It’s an English!
TL;DR
- #aawazEnglish is now live.
- A year since our Hindi launch we are at 4 million streams a month
- Try the app now, it’s free and ad free!
If you are still here…
Two years ago, with raising voice assistant percolation, we decided to do something bold. To launch an audio on-demand destination. The founders sold a kidney each to buy the domain name aawaz.com. It means sound in Hindi. The world didn’t need one more music streaming app, but what about audio content on-demand? We went around the town to find spoken-word audio and make it available on aawaz. But to our surprise, there were barely any literature and content that was available to be hosted on aawaz in audio format.
Bestselling books were made into movies. News and information were consumed as text or videos. How did an entire generation skip a format of content? From murphy radio, we went straight to TV and then came video on-demand, entirely bypassing spoken-word audio.
Something was not checking out. There were FM stations churning audio content day in and day out. But they were either time sensitive, or hyperlocal in nature. So, no point in making them available on-demand for a longer vintage.
At the time of our decision to launch aawaz, Gimlet media, the US based podcast company was rocking the scene in English original audio, but was still independent and yet to be acquired by Spotify. We nearly had no point of reference for what success looks like. There were a few home-grown players; but it was a big zero when it came to audio content in Indian languages.
Betting on a venture is no new thing to any entrepreneur, let alone the founders at Agrahyah. We started working on localizing the web a full year before it was cool and got a fancy name ‘The next billion user’. So, our intuition was something we could bank on. But is that enough?
Nothing in marketing can be farther from consumer truth. Here’s what we put our faith on. Immutable set of insights culled from humanity.
1. An average Indian commute over 60 mins a day. Eyes and hands are busy, and accessing video is unlikely. Radio helps but is linear and offers few choices. Means, on-demand audio is a latent need
2. The burgeoning video streaming offers more choice but only to entertain, not to elevate oneself like a book. Meaning an opportunity to make web useful to people.
3. There are multiple moments in day, when you want to tune in and just zone out and let the muscle memory do the routine — walking a dog, domestic chores…
4. The voice technology is an input mechanism, but the output is audio content. So who’s creating supply for the upcoming demand?
5. The most intuitive insight of all was. When our grandma told us a story, there were no props, no visuals, just her voice and our imagination. Humans would love to kindle their imagination. Isn’t that the whole point of why we love stories?
Armed with a rat pack team of developers and text-based content team, we decided to take the challenge of creating a huge, enjoyable repertoire of audio content for the country. We started with Hindi; a language understood by over half the country. They didn’t even have to be able to read it. Just listening is good enough.
At the time of launching #aawazHindi, we just had about 100 hours of content. A year later, today we have crossed over 500 hours of original, high quality Hindi audio.
When you are building an entire category, the responsibility you shoulder is herculean. We had to ensure there are no reasons for our early adopter to leave us. So, we decided to do away with ads, even if it costs us dearly in earning potential. Remember, grandma stories had no ads or interruptions.
A year to date, we are now streaming 4 million sessions per month across our distribution end points including app, web and other forms.
And now, we have delivered a healthy English version of our aawaz. It has conversations as podcasts that makes you a better person, learn a new skill. Audio shows to relax and laugh a bit, even with eyes closed.
When it comes to entertainment, we know you have choices. But #aawazEnglish is not another streaming app to binge. But try us to upskill yourself, kindle your imagination, spend your time usefully, even if you are offline in a plane or driving in congested traffic.
The Unfundables, a show on aawaz is all about helping early stage entrepreneurs learn how to raise fund and understand the devil in the details of a term sheet.
Pathbreakers, a show where we get visionary leaders and corporate honchos to share their story of how they created a blue ocean. How they zigged when the world zagged.
Odobobo, is the cutest one, two pet parents talk all about raising pets. It’s pawsome.
Data Driven Marketing, making the big buzz words into an easy to digest series of episodes.
There’s more now, and there will be lot more every week.
Just tune-in, zone out. Meaningfully. The app is free, and also ad free.
