Launch of live radio playout system in the cloud

By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 23 September 2015, 3.07pm edt

A new live radio streaming platform, Radio.co, launched six weeks ago and is already claiming significant growth on its platform, says founder James Mulvany.

The service offers a cloud-based playout system including streaming and analytics, and can be configured to switch to live broadcasts. The company can also produce apps for iOS and Android for your station as well as web players, and has integration with TuneIn's AIR now-playing API and with Apple's iTunes Radio service. Music licensing remains your responsibility, though; and my tests with the system show that it isn't, yet, capable of things like fully-controlled segues or voicetracking over intros.

The system is being touted for anyone who wants to create a curated audio service - restaurants, churches, gyms or musicians.

After six weeks, the company claims 300 subscribers, and a total of 5.5 million listeners across its network; and is currently predicting 1,000 radio stations on the platform by Christmas.

The company has ten staff, has managed to crowbar in a Buggles reference into their press release, and is based in Manchester, directly above a Starbucks, it appears. Lucky them.

Press release

Radio.co, launched by 28-year-old serial tech entrepreneur, partners with Apple and posts 40% week-on-week growth in first six weeks

JAMES Mulvany, the Manchester entrepreneur who founded successful tech start-up Igniso ten years ago at the age of 18, has launched his latest venture: online radio platform Radio.co.

Despite the young age of Igniso and its team of ten staff, James is convinced that of all the high-growth areas in media and technology, the “ancient” medium of radio is not only here to stay, but it is big business.

“Video never did kill the radio star,” says Mulvany. “And far from killing off radio, the Internet has in fact made it stronger than it has ever been. Research proves that people are increasingly turning away from on-demand music and content, and back to live – because in our busy lives we tend to trust our favourite DJs and presenters to select or ‘curate’ for us rather than always having to search for ourselves.”

Radio.co is a live streaming platform that allows anyone to build an online radio station and broadcast globally. DJs can connect from anywhere in the world, and easily and automatically switch between live and automated broadcasting. As well as radio stations, the technology can also be used by anyone who wants to create a human-curated audio experience, such as restaurant chains, gyms, churches, event organisers or musicians.

The idea came from one of Igniso’s long-established technology brands, Wavestreaming, which developed into one of the world’s most user-friendly and reliable radio platforms and eventually evolved into the new Radio.co brand. Already in the six weeks since its soft launch, Radio.co has seen its 300 subscribers broadcasting 22 million hours of radio to over 5.5million listeners, and these numbers are growing by 40% week on week. With syndication partnerships already in place with Tunein and Apple, Mulvany predicts a target of 1,000 radio stations broadcasting on the platform by Christmas.

Global radio industry statistics prove that Internet radio is a major business opportunity: over 90% of us listen to radio every week, and the biggest growth area (half and growing) is online listening. Advertising revenues are set to double in the next two years, and the proportion of this revenue coming from Internet radio versus AM/FM or DAB is forecast to rise by more than 50% in the same period.