Remember podcasting? The ability to subscribe to audio programming sent to your desktop automatically was supposed to revolutionize radio. And while it certainly gained some traction—particularly after Apple created a podcasting section in iTunes—it never really took off as a music discovery tool. The problem: licensing. Because podcasts are technically downloads, amateur podcasters find it very difficult to get the rights to include major label content.
UK digital music distributor Kudo Records is blending on-demand streaming from Spotify with the podcast delivery format for a sort of hybrid service it calls Playdio.
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From the release:
Playdio (Playlist Radio) allow listeners to enjoy music shows exactly as they were intended – with full-length tracks – and at a time and place of their choosing.
Playdio will initially use Spotify to deliver fully licensed and interactive, on-demand radio shows. Meanwhile talks are ongoing with other streaming platforms and Kudos is keen to ultimately make Playdio platform independent.
Playdio shows comprise a Spotify playlist that combines spoken ‘tracks’ – recorded by the presenters – and the selected tracks the producer wishes to play in their show.
Accessing a Playdio show is as simple as clicking on a link, which opens the playlist within Spotify. As with all Spotify playlists Premium users will be able to cache shows to listen to offline or on the move. And thanks to Spotify’s new social media integrations their shows can be easily distributed through the likes of Twitter and Facebook.
Presenting podcasters at launch include Phill Jupitus and Phil Wilding of the Perfect Ten podcast, with others being added from BBC presenters Peter Curran and Mark Webster.