Technology has transformed how we entertain ourselves. It’s transformed how we find out about the world. Spotify, Netflix, Facebook, YouTube and Apple News give you instant access to music, movies, TV and news. And these services give you freedom to enjoy them on your schedule, and on whatever device works best.
But with the exception of music, almost everything you listen to on your radio –the news, sports, commentary, conversation, analysis, interviews and more– has been left behind.
Consumers today get their entertainment and information on their mobile phones, but many of the high-quality, short stories that you hear on the radio haven’t found a home in this digital future.
Earlier this year, we founded Tiny Garage Labs and started work on a digital audio service with this in mind. What we have built is more personal than radio. It is a product that combines great short-form audio stories from radio and online. It matches listeners with the topics they care about and exposes them to unexpected new perspectives, and is available on-demand, everywhere the listener is.
It’s called 60dB.
60dB (pronounced “sixty dee bee”) represents the sound of the human voice — in conversations, in interesting interviews and when we tell compelling stories. We built 60dB to bring you voices & stories from around the world, and to inform and entertain you about the things you care deeply about.
Two of us –John and Steve M.– spent over a decade in key roles at Netflix. Our third co-founder, Steve Henn, was a radio journalist for more than 20 years at “Marketplace,” NPR, and the podcast “Planet Money.”
At Netflix, we had front-row seats to a business that changed the way people around the world watched television and movies. From that experience, we saw how great technology, a relentless focus on the consumer, and a unique company culture created an enduring media company.
Throughout his public radio career, Steve worked with brilliant people producing incredible work. But these programs could never be all things to all people. These shows have to appeal to the shared interests of millions of listeners tuning in at the same time. A digital service, however, can break free of this constraint. A digital service can be orders of magnitude more diverse than radio, and deliver a personal stream of stories that’s unique for each listener.
Our team is full of passionate fans of great audio — stories that can inform, entertain, enlighten and connect us to our world. We want to see these types of stories, and the people and institutions that produce them, thrive in the years and decades to come. We believe that 60dB can help.
To date, a small group of listeners have been using 60dB, giving us invaluable product feedback. Soon, we’ll make it available to a wider audience. If you’d like to be among the first to try out 60dB, sign up here to be notified when it’s available.
Can we build something that works better than radio for the stories you want to hear each day? We believe we can. We hope you’ll join us.
John Ciancutti, Steve Henn & Steve McLendon
Co-founders
P.S. — If you’re producing beautiful short-form audio stories, we’d love to hear from you and help you connect with an audience of listeners around the world. Please reach out to us at content@60dB.co.
