RadioApp, a Radioplayer for Australia
By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 3 June 2015, 11.41am bst
The UK Radioplayer has been very successful in the UK, offering all of the big UK radio stations in one place. The tablet app, in particular, has been great at helping listeners discover new stations and shows.
While the UK Radioplayer has now been adopted in many countries, including Ireland, Norway, Belgium, Germany and Austria, some other countries have gone their own way: preferring not to benefit from Radioplayer's ecosystem.
So, Australia's Southern Cross Austereo has launched a brand new radio app today, called RadioApp. It contains all the SCA stations, as well as stations from the ABC and Fairfax. They promise other broadcasters shortly: particularly, the app is missing stations from Nova Entertainment and ARN, as well as smaller groups and community stations.
The UI appears to have borrowed some design cues from dating service Tinder - you simply swipe through different radio stations to find a perfect match for your mood (aka change channel).
This comes at a time when Commercial Radio Australia are battling the music industry who want to charge more for stations that stream online. Many stations have pulled their streams offline as a result.
The app differs from Radioplayer in that RadioApp is wholly owned by one broadcaster, and contains no way for broadcasters to customise their station appearance or monetise their presence on the app.
iHeart Radio is also present in Australia: launched by ARN who were once part-owned by Clear Channel. That app contains over 1,500 live stations, including a selection of Australian stations from ARN and Fairfax.
I understand that work started on the RadioApp during Clive Dickens's tenure as SCA's Director of Digital and Innovation. His replacement, Vijay Solanki, started last month.
The app is available on Apple iOS and on Android at launch. The apps are, however, geolocked.
Press release
Southern Cross Austereo (SCA), one of Australia’s largest broadcast media businesses, has launched a new, free mobile app RadioApp that makes listening to live radio easier than ever before. RadioApp is aimed at providing Australians with the best in connected, live radio – giving listeners a single destination and an overall easier and enhanced experience that paves the way for the future of radio.
RadioApp delivers a smoother and more intuitive interface, designed specifically for ‘connected listening’, enabling users to discover their favourite stations more easily than ever before with the app’s unique ‘1-swipe’ experience. Users can find their most loved stations and listen to seamless, live streams of their favourite show, as easily as tuning an FM radio.
RadioApp offers choice, with a broad range of stations including SCA’s broadcast radio brands from around Australia including Melbourne’s #1FM station Triple M, Perth’s #1 Station overall mix94.5 plus SCA’s digital radio brands including: Triple M Classic Rock, Triple M Modern Rock, Buddha, MORE Digital, The Range and Stardust. All national stations from leading radio broadcasters ABC and Fairfax Radio Network are also available at launch, with others planned shortly.
RadioApp’s BETA version is available now, allowing consumers to touch, play, listen and comment, with more functionality and features planned.
SCA, Director of Digital and Innovation, Vijay Solanki said, “At SCA we believe in taking an agile and lean approach to our digital product development. We’re pleased to announce our BETA launch of RadioApp. It’s a mobile service intended to provide the best radio choice to Australian music listeners. It’s a seamless experience to select your station and the rest is music pleasure. We will measure early adopter behaviour and listen to feedback as we evolve the service for a full launch. We are building a neutral platform and welcome other stations and services to join us.”