How much will consumers of local radio stations pay to what they already get for free — minus your advertisers’ commercials and what they perceive as clutter? That’s a question the people behind Auddia has tackled, and the answer appears to be what’s fair to them. As such, it is moving forward with its plans to bring new nontraditional revenue to AM and FM broadcasters through a subscription-based ad-free streaming environment.
Traded on NASDAQ, Auddia has gained attention for its proprietary AI platform for audio identification and classification. On Thursday, the company revealed that it will be implementing a new AI audio model within its faidr mobile application. This, Auddia says, is designed to give users more control over their radio-listening experience.
The new model, dubbed the “binary AI model” within Auddia, allows subscribers to turn off both ads and DJ talk.
“This transforms any FM music station into wall-to-wall, uninterrupted music listening,” says Auddia, essentially removing the essence of an over-the-air music station and turning it into a passive stream of music akin to what Pandora or MVPD-distributed all-music channels already provide.
The new feature is available to paid faidr subscribers.
For some, turning ads and DJ talk off and on at will may be a frightening proposition. But, it could win over those in small and medium-sized businesses unfamiliar with music licensing rules, and those who may not be pleased with the “Pandora for Business” pricing scheme that Sirius XM has implemented.
“We’re always striving to innovate within the radio space,” said Auddia CTO Peter Shoebridge. “This functionality, built on our new binary AI model, delivers more control and helps transition radio listening from a historically passive to a more active experience for users.”
The new model and advanced settings are now live in iOS and will be available on Android next week. The company is optimistic that this new feature, which tested well in prototyping, will bolster the recent focus on subscription growth for faidr.
“Radio has been a relatively stagnant landscape, especially when it comes to how fans can interact with content,” said Auddia’s CMO, Theo Romeo. “Our goal has always been to preserve what fans love about radio but give them more customization over the experience. For some fans, a huge part of that experience is the DJ. For some, radio is a straightforward and effective curator of music. We want to ensure that, no matter where a fan finds themselves on that spectrum, they can engage with their favorite stations based on their personal preferences for listening.”
Trading as “AUUD” on Nasdaq, Auddia has struggled to gain traction with investors, and is trading at roughly 30 cents per share, off of a 52-week high of $5.70 seen in April 2024.
Auddia presently has a market cap of $2.582 million.
The announcement follows the release on Wednesday of an “updated company overview,” explaining how Auddia has been “executing towards a superapp strategy that aims to bring all major components of audio into one streaming platform.”
