The Next conference in Berlin is an international, English language conference covering of the latest in “digital”, and serves as a useful platform for German startups to present themselves. One of the best – and the one that won the startup competition this year – was Wahwah.fm. I actually really liked this company, but the downbeat presentation of its founder belies quite an innovative idea. Imagine being able to get your iPhone and start broadcasting a local radio station that other people nearby with the same app could pick up, live.
Wahwah.fm lets you listen to and broadcast music simultaneously, putting your location on a map. Out in a few weeks, the iPhone app currently streams sound via from Soundcloud. Now, there are interesting implications in allowing you to stream the tracks on your iPhone, and creating a playlist which can be found by your locations. You can follow broadcasts, post wall messages and track the number of listeners you have. Does it have implications for broadcast licensing? Hell yeah. Is there a brand new space being created around sound and music based on location? You bet.
Admittedly others like Soundcloud and Audioboo already do mobile recording and link it to location. I think there is a third space opening here to do with micro-location based streaming.
What we’re talking about here is a kind of Foursquare for music, where your check-in is into a playlist you can share and comment on with people around you.
More usefully, the implication of creating millions of little local streaming stations, especially for a live event you are at, could be pretty awesome. This could become a powerful broadcast network, and in turn a very interesting ad network.
Here’s an interview with the founder:
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