Sound Sharing with AudioBoo

Sound sharing website and iPhone app, AudioBoo is an interesting service that allows users to easily record and post brief audio clips. The service uses a Twitter-like interface to display the audio, which can be up to 5 minutes in length. Hopes are high for this easy-to-use platform, and users have already found a myriad of uses for it.

The Guardian explains:

“It’s not only a recording device, it’s also a publishing device and that’s its great appeal,” said Richard Ranft, the head of the library’s sound archive. “It has fantastic potential – it allows people to easily capture an event as it happens. All you need is your phone, you don’t have to use recording equipment.”

…Most of the users are in the UK, but a random 24-hour period last week illustrates how AudioBoo is being used and how it’s spreading. Recordings included: a cat purring in Brooklyn; office banter in Kosovo; 10-pin bowling in Cardiff; square dancing in Berlin; a steam train in Australia; two lads from Yorkshire talking on helium; clarinet practising in Ayrshire; the sound of the Dutch coast; the dawn chorus in Sefton; doing the laundry in Bangkok; a bootleg clip of a concert in Brighton; and swearing from a traffic jam on the M6.

…James Cridland, head of future media technology at the BBC, says such content is a goldmine for radio stations. “Letting your listeners generate great audio will really transform your radio station – far more than texts or emails ever will,” he said.

The Guardian: “AudioBoo aims to become YouTube or Twitter of the spoken word”