Hey, let the listeners control the music! (at least for a while). Jelli unveiled a social music offering that allows users to take over a radio station with their browsers. Jelli is community-powered, 100% user-controlled radio and the first service to bring crowd sourcing to radio. The Jelli community chooses in real-time what should play next – not just over an Internet stream, but also on the actual airwaves. CBS Radio’s Alternative Live 105, San Francisco will debut Jelli on 6/28 during the 10:00PM-12:00Midnight block. Jelli is live today with an online streaming version at www.jelli.net.
With Jelli, users join forces to create the on-air playlist with real-time voting and other features, interact and discuss what they are hearing with the rest of the listening community, and rate what’s currently playing. The playlist is dynamic, and what plays next is determined by users seconds before it plays. The community can even vote to pull a song off-the-air, instantly, using one of the several unique features of Jelli.
“Our vision is to bring the power of the web to the airwaves by creating 100% user-controlled broadcasting,” said Mike Dougherty, CEO and co-founder of Jelli. “Jelli empowers individuals and communities to control traditional broadcast programming in a real-time, continuous manner using the web. We are excited to launch with an amazing station like LIVE 105, and in the Bay Area which is home for so much web innovation.”
“The real-time web represents a huge opportunity to engage with both online and traditional media audiences.” Michael Marquez, EVP of Strategy & Corporate Development at CBS Interactive. “Jelli is creating a bridge between digital and traditional broadcast experiences, creating something completely new and fun.”
The Jelli experience is enabled by a “social automation” platform, which combines radio automation capabilities with web services to enable real-time control of radio infrastructure by web applications. This platform creates fully automated, highly targeted, “radio ready” programming which is format neutral and FCC & DMCA compliant. In addition to live 24/7 online and mobile streaming, Jelli can uniquely transform traditional FM/AM/HD broadcast experiences with its partners around the country, enabling crowd sourced programming in their market.
RBR/TVBR observation: Those stations that plug Jelli in to one of their time slots should play close attention to the songs folks pick–especially stuff that’s not already on the playlist. For many Alternative stations, that could quickly morph their Alternative playlist into an Indie Rock playlist. Live 105 already has a fairly good mix of Indie Rock, so it should be interesting what cutting edge songs are “pushed to the top.” Whatever a station’s format, the regular playlist should be patterned after what’s being picked–it’s a good tool to use and more than one day a week should be exercised.
