Streaming audio news is the specialty of Rivet Radio, and it would love to do so for people driving or riding in an automobile of some sort. And it just got a pile of cash toward that end.
Rivet’s news is partly self-generated and partly from content partners.
It has announced $3.6M in funding, some of which is coming from content partners. Investors listed in a release include “…The Associated Press, A. H. Belo Management Services, The IrishAngels, Ringleader Ventures, individual backers including Chicago venture capitalist Steve Miller, employees, family and friends.”
“It’s a real privilege to be working with top investors who believe in our mission to deliver smart audio ubiquitously,” CEO John MacLeod said. “We’re using our resources to continually perfect our industry-leading smart audio solution – making it faster than ever to produce, package and play stories through our listening platforms and give all listeners a unique, tailored experience through the process.”
According to the company, “Rivet Radio offers several solutions for listening to spoken word stories including iPhone and Android apps, desktop options, Rivet Auto and Rivet Enterprise. Rivet is powered by its proprietary smart audio platform, which works to treat audio as data enabling the distribution of perishable content to millions of listeners. Rivet expedites the news delivery process by meta-tagging audio stories enabling their delivery through multiple channels — to the right listeners in a personalized fashion.”
RBR+TVBR observation: The last thing radio needs is further competition. But it strikes us that this will just be one more service that is essentially national in nature.
In other words, it is more likely to be a problem for radio news networks, and more of a peripheral problem for radio stations.
Again, with boots on the ground wherever a radio group’s stations make their home, terrestrial radio remains unchallenged in its ability to curate and provide information pertinent to the local community.
$3.6M is not going to buy Rivet a presence in the hundreds of radio markets, both rated and not, that radio serves every day.
This is radio’s strongest advantage over its every burgeoning roster of new competition. Use it.
