Good 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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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.