New, Improved Public Radio Player

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.

wake up with public radio!

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:

• Visit or subscribe to the project website at http://www.publicradioplayer.org for project updates, station stream submission and management, program schedule updates, an FAQ, promotional badges, and audio promos.
• Fan us on Facebook
• Email us with feedback and questions.

Best,

Jake Shapiro and the Public Radio Player team @ PRX