Buzzam Launches Personalized Radio App

10-21-2012

Buzzam COO Greg Starling says, ?Millions have become frustrated with ?old school? broadcast, and have abandoned radio entirely for services like Pandora. The problem with Internet radio services is that they omit critical elements of radio like news, weather, commentary and other entertainment. Buzzam curates the best of the traditional radio experience together with your favorite music, then brings other textual content like Facebook and Twitter updates into an audio stream customized for each user.?

The company says key features include: Text-based reader for social feeds, Music aggregation from sources like Spotify and personal music libraries GPS technology offers opt-in location-based and activity-aware traffic and weather advice. Unprecedented accuracy is afforded for advertisers to target specific demographics (for example, a 21-year-old driving in a particular direction, within a specific distance from a business)

Buzzam CEO Josh Wright says ?Streamlined personalization is a growing expectation for consumers. People design their own clothing, computers, furniture, food and cars online. There are personalized digital magazines and books, cars that read text messages, and 3D printers that can build almost anything. So we thought, ?Why shouldn?t your radio be custom too???

Buzzam is now available for free in the iTunes Store.

(10/22/2012 7:05:46 AM)
"...The problem with Internet radio services is that they omit critical elements of radio like news, weather, commentary and other entertainment."
Wait a sec. Isn't that the same gripe people have about terra-radio?

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Abacast Announces Personalized Live Radio

4-13-2012

Abacast says it will release a product called "Personalized Live Radio" in the 3rd quarter. The service combines the live and local content of radio with music personalization features found on Internet-based music services. Abacast CEO Rob Green (pictured) says, ?All media is moving from a push model to a pull model, with users having a large say in what media they consume, how they consume it, and where they consume it. Personalized Live Radio enables broadcasters to offer a unique and relevant product for today?s consumer that combines the best of radio with personalization and interactivity.? 
The company says PLR works by operating in the cloud and integrating three core services:
?         Abacast?s patent-pending Cloud-Based Insertion technology, which manages individual live streams, inserts personalized content and advertisements, and synchronizes the timing of the streams so that one continuous stream is heard by the listener.
?         The Abacast Clarity? Digital Radio System, which provides ad campaign management, trafficking, and reporting for in-stream audio, pre-, mid-, and post-roll video ads, and companion and display banners. 
?         A song personalization engine, which generates custom music playlists based on the station playlist, individual artists or songs, and listener customization. 

When music is played via PLR, listeners can choose to listen to songs curated by the station, artist or song-based stations, or a ?genius? station based on each listener?s general song likes and dislikes.  Various advertising opportunities can be played or displayed at granular points in the service including on session startup, during standard ?commercial breaks?, during the personalized music blocks, and on listener interactions such as skips. 

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Pandora Launches Personalized Concert Series

Pandora has launched a new series of free, live concerts which will debut December 13th in Portland, Oregon, The first band to be featured will be Dawes from Southern California. Invitations for this new series are being sent based on each listener's musical preferences on Pandora, such as stations they have created and songs they have thumbed-up. Pandora data shows that Portland-area listeners are 25 percent more likely to enjoy a Dawes song and 30 percent more likely to create a Dawes station on Pandora than listeners in any other U.S. city.

Pandora Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Tim Westergren said, "Connecting artists and their fans is a central part of our mission at Pandora and we bring some very unique capabilities to that task. Our data shows that Dawes has a sizeable potential audience in Portland and we're excited to help bring them together."

Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes said, "As we have traveled the country, we often hear from our listeners that they discovered us on Pandora. We are excited that, now, through this new concert series, we'll get to connect in person."

Pandora listeners can look forward to more of these types of concerts in different cities across the country in 2012. The Portland event, for people who are 21 years of age and up, is presented to Pandora listeners free of charge. The show will take place at Portland's Mississippi Studios.

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Slacker Radio Offers Personalized ESPN Radio Content

ESPN Audio and Slacker have teamed to launch interactive ESPN Radio content which is now available to Slacker Radio listeners. Listeners using the free Slacker Basic Radio service now have access to an interactive, programmed ESPN station. Senior VP for Production Business Divisions at ESPN Traug Keller said "Offering new and different ways for sports fans to access ESPN Radio content continues to be rewarding and exciting. This new relationship puts the fan more in control by providing customizable ESPN content."

Slacker Radio Plus and Slacker Premium Radio subscribers now have unlimited access to the ESPN Radio integration, including an ad-free programmed station with unlimited skips and the ability to create highly personalized, myESPN Radio sports stations based on favorite sports, teams or ESPN programs. Subscribers also have the option to add hourly SportsCenter updates to any Slacker station.

Slacker is the first radio service to feature ESPN Radio in a personalized context, with up-to-the-minute coverage of all major sporting events and top news stories on both a local and national level. The interactive ESPN Radio station also offers access to content from multiple ESPN programs and platforms, including Mike and Mike in the Morning, SportsCenter, The Herd with Colin Cowherd and more.

The agreement between the country's largest sports radio network and the Slacker personal radio service now creates the most comprehensive and most personal listening experience for sports and music enthusiasts alike. ESPN on Slacker Radio is now available on the web, on home entertainment devices and on leading smartphones with optimized ESPN station creation on Android devices and the web. An updated Slacker app with ESPN for iOS has been submitted and will be available pending Apple approval.

The complete Slacker Radio experience includes expert-programmed music stations, ABC news, comedy, custom artist-hosted showcase stations and leading music festival stations along with the ability for listeners to create their own personalized radio stations. Slacker Premium Radio also includes on-demand access to the entire Slacker music library featuring over 8 million songs. The addition of ESPN to its increasing line-up of stations and services reinforces that Slacker Radio has the most varied and compelling range of customizable content offered by any radio service, while maintaining the most personal listening experience.

Go to www.slacker.com for more information

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