kLjFzoxRpw-vmHoJxSied0jk7q?usp=drive_link
Radio Ready For Connected Car Manifesto
https://www.radioready.info/resources/metadata-manifesto-resource/
AI x RADIO EUROPE MATERIAL
AI x Radio Europe pre-event Press Release (in English)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ia258FFJg1mhcBGrBt0Ct4HmtITewjGLQlWOphbx_6M/edit?usp=sharing
AI x Radio Europe pré-évènement Communiqué de Presse (en francais)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sEaLWQL0QidjA1w3TP61cs7GaXZQrevh5ro9qcazpTA/edit?usp=sharing
Visuals (event posters, MAIN logo, speakers, partners...)
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nEGOqw9LU6HiDP8YCp3KZ3BbZPWmkGHM?usp=sharing
AI x Radio Europe Outcome document of the event (5 pages)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DtoTRI157ErV1dTDX0yuDWDmtbJlHd3LtjwVG_Zln4g/edit?usp=sharing
AI x Radio Europe Executive notes (2 pages)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C63YIupcVm1Jk_6FDM0yKMlLbKGzIl_-LijjOlS9LI0/edit?usp=sharing
AI x Radio Europe post event Press release (in English)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13msiRNkkFxgnsLUUyw8wGncg4AHZwyj7wxtJ81Q3Jf0/edit?usp=sharing
AI x Radio Europe post-évènement Communiqué de Presse (en francais)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WTz9cCb8CnHIdID0piX9m_E9DCyB9zbvJMObJSV_ckk/edit?usp=sharingAI x Radio Europe SD Picture galery (first low resolution pictures)
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YLp36EfOp2deyqq6unPfaHgyKvlPsC8M?usp=sharing
AI x Radio Europe HD Picture galery (Full pictures in high resolution)
POLICY (DNA)
Digital Networks Act — webpage (EU)
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-networks-act
DNA — Press Release 21/01/2026 (EU)
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_107Radio & Connected Car — EBU news 21/01/2026
Radio in Cars — AER position paper (PDF)
https://www.aereurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/aer-position-paper-on-radio-in-car-eecc-dna.pdfRadio Safeguards — AER news 22/01/2026
https://www.aereurope.org/aer-welcomes-the-digital-networks-act-and-calls-for-stronger-safeguards-for-radio-in-connected-cars/
AI x Radio (WRD2026)
World Radio Day 2026 — AI (UNESCO)
https://www.unesco.org/en/days/world-radio/radio-artificial-intelligenceWorld Radio Day — UNESCO
https://www.unesco.org/en/days/world-radio"Cockpit automobile: pour une révolte européenne !"
Carte blanche Jérôme Doncieux / Franck Louis Victor (Majelan X) - Le Soir (in French)
https://www.lesoir.be/723576/article/2026-01-20/cockpit-automobile-pour-une-revolte-europeenne
Radio, the sound of connection, emotion, attention
World Radio Day 2026 initiaitve - World Radio Alliance & EGTA
https://www.worldradioalliance.com/radio-the-sound-of-connection-emotion-attention/
World Radio Day Special offer — Hindenburg
Extended trail + 25% Discount
PODCAST
AI & The Media Worlds Podcast - Future Media Hubs
Can Radio survive the AI-era? Bonus Video podcast with Kim Beyns (CEO N-Group Belgium)
https://youtu.be/uD8qNZ6DcXQ?si=MfySzt4hluAmD-0D
TOOLBOX (WRD2026)
World Radio Day 2026: Offers from technological enterprises - UNESCO
https://www.unesco.org/en/days/world-radio/offers-technological-enterprises?hub=66636
WorldDAB Ressources (Partner)
https://www.worlddab.org/resources
