March 2nd, 2010 → 4:07 pm @ josh // One Comment
Below is the official press release for the Public Radio Player version 2.1
The Public Radio Player iPhone app: Nearly 500 live station streams. One thousand on-demand programs. Downloaded millions of times.
And now new funding, new features, new opportunities.
We’re excited to announce that CPB has renewed support for the next phase of the Public Radio Player. PRX is leading the project and continues to work with Public Interactive as a source of station schedule data and on-demand programs from the NPR API.
As you may know, the Public Radio Player came out of a CPB-funded collaboration of APM, NPR, PRI, and Public Interactive, led by PRX. That first grant ended last summer, but the Player lives on with thousands of new users downloading the app every day.
Version 2.1 has just gone live in the iTunes Store, and we’re starting work on version 3.0 coming in June.
For version 2.1, we’ve rewritten the code from scratch to greatly improve performance. We’ve also added top-requested features – a sleep timer, wake-up alarm, and the ability to manage Favorites. We’ve improved the On Demand program player, and integrated Safari so users can browse station websites from within the app.
Version 2.1 will also include national banner ads on top-level pages, but not on station or program pages. CPB has encouraged us to find ways to sustain the project beyond grant support so this is our first foray into mobile advertising. We are working to make it possible for stations to sell local ads on their own Player pages. You can see a pilot of this on WBUR’s Player page now.
Version 3.0 will have additional enhancements and a broader roll-out of local station ad support. While we continue to investigate ways to support donations, membership, and pledging, this is a complex issue due to Apple’s no-donation policy as well as stations’ own systems. Local ads could be a significant revenue opportunity for stations with local underwriters interested in the mobile audience.
No iPhone or iPod Touch but full of curiosity? Watch this demo video of an earlier version.
Over the next few months, we will be reaching out to the public radio community for Player feedback and ideas.
There are several ways to stay up to date with the project and share questions and comments:
Best,
Jake Shapiro and the Public Radio Player team @ PRX
March 1st, 2010 → 1:38 pm @ matt // 13 Comments
Version 2.1.1 is now live in the iTunes App Store and this patch addresses all the known issues with the 2.1 release. Update notifications should be appearing on your phone’s app manager shortly. Apologies for the inconvenience and we hope you enjoy the 2.1.1 update.
Update: Tom, one of the users who helped us identify the 2.1 bugs, gives version 2.1.1 this endorsement:
2.1.1. seems to be the rock-steady app I knew it could be.
Thanks to Tom and all the Public Radio Player users who helped out over the last few days.
February 26th, 2010 → 10:21 am @ josh // 13 Comments
Version 2.1 update to the Public Radio Player is now live in the App Store. The PRX tech team has rewritten the code for the app from the ground up, resulting in greatly improved performance. Current users should be receiving an update notice in your app manager on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can also download the new version from the iTunes App Store.
We’ve got some exciting additions to an already great public radio resource. Here’s what’s new in this version:
Over the next week, we’ll focus in on some of these features and discuss what they mean for the app. But for now, go and download the 2.1 update of the Public Radio Player and enjoy your weekend with public radio on-the-go.
New Update: Version 2.1.1 is now live in the iTunes store. As with any major upgrade, we have run into a few post release issues. With your help, we have identified the problems and our developers are already working on them. We expect fixes to be made shortly and after testing, we will re-submit to iTunes for a 2.1.1 release.
Here are the known issues for version 2.1 of the Public Radio Player
We are working to push a fix for these issues as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.
February 24th, 2010 → 2:37 pm @ josh // 2 Comments
On Monday, we published a chart listing the top 20 streams on the Public Radio Player. As mentioned in that post, we are just beginning to sort through the analytics on how public radio fans are using the iPhone app. We were excited about the data and wanted to share some of it right away. Without reading too much into the specifics, I made some initial inferences based on the results. Well, it turns out I missed one very important piece of the puzzle.
I opened the Public Radio Player yesterday and it hit me like a ton of bricks. The opening page of the app lists a group of featured live streams. That list is almost identical to the Top 20 rankings published on Monday. There is such a large overlap that one must conclude that the presence of a station on the featured list is a major influence on the usage of their stream. That is, the Public Radio Player app is both cause and effect of the top station rankings.
I’m not sure if we should categorize my mistake as a case of reflexivity, the observer effect, the Hawthorne effect, or simply a hall of mirrors. I think I had my nose too deep in spreadsheets of data to see what was right in front of me. I goofed – and I apologize for the error.
