We had how a lot of broadcast radio stations were essentially using Audioboo to create snack-sized content (to use a new term, ‘legobricking’, ie creating a richer experience from tiny bits) – this led us to your deal with Radioplayer where we can turned into a very economical and a very social listen-again service for stereo.
A radio station can have a pro accounts and then very simply hook it up to a feature on Radioplayer that allows people not only to listen to their live stream but to seize content the station has produced. The scaling prices are very small so it means that it isn’t just big stations that can afford to have that kind of listen-again functionality – it can go all the way down to community and student radio. We’re pumped up about it and we’re excited when the Radioplayer goes international, we’re hooked into that initiative also.
What’s the backdrop to this boom in tech startups?
I think what’s exciting about the technology sector could be the massive growth of the open source movement. I remember from my time at Playjam, we raised enough money to invest L1m on databases and servers and God knows what else. Today you can download a bunch of that stuff for free – you can hire services very simply in a physical location or in the cloud, i really think the barriers to entry when it comes to trying new technology are tiny in comparison with what there were and now they’re affordable. It’s made a whole host of attempts to create new businesses.
I think the downside of that is that the UK doesn’t understand how transformational the internet is when compared to US. I think we’re considerably more focused on the physicality of an investment, it could be a factory, pharmacy or IP – something that we can see and hold. In the united states, it’s very much about an opportunity. Investors will appear at a business or start-up, they’ll sense a chance and then fund it to help realise that opportunity. I can’t think we’re particularly great at that.
Given where we had arrived in the UK ten years ago, I think it’s an amazing time to be described as a tech startup – we just need to be a bit better advertising.
Silicon Valley has been choosing 50 years and has built some very close connections with the universities out there – additionally it is got a lot of the ex-employees from all the important companies of the last 5-10 years who understand the tricks of the trade and we lack that cultural side of purchase of technology. We have some big funds, nevertheless they don’t necessarily come in on the first round.
Two and a half years back the thing that we heard was that we’re prematurily . and I think that’s the part of the jigsaw that must change in the UK. A lot of it is cultural and it will take years.
How might digital media always evolve and how does Audioboo see itself evolving by it?
I’m terrible at predictions; should you look at the last two years on the Guardian you’ll know that, but I think on the tech front connected TVs shall be massive before next Christmas. The ability of a TV to have an web connection which can then allow you free usage of services is huge. I was in the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) a couple of weeks ago and everything was about connected TVs and tablets and i believe it’ll be a fundamental shift from both paid TV services along with a set-top box to people coming up with interesting new models to essentially attach different kinds of data to traditional TV.
I think privacy is going to be a huge issue too, whether that’s when it comes to social giants like Facebook or perhaps the Leveson enquiry and intrusion by traditional media into people’s lives. I think we haven’t begun to see the real ramifications of that yet.
I’ve got an open mind on Nokia – several things have been said about Nokia being on their last legs but I think that if they can harness their still immensely strong and powerful distribution network they could turn that around. We’ll need to wait and see on Blackberry.
Along with terms of Audioboo, we’ve pretty much spent the past 6 months working on partnerships. We’ve not witnessed ourselves as a massive disrupter, really a companion for traditional media to begin with to explore these new mobile, social and native platforms. Hopefully a lot of those should come to fruition in the next 6 months, writes tagza.
