It’s yet more proof that sound is the new video – the Symbian app from radio website AUPEO! has burst through the million downloads mark after just 11 months. And, perhaps surprisingly, the most popular station on the app for Nokia devices is Grand Piano, which plays classical music.
There are around 100 different stations available for free through AUPEO! at the Ovi Store incorporating all varieties of music, including pop, blues, country, jazz – but it’s the smooth sounds of classical piano tunes that have proven the most popular so far.
Grand Piano is followed in the popularity stakes by Hip Hop Essentials and ballad station Love Love Love. The newest songs, in Chart Topper, only came in at number 27. In last place, meanwhile, is Britpop – it seems the likes of Oasis and Blur don’t have the same pull as they did in the 1990s.
And AUPEO! isn’t the only sound-based startup in Berlin doing well. It was also announced this week that wahwah.fm has completed a new round of funding, led by Hasso Plattner Ventures. The wahwah app allows iPhone users to create their own radio station and broadcast their music, allowing others to listen in real time.
Philipp Eibach, CEO and founder of wahwah, said: “(HPV’s) experience is invaluable and we are confident that together we could take wahwah.fm to the next level.”
With the ongoing success of Soundcloud, yet another Berlin startup centred around sound, it appears that you don’t need to keep your ear to the ground to hear the future.