Radio 2.0

TR130lgGood to hear from Craig Williams from audabble.net [update: now gone to pot, it seems] who has just set up a new per­son­al­ised radio service. The down­load­able Flash applic­a­tion plays your own MP3 files inter­spersed with news high­lights from your favourite sources which are fed through a text-​​to-​​speech engine.

At this point, the service still needs a little work. It func­tions, but not quite as smoothly as I’d like. The pace of devel­op­ment has been pretty hectic so far, though, so it should be straightened out soon. Also, I think they have a USP and offer a clever and original service, which I much prefer to hear about than another me-​​too video sharing/​social network/​news voting site.

I don’t really do product news. It’s an area that’s very well-served already. So I took the oppor­tunity to ask rude ques­tions about the back­ground to the service.

(1) What is your business model?
Audabble is free to use but is sup­ported by some advert­ising. However, the actual business model is based up premium services which will be added to the service in the next few weeks. These include the ability to cus­tomise the news feed aspect by choosing your own feeds, time inter­vals for specific feeds (you may want to hear BBC news hourly, but Digg stories half-​​hourly), and the ability to download those stories as mp3 for use on other devices/​players.

(2) In what respects is this a Web 2.0 applic­a­tion?
Well, as I’m sure you’re aware, there’s a fair bit of dis­cus­sion about this, and I was almost hesitant in using the term when I con­tacted you. But in the respect of a small producer being able to create a service rel­at­ively quickly and cheaply is the key for me, and that’s what makes audabble “web 2.0″. However, I could mention AJAX and RSS to complete the buzzword definition!

(3) How much time and money has it taken to set up Audabble?
Audabble is self-​​funded and has taken 2–3 weeks to create and set up. Its only costs are hosting which hope­fully will increase if the service gains some popularity!

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2 comments to Radio 2.0

  • I think it’s a neat idea but these guys are doing it for fun …

    Where’s the business model? Play com­mer­cials? Who wants to listen to commercials!

    I used to develop toy projects as an outlet for creative bursts but not to build another MySpace.

    It’s very neat as a creative project.

    Marc

  • If it takes 2–3 weeks and no money, why not fling these things out there and see what sticks?

    I think I could bear listening to a 30-​​second com­mer­cial at the news break. After all, radio remains a dominant medium — and has with­stood the new media threat in a way that TV hasn’t — because you’re doing some­thing else at the time, e.g. surfing the web, working.

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