Stitcher Radio - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Stitcher is an on-demand internet radio

Internet radio

Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...

service that focuses on news and information radio and podcasts. It provides free online streaming through the website and also using native mobile applications

Mobile application development

Mobile application development is the process by which application software is developed for small low-power handheld devices such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones...

such as the iPhone

IPhone

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

, Android, BlackBerry

BlackBerry

BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...

and Palm webOS

Palm webOS

HP webOS is a mobile operating system based on a Linux kernel, initially developed by Palm, which was later acquired by Hewlett-Packard. Palm, HP, and most commentators and sources write the name webOS, as shown in the adjacent logo, and in HP resources, rather than "WebOS".webOS was introduced by...

. The company was founded in 2008 and is privately held and venture backed.

Stitcher aggregates content from thousands of content providers and organizes the content into "stations" that listeners can browse and listen to. Audio content is delivered from large media providers such as NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

, CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, Fox News, MSNBC

MSNBC

MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

, BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, AP

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

, TechCrunch

TechCrunch

TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....

and Air America Media and thousands of smaller providers. Content is kept continually up to date via Stitcher's proprietary back-end application, allowing listeners to have access to fresh content while on the go without having to sync their mobile device.

Usage and Features

Stitcher simplifies the consumption of podcasts by eliminating the need to synchronize content to a device. Content is instead streamed to listener's phones on-demand. Stitcher 3.0 for the iPhone (released in December 2009) introduced live streaming to the app, which allowed users to select on-demand shows and live streamed talk-radio programming.

A user can add shows to their favorites station using the “Add to Favorites” button.

iPhone users can choose to receive SMS updates when their favorite shows are updated. When new content becomes available, Stitcher will send a text message to a user alerting them that the show was updated along with a direct-play link.

Stitcher offers an Editor's Picks station that provides listeners access to the content editor’s favorite shows.

Stitcher offers stations targeted to specific local audiences.

Customization

The application provides personalization via a "favoriting" scheme, where listeners can favorite content they like; Stitcher will then aggregate this content in the listener's favorite station. Stitcher also uses a proprietary customization algorithm to order stations according to a user's listening habits.

The personalization algorithm influences which audio shows are recommended to the user. It draws on data such as listening patterns to personalize the content of each station according to the listener's interests and gains more knowledge about the listener over time. Listeners can also "stitch" together a personalized list of their favorite shows.

The customization has been compared to Pandora by CNET

CNET

CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...

, who wrote that Stitcher "is to news and information what Pandora is to music."

Stitcher and Internet Radio in cars

At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show

Consumer Electronics Show

The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...

, Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

CEO Alan Mulally

Alan Mulally

Alan Roger Mulally is an American engineer and business executive who is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ford Motor Company...

announced a partnership between Ford, Stitcher, Pandora and a Twitter client called OpenBeak that would bring internet radio into Ford vehicles.

Following this announcement, General Motors has also announced partnerships with Stitcher and Pandora

Awards and honors

Stitcher has received numerous awards for its services:

2009 People’s Voice Webby Award in the Mobile News Category.
2009 "Best of the Bay" award by San Francisco Magazine.
Placed on PC Magazine
PC Magazine
PC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...

’s list of the world’s top free apps.
Gizmodo
Gizmodo
Gizmodo is a technology weblog about consumer electronics. It is part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton and is known for its up-to-date coverage of the technology industry, along with topics as broad as design; architecture; space and science....

added Stitcher to the free apps edition of its Essential iPhone Apps directory in late 2009.
In 2010, Stitcher was named in Lead411's list of the “2010 Hottest San Francisco Companies”.

Stitcher has been featured several times by Apple in the App Store and has been designated as an Apple Staff Pick. It was featured once by Palm

Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc., was a smartphone manufacturer headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that was responsible for products such as the Pre and Pixi as well as the Treo and Centro smartphones. Previous product lines include the PalmPilot, Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII, Zire and Tungsten. While their older...

in the App Catalog.

Platform Support

Stitcher is currently available on the iPhone, Palm Pre, Palm Pixi, Android devices running at least version 1.5 of the Android operating system, BlackBerry Tour 9630, Storm 9530, Storm 9500, Bold 9000, Curve 8900, 8830, 8820, 8800, 8330 8320 8300 and 8310; the app can also be downloaded at www.stitcher.com/dl. It is not available for Windows Mobile smartphone platforms. In addition to mobile clients, Stitcher is also available on the Sonos

Sonos

Sonos is a consumer electronics company based in Santa Barbara, California. It was founded in 2002 by John MacFarlane, who previously founded Software.com. The company’s main product is the Sonos Multi-Room Music System.-History:...

platform.

Stitcher was first introduced to Apple App Store in August 2008, as Stitcher made the native app available in private beta to 100 testers. The native app provided the same interface as the web application along with features such as automatic updates and "interrupt handling" during phone calls.

Usage and Features

Customization

Stitcher and Internet Radio in cars

Awards and honors

Platform Support

See also