FlyCast, a mobile broadcasting service, has debuted “wireless station caching,” the ability to enjoy favorite radio stations on a mobile device anywhere, even without a wireless connection. With FlyCast 2.0, users can quickly store their favorite stations to their mobile devices when connected to a cellular or Wi-Fi network, then disconnect from the network and listen to the stations at their leisure.
Version 2.0 of the company’s BlackBerry application offers an enhanced listening experience by presenting music stations in a track-based cover flow, enabling in-application music purchases and providing time shifting skip-ahead and skip-back functionality. FlyCast 2.0 solves many common mobile music challenges – significantly reducing battery drain and cellular data usage charges, improving the listening experience, and making it easy to buy songs, even after they are broadcast.
FlyCast 2.0’s caching technology allows users to enjoy the following features:
•3 Plays/30 Days –Cached content is maintained in the context of the station and can be kept for a maximum of 30 days or three plays, whichever occurs first;
•In-Application Purchasing – Users can purchase tracks with the click of a button from within the application, even after the song has been broadcast;
•Twitter integration — Users can Tweet or “recommend” songs they like from FlyCast. Links are then posted to their Twitter account and followers can click on the link from any Twitter reader and be immediately taken to that station and hear the entire song.
Unlike other services, FlyCast 2.0 offers over-the-air (OTA) caching of stations and does not require a USB connection. Additionally, stations can be “burst-cached” much faster than real-time, requiring only minutes of connectivity to cache hours of web and terrestrial broadcasts. Listening to cached stations can dramatically reduce battery drain and cellular data usage charges.
FlyCast 2.0 is available as a free download by browsing to http://www.flycast.fm from a supported BlackBerry device and has been submitted to the BlackBerry AppWorld store and will be available there shortly. The free version allows unlimited streaming. Users can also choose from two, one-time only premium upgrade fees that offer station caching — $9.95 for five hours and $19.95 for 20 hour versions, good for the life of the device. This one-time pricing model is unique in the industry. Individual tracks from the cached stations can be purchased at any time from within the FlyCast application.
FlyCast 2.0 supports the BlackBerry Storm, Bold and Curve and will be available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices later this year.
FlyCast now has over 1500 channels of content in the network, including local radio stations, news, talk, sports, weather, traffic and all genres of music. Partners include FOX News, Entercom, AccuRadio, Bonneville International, Bryan Broadcasting, Crawford Broadcasting, the Cromwell Radio Group, the Genesis Communication Network, KGOW Communications, KFMB, Midwest Television, Sandusky Radio Seattle, .977 Music, 1.FM, 1Club, Sky.FM, Digitally Imported, RadioIO, LA Talk, Radio Paradise, Martini in the Morning, FuzeBox Media, Jelly, Radio, Liberty News Radio, Blog Talk Radio, SmoothJazz.com, The Score and Comedy104.
