In “Audioburst Brings Searchable Digital Radio to the Auto Industry,” an exclusive report published by Strategy Analytics, analyst Roger Lanctot takes a close look at the Audioburst Platform for Cars.

While the full report is available for Strategy Analytics clients only, a summary has been made available by the leading firm: 

“Audioburst has the potential to completely disrupt content consumption in cars while also altering how radio stations think about using their available broadcast bandwidth.   This Insight examines Audioburst’s platform and discusses approaches to integrating this company’s solution into OEM infotainment systems.”

Based in Herndon Virginia, Lanctot is the Director of Strategy Analytics’ Global Automotive Practice. He is a powerful voice in the definition of future trends in automotive safety, powertrain, and infotainment systems. Roger draws on more than 30 years’ experience in the technology industry as an analyst, journalist, and consultant.

He is also a prolific blogger and frequent keynote speaker at industry events and serves on the advisory boards of AutomobilityLA, MaaS America, the Car Sharing Association, and the ITU’s Future Networked Car event..

The in-car listening experience has been ripe for disruption ever since its introduction of the first car radio 100 years ago. Indeed, the report’s title is “Searchable Digital Radio,” and Lanctot asserts that the car radio has reached a pivotal moment:

“It’s been a long road, but the goal of delivering a searchable broadcast radio experience has arrived with Audioburst. “

The analyst recognizes that while companies such as Cerence and Xperi provided voice operations and HD radio, the auto industry has been lacking a sophisticated audio content infrastructure until Audioburst spent five years developing just that.

Why is Audioburst a disrupter? Because:

“it breaks the linear structure of broadcast radio content – clipping it into searchable bits or making it accessible live in an asynchronous method.”

While the Audioburst Platform is much broader — it delivers solutions for mobile apps, websites, and connected devices such as smart speakers or wearables — Lanctot, a foremost connected car expert, believes that

“its real home will be the car.”

Just how disruptive is this platform?

According to report:

“Audioburst has the potential to completely disrupt content consumption in cars while also altering how radio stations think about using their available broadcast bandwidth. because content providers can continuously leverage their assets beyond real-time consumption.”

How should OEMs such as BMW, GM, or Volvo approach this? According to the new report: 

“Audioburst opens the door to new forms of customer engagement while leveraging existing in-vehicle voice interfaces….”

As for Tier 1s-

“Audioburst offers the perfect application for tying together radio, voice, and metadata for content search.”

While adding the Audioburst app is attractive because its low cost, Lanctot urges carmakers to consider a deeper integration because of the opportunities to fully leverage the platform: 

“Car makers ought to consider making use of Audioburst as a unified in-vehicle content management system capable of integrating multiple sources – podcasts, broadcast radio, satellite radio, video sources.”

While Audioburst supports full touch functionalities too, a significant portion of the report is spent encouraging voice as a primary in-car interface for usability and safety reasons: 

“Contributing to the dashboard radio confusion is the absence of a standard user interface…Audioburst offers the prospect of a voice-centric experience opening the door simultaneously to broadcast and streaming content sources….|Audiobursts back-end infrastructure enabling a voice-centric in-vehicle experiences promises to transform content management for drivers relying on voice interfaces to mitigate distraction…. “

Bottom line, what’s the true opportunity for OEMs?

The opportunity, though, for clever automakers to transform the in-vehicle content consumption experience is profound.  The radio dial is gone and podcast and streaming content use is ascendant.  Audioburst is a means by which automakers could re-assert some control while expanding options and functionality for customers and defining a new branded experience.”

Read the whole report here or contact us to learn more about the Audioburst Platform for Cars.