Don’t have time to READ the news? LISTEN to it on Whooshkaa

Australia-based Whooshkaa has partnered with Amazon and its ‘Polly’ text-to-voice service to become what the company says is, “The first podcast platform worldwide to use the breakthrough technology to allow listeners to ‘hear’ the news as it appears in their favourite publication.”

Publishers using the Whooshkaa platform can share audio of breaking news highlights or full stories and can generate instant podcasts from text, in any one of 47 voices across 24 languages. 

Australian users can choose “Russell” or “Nicole” to deliver the news in a familiar local accent.

“Whooshkaa is using artificial intelligence and machine learning to continuously improve the already high quality audio content of its enterprise partners,” says Whooshkaa Founder Robert Loewenthal. “We are the first audio platform in the world to make these features available. Publishers can now generate a comprehensive news bulletin in real time, combining the top stories of the day into a single podcast.” 

As Whooshkaa enters its second year of operation, it boasts an impressive list of partners including News Corp, Sky News, Fox Sports, Fairfax, SBS, Bauer Media,Huff Post Australia and the NRL. 

The company also offers a monetisation solution for podcasters through a native Facebook player that allows users to play audio as they scroll through their feeds. 

“Serial may have kick-started the podcasting boom, but the industry has continued to grow and mature significantly as an influencer and revenue source,”  Mr Loewenthal points out. “The Edison Research Podcast Consumer 2017 Report cites a growing listenership weighted towards the affluent and educated in the 18-54 age bracket.”

Whooshkaa Developer Christian Carlsson says “By integrating artificial intelligence with Whooshkaa’s already-powerful platform it’s now possible to create a fully automated podcast episode from text in less than 30 seconds – and this is just the beginning.”

 

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