AudioBoo Crowdsources Its Funding, Fleshes Out Premium Model

By Jemima Kiss: Not content with signing another new cluster of deals, the developers behind iPhone podcasting app AudioBoo are planning to raise finding for the product by, appropriately, crowdsourcing bundles of equity. Best Before wants to sell packages of one percent of the product for £10,000 each, selling a maximum of 20 percent of the equity.

“It’s a social product, so why not extend that idea to create a new funding model?,” said chief executive Mark Rock. For a modest podcasting application, AudioBoo has built an impressive profile in a very short space of time – why does he think that is? “Because audio has been so ignored for so long, and we’re doing something fresh and new with it.” Venture funding wasn’t an option because the product is moving too fast, he said.

Explaining AudioBoo’s business model, he said there will always be a free version because that helps build traction and a the userbase. But the five-minute limit for audio clips will be reduced to two or three once a paid-for service is introduced. That would cost £36 per year and be targeted at professional bloggers and podcasters. Audio clips would be limited to ten minutes and include extra features like an upload queue – an advantage over the current free version requires each file to be uploaded before another can be recorded.

Rock said he wants the one-percent funding deals to be bought up by media organisations, who will get even greater functionality including moderation tools, content management and various powerful back-end features that larger content organisations expect. Particularly if they have paid £10,000 for a corporate investment in the product…

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This article originally appeared in © Guardian News & Media Ltd..

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