ABOUT ALPHACAST
Document downlad
For a more in-depth evaluation of my project, please view:
AlphaCast Short Paper
AlphaCast Strategy for commercial radio
Background
AlphaCast explores the impact of digital technologies and decentralised communications on radio and its current distribution model. Radio is still very dependant on a centralised distribution model, where the transmitted media is unidirectional. Users have no real input over what they are listening to other than switching stations. This centralised broadcast model dominated media production and consumption throughout the 20th century.
The technology is out there to turn radio listening into an interactive, on-demand experience for radio listeners. With this in mind I created a radio player that would attempt to address two key issues.
Implementation
The first was driven by the question 'why not leave the music choice up to the listeners?'. It is the content of radio stations that makes radio great, and if users could satisfy their needs for customisation through tailored playlists, it might be able to re-invigorate current radio audiences and entice younger listeners to tune in. The application, AlphaCast, uses the Last.fm API to create a tailored playlist based on information submitted by the user. By monitoring metadata output by the station, it can detect when a song is playing, fade out the radio and trigger music from Last.fm. By integrating this service it allows for users to manage the music they are consuming. Last.fm functionality has been integrated, allowing users to skip, love and ban tracks.
The second issue which I wanted to address in this application is the lack of real time feedback to content on the radio. AlphaCast enhances listening to content by allowing users to share snippets of audio. If a user has heard something amusing or interesting on the radio, they can share that content with others by posting a dynamic link to Facebook or Twitter. It doesn't allow for sharing of music, and the maximum length of a snippet is 30 seconds. The key aim was to add a viral element to radio, allowing people to share and comment on interesting content.
Additional Info
For more information on the development process of this project please visit the blog.
You can also check out some demonstrations of this project in action.