RadioPlayer teams up with Audioboo to offer listen-again service

The pan-industry internet radio service RadioPlayer has joined forces with Audioboo to offer an instant listen-again service for its 300-plus stations. The tieup is likely to be of most benefit for smaller commercial and community stations unable to invest in the infrastructure and technology developed by the bigger commercial broadcasters and the BBC. RadioPlayer, which is backed by the BBC and commercial radio and launched last year, currently has almost 7 million listeners a month. The joint initiative with sound-sharing application Audioboo will allow stations to make selected clips available to listen to again in their RadioPlayer console, which will also be integrated into its centralised search engine. Mark Rock, the founder and chief executive of Audioboo, said it offered a low-cost, cloud-based listen-again service for UK radio operators. "We've always seen ourselves as a platform complementary to existing broadcasting brands, rather than an industry disrupter," said Rock. "We believe RadioPlayer is a fantastic platform, as demonstrated by the notable success it has already achieved. The bite-sized, contextual and real-time content that Audioboo can deliver will add significant depth to broadcasters' presence on the platform. "Since anyone can upload boos via landline, mobile or web, with moderation tools available in the cloud, it's another example of how radio can really broaden its reach and relevance in the digital audio space." The new facility, due to be demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will be available to any UK radio station licensing one of Audioboo's Pro services. RadioPlayer founder and managing director Michael Hill said it was "now ready to enter a new phase of deepening people's listening habits, making them more social, and helping smaller stations offer high-quality audio content. Audioboo is obviously a perfect fit for that". Hill used an appearance at the Radio Festival in October last year to promise a range of new improvements to RadioPlayer which he said would make it "measurably the best mobile radio player app in the market". RadioPlayer currently offers access to more than 300 BBC, commercial, community and student stations. Audioboo launched in 2009, allowing users to record and upload almost unlimited amounts of audio which can be integrated with Facebook and Twitter. It was hailed in the MediaGuardian 100 as "democratising radio or, at least, a short-form, on-demand version of it". Clive Dickens, chief operating officer of Absolute Radio, said: "We are a strong supporter of innovation in radio as IP continues to help us redefine radio. "Audioboo has already successfully exploited the social side of listening, it's essentially becoming desktop audio publishing for radio, with the added benefit of allowing contributions from listeners to the brands they love." Internet listening accounted for 3.7% of radio listening in the third quarter of 2011, the latest period for which figures are available, up from 2.8% in the same period in 2010. Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) radio remains by far the biggest digital radio platform, with 18% of all listening out of a digital share of 28.2%. theguardian.