Kagiso Media's SoundBar app delivers more choice

Vincent Maher, chief innovation officer at Kagiso Media.

Vincent Maher, chief innovation officer at Kagiso Media, says the app is very efficient when using data. “We use 14Mb per hour, compared to similar apps which can use up to 140Mb per hour. So, in effect SoundBar is 10 times cheaper to listen to. We do this combining the best audio compression available with a technique called Spectral Band Replication. You can even access the app off Edge signal.”

Maher says that while developing the app, they constantly kept the users in mind. "There was an unusually large amount of time spent simulating the experience of listening to radio, getting into your car, switching to Bluetooth, moving in and out of slow internet patches on the roads, receiving a call and all of this without dropping the stream or making the user have to press play again."

Nick Grubb, Kagiso Media Radio CE, says the app was created as the Group moves towards an increased digital content offering. “Our traditional radio streams have grown exponentially in the last year, and given we have best-in-breed technology and talent curators in-house, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to deliver more choice and value to our audiences.”

Kagiso Media Radio CE, Nick Grubb.

Here Grubb elaborates on how the idea for the app came about and explains what makes it unique compared to similar apps on the market.

Tell us more about SoundBar. How did the idea for this app come about?
The idea of building curated streams that were personality-led came from a discussion about Barney Simon, and how he has this really authentic reputation in the rock music space. Currently he is a much-loved personality on Jacaranda FM, and due to the wide variety of music on the station he doesn’t have an outlet to indulge his rock passion. We started discussing a 24-hour rock channel which we could build for him and the idea snowballed from there.

We built discrete apps for Barney (Rock On), Derek the Bandit (Databass) and Jane Linley-Thomas (Mom’s Heart) which we launched some time back and they all still exist. SoundBar is essentially the aggregator of all the streams we have conceived to date.

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What makes SoundBar different from similar apps available?
On-demand music apps require a level of upfront selection and engagement, and this takes away from the ability to choose a genre or personality you love, press play and relax. So, we built Soundbar to be really simple to use and to be a place to find stations that are curated by people with knowledge and a passion for their craft. Anyone can programme a dance station but anyone who has followed Derek the Bandit knows the style and consistency that he can provide, and he does all the hard work of music discovery for you.

Then, what has turned out to be a significant advantage is the way our internal digital innovation team have designed it for South African data conditions. The app and the streaming technology have been optimised for situations where people are moving between 4G and Edge connectivity on mobile networks. The app plays in very low-bandwidth conditions but will also turn up the quality level if a user joins a Wi-Fi network.

What has the feedback been since the soft launch?
All users have been really enthusiastic about the fact that there is no ad clutter, the music is great, selecting stations is easy and there is very little buffering.

Any plans to add more music stations to the app or any other developments that you can tell us about?
Yes, we have a channel which operates as a pop-up station, so we can customise it seasonally or around significant events. There's no limit to the number of channels we can add, beyond the sourcing of the right personalities and the capacity of the back-office team who put it all together.

SoundBar is free for download from the App Store or by searching for SoundBarApp in the Google Play Store. For more information, visit the website or if you have any queries, email az.oc.aidemosigak@rabdnuos.