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Business News Digital Media
Global starts pushing its Xtra functionality app
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 27 January 2016
Global Radio has started pushing a new app it has built around its Capital Xtra brand, which soft-launched late last year and which the broadcaster reckons is “a completely new listening experience”.
The Capital Xtra app provides access to the classic radio station, but with added interactivity, in that you can skip the current song playing and move onto the next one. Users can also see upcoming tracks and skip through them too. DJs can also direct listeners to tap the app during links for more information on whatever is being discussed. So, basically, the normal radio service is there, but users can step in and opt for more of a Pandora experience, albeit based around the station’s playlist.
The functionality is pretty limited by on-demand streaming standards, of course, and the choice of music isn’t personalised like on a Pandora type platform. But still, it’s an interesting play on the traditional radio experience, and presumably is pitching itself at the kind of mainstream consumers who tune in to conventional radio, many of whom are yet to really embrace any kind of streaming service, and who are often put off by too much choice.
While the interactive app is only currently available for Global’s more youth-focused Capital Xtra, it’s understood similar services will be launched around the broadcaster’s other radio brands in due course.
Says Global’s digital man James Hickman: “This app is the first of its kind to combine the best of radio with the best of streaming. It marks a new way of listening and is ideal for people who want a degree of control without losing the curation and news and talk content from their favourite radio brand. Capital Xtra will bring radio to a younger audience by giving them the best of radio and the best of streaming in one app”.
Meanwhile Global boss Ashley Tabor added: “We wanted to do something that’s never been done before, to create a product that was true to the values and strengths of radio, but also giving users the control they expect in a streaming world. James and his team have done an outstanding job on My Capital Xtra”.