But the influence of the featured stations list is an important finding. We initially included a featured stations page as a way to improve the load time of the app and to provide a jumping off point for new users (a list of 400 stations and 1000 on-demand options can be a lot to digest). The role of the featured stations list on the streaming choices of users is larger than we expected. We are making some immediate changes to rotate more stations into the featured list and introduce public radio fans to a greater variety of live streams when opening the app. We will continue to monitor the top streams and watch how the featured list influences stream performance over time.
Again, apologies for the omission of these details in our last post.
February 22nd, 2010 → 12:07 pm @ josh // 9 Comments
Editor’s Note: Please read our update regarding the data in this post.
The stat we love to throw around is the big top line number: 2.5 million downloads for the Public Radio Player since its debut! Recently, we’ve been digging deeper into the details to learn more about how public radio fans are using the the Player.
We pulled data on the live station streams that are accessed most often by users – and were surprised by some of the results. Many of the popular streams on the Public Radio Player are from stations that don’t normally crack any top 20 lists for terrestrial broadcast audience.
I put together a quick comparison below. On the left are the top 20 stations on the Public Radio Player from October 1 – December 31 of 2009, as ranked by average monthly unique users. On the right are the top 20 terrestrial public radio stations as measured by average weekly cume (a measure of the total number of unique listeners) during the fall quarter, September 17 to December 9 (odd dates because broadcast Arbitron quarters correspond to specific weeks, not months). This data comes from a report published by the Radio Research Consortium.
Disclaimer: Because of differences in methodology, comparing online and broadcast audiences is often a case of apples and oranges. The lists below take two very different approaches to finding a similar type of number. Also, they are not an exact match on dates. Take it all with a grain of salt.
First thing to notice is the lack of overlap. By my count, there are only 5 stations among the top broadcast rankings that break the top 20 on the Public Radio Player. It’s great to see local stations that don’t normally enjoy huge broadcast audiences find success on the Public Radio Player.
Also, internet-only streams are making waves on the Player. KCRW Music, Folk Alley, Jazz 24, and Native Voice One are all examples of live streams with no broadcast presence anywhere on the radio dial.
Another takeaway — music stations perform well on the player. KCRW Music, KUT, Jazz 24, WXPN, WFMU, Folk Alley, KCMP, WWOZ, and WTMD all put an emphasis on music in a variety of formats. No surprise here as listening to music has long been a leading mobile activity (and a great way to beat the commuter blues).
Again, please don’t read too much into the charts. We’re just getting started understanding these stats. We’ll be watching the coming months to see if more definite trends and conclusions can be gleaned, and I will continue to highlight interesting finds here on the blog. If you’ve got some thoughts on what you see, please let us know in the comments. Thanks.
February 12th, 2010 → 10:49 am @ josh // 2 Comments
We’re all set to submit the Public Radio Player v2.1 update to the iTunes App Store and we expect it to be available for download in a matter of days. I recently got my hands on a beta version of the update and can confirm that it includes some of the features most requested by users of the Public Radio Player.
Alarm Clock – Version 2.1 lets you set a public radio wake up call. Choose a station from your favorites list, set the alarm for the break of dawn, and get ready to rise and shine with the Public Radio Player.
Sleep Timer – Tossing and turning all night and counting sheep won’t help? No problem! Just put the new sleep timer to work. You can be lulled into dream time by the dulcet tones of Ira Glass or Terry Gross knowing your Public Radio Player will switch off at the appropriate hour.
Browser integration – Safari is now accessible within the Public Radio Player, allowing you to visit websites of the stations you stream.
Manage Favorites – You can decide which of your favorites goes to the top of the list. You can sequence your favorite stations and programs in any order you choose.
“Fresh from the Oven” Code – the PRX tech team has rewritten the code for the app from the ground up, resulting in greatly improved performance.
Video Tutorial – We recorded a great video tour (embedded below) of the Player and added a link to it within the app to help new users get to know the Public Radio Player.
Improved Search – Search results are now sorted by live stream and on-demand categories
As you can see, we’ve got some exciting additions to an already great public radio resource. We’ll be sure to let you know as soon as 2.1 goes live in the app store. In addition, an update notice will be automatically pushed to current Public Radio Player users, so keep an eye on your phone’s app manager.
