Audioboo secures investment and sets sights on radio revolution

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Audio reporting tool Audioboo has secured its first round of funding with investments from independent radio production company UBC Media and digital radio firm Pure Radio. The technology, which is described by the company as a 'social voice' platform, has been used by journalists to record and embed audio clips in reports ranging from coverage of the G20 to the FA Cup Final . The tool, which can now be used from the web as well as via smartphone applications, also allows users to tag their uploads, enabling users to create audio maps, and share them with other social networks. In a blog post announcing the funding, Mark Rock , CEO and founder of Audioboo, says the technology "has always had the concept of radio at its core": "But a different kind of radio from what's been broadcast for the past 100 years. One that is inherently mobile, social to the core and, above all, user-generated and rich with the metadata that enables it to be searchable and discoverable."

"Audioboo is a social voice platform. It has always been about making people's voices heard and makes no distinction whether that voice is from a well known figure like Peter Snow reporting from the G20 summit or a blogging mum talking about her life. It's a platform that connects people through sound in near realtime and that opens up all kinds of opportunities for journalists to begin to start crowdsourcing content from their audience," Rock told Journalism.co.uk.

"Audioboo allows for a desktop-publishing type solution to both audio recording and distribution. Just as new computer technologies fundamentally changed publishing in the 1980s, so we're trying to do the same for the social creation of audio. Whether it's used for journalists distributing news in near real-time to their websites and social networks or asking their audience to distribute news to them, we believe that Audioboo marks a sea change in how media professionals think about audio content.

"Audioboo offers journalists the ability to either get their story out fast and socially, or ask their audience to get them a story in the same way. We hope it accelerates the transition of the industry from news makers to news curators, which is where we think the future lies."

As part of the deal, Audioboo will work with Pure Radio on new uses for the technology, lead by James Cridland, former head of audio for the BBC, as an advisor.

A new interface for paying subscribers to the Pro version of Audioboo will soon launch and will allow news organisations to embed a recording widget on their websites for users to upload audio, before moderating it and setting sharing options. A new function to create streams of audio from multiple contributors for a one-off or live event that can be moderated centrally by a news organisation is also soon-to-be launched.

Investors in Audioboo will now include UBC Media, Pure Radio as a subsidiary of Imagination Technologies and Sir Don Cruickshank, director of mobile technology firm Qualcomm, who will become chairman of the company. Channel 4's public service media investment fund 4ip, which put up the initial funding and a second grant for the service, will convert is project funding to date into equity.