PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AhaTM by HARMAN has launched its Publisher Portal, which lets anyone create an on-demand radio station for drivers. The Publisher Portal is a free tool that makes it easy to make available a wide range of audio content like podcasts, streaming radio and audiobooks to Aha listeners with one click. Anyone with the free Aha app can access these stations whenever and wherever they want, including in millions of Aha-enabled cars on the roads today.
The new Publisher Portal tool has the potential to grow Aha’s breadth of stations beyond the more than 30,000 it currently offers and aggregate the “long tail” of audio content in one service.
Recent analyst research shows that as smartphones have become ubiquitous, podcasts have risen in popularity. The same has happened for audiobooks. It’s a trend that Aha is betting will continue as streaming media to all devices - including the car - becomes frictionless and available for all.
“In the same way that Amazon let authors self-publish e-books to democratize book publishing, Aha is giving audio publishers access to a global audience, pushing the content to millions cars with our integrated technology,” said Chia-Lin Simmons, Vice President of Content and Marketing for Aha by Harman. “We welcome anyone to submit audio content no matter how specialized the topic or niche the audience. We will transform it into a station that people can stream on demand from anywhere.”
Aha’s offers more than 30,000 audio stations of popular mainstream content to listeners in 47 countries, from well-known music services and news to podcasts, audiobooks, social media feeds and more. Top media brands like NPR and CBS, music services like Rhapsody and Slacker and audio book leaders Podiobooks and Librivox all publish with Aha, to name a few. Aha’s flexible platform and breadth of content has led top automakers such as Acura, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Scion, Subaru and Porsche and aftermarket manufacturers Alpine, Kenwood and Pioneer to embed Aha seamlessly for drivers.
To make audio content available on the Aha service, any publisher can go to aharadio.com/publisher and submit podcasts, streaming radio stations or audiobooks. Aha accepts content in any foreign language.
About Aha by HARMAN
Aha is an interactive service of HARMAN International Industries that makes Web content as easy and safe to use as radio. Aha uses the Harman Cloud Platform to organize content from the Web into personalized radio stations that consumers can listen to from anywhere – at home, on the go, or safely from the driver’s seat. By the end of 2013, Aha will be offered in vehicles by more than 10 automotive manufacturers, which in total represent more than 50 percent of all cars sold in the USA/Canada and up to 30 percent in Europe, including Acura, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Porsche, Scion and Subaru. The Aha platform and service was started in 2008 in Silicon Valley by a group of Web and multimedia veterans with a shared passion for delivering an “always on” audio experience to connect drivers to the content they really want. HARMAN, the company that designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets, acquired Aha in September 2010. For more information, visit www.aharadio.com or find Aha on Facebook and Twitter.