February 11th, 2010 → 3:07 pm @ emily // Comments Off
A couple of months ago, we let you know that PRX would be rotating fresh shows into the Featured On Demand list. We’re pleased to announce that the next set of hot picks are in!
Newly featured this week:
SALTcast from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
“Saltcast is the bi-weekly podcast on radio storytelling produced by the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.” Salt trains “aspiring writers, radio producers, and photographers in the art of documentary storytelling — creating thought-provoking, richly worded stories.”
Hear SALTcast’s recent episode, “Hot Lunch.”
[powerpress url=http://www.publicradioplayer.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Hot-Lunch.mp3]
Hearing voices is “Radio for people who love radio.” It is “a weekly hour series of ‘driveway moments’ culled from broadcasts, podcasts, sound-portraits, slam poets, features, found-sound, audio archives, audio art and docs.”
Hear Hearing Voice’s recent episode, “Snow and Ice.”
[powerpress url=http://www.publicradioplayer.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/047SnowIce.mp3]
“Youth Radio’s media education, broadcast journalism, technical training and production activities provide unique opportunities in social, professional, and leadership development for youth, ages 14-24. ”
Hear Youth Radio’s recent episode of continuing coverage of hazing in the Navy.
[powerpress url=http://www.publicradioplayer.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/youth.mp3]
February 8th, 2010 → 5:34 pm @ josh // 3 Comments
There’s good news in store for Public Radio Player fans! We’re excited to announce renewed CPB funding for the project that will result in two major updates to the Public Radio Player during 2010. The first, version 2.1, will be released in the coming weeks, with a second update planned for the summer.
As you may know, the Public Radio Player iPhone app originated from a CPB-funded collaboration of APM, NPR, PRI, and PI, led by PRX. That first grant ended in the summer of 2009 following the release of version 2.0. PRX is once again leading the project and continues to work with Public Interactive as a source of station schedule data and on-demand programs from the NPR API.
For version 2.1, the PRX development team has rewritten the code from scratch to improve performance and introduce some great new features to the Player (we’ll be showcasing some of these in the days ahead). We’re currently adding the finishing touches to v 2.1 and will let you know as soon as it goes live in the iTunes App Store.
We’ve also been updating some stats for the Public Radio Player. The app now provides public radio fans 463 station streams and nearly 1,000 on-demand programs, with more added all the time. Since launching in the fall of 2008, the Player has logged a cumulative total of over 2.5 million downloads! Now, with the renewed funding for the project, we’re looking forward to making 2010 a great year for the Public Radio Player and all its fans.
February 1st, 2010 → 3:54 pm @ josh // One Comment
Big news for public radio fans and gadget geeks alike: This American Life has just launched a new iPhone app, and it’s available right now in the iTunes Store! While we’re not usually the type to blow our own horn (yeah, right), we can’t help this one because the new TAL app was built by the same development team that brought you the Public Radio Player: Public Radio Exchange (PRX).
The folks at This American Life partnered with PRX to bring streaming audio of the show’s full archives (dating way back to 1995) to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Each week, the app will automatically update to bring you the latest episode of the radio show. Add to that a number of great features — search the full archives by episode or favorite contributor, listen to TAL staff picks or set up your own list of favorites, view video from the This American Life television show, and get notifications of new episodes as soon as they become available.
More information about the app is on the PRX blog, and you can download the new This American Life app in the iTunes Store. This is sure to become an essential download for the TAL fanboys and fangirls everywhere.
January 26th, 2010 → 11:38 am @ josh // 4 Comments
When the Public Radio Player first appeared in the fall of 2008 (known then as the Public Radio Tuner), there were an estimated 10,000 apps available in the iTunes App Store. Today there are well over 100,000 140,000! And with this amazing growth, we are seeing more and more iPhone apps for public radio lovers. We recently updated our catalog of public radio apps and were delighted to find the list nearly doubled in size. There are now nearly 40 apps alongside the Public Radio Player in the iTunes App Store. If you’re a fan of the Player, peruse the list and try out a few. And if you know of any public radio apps we missed, tell us about it in the comments.
We’re not going to let the Public Radio Player rest on its laurels. With nearly 2.5 million downloads of the Player to date, we’ve got a lot of public radio fans to keep happy! The PRX tech team is hard at work on an update to the Public Radio Player that will include some great new features. Keep an eye on this blog during the coming weeks for more details.
