iHeartRadio’s Powerful New Artificial Intelligence Integration Leverages the Best of Live Radio Listening Experience to Provide Seamless Song Transitions and Gapless Music Playback for the First Time Ever on a Digital Music Service
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES – AUGUST 2, 2018 – iHeartMedia, the leading audio company in America which also has a greater reach in the U.S. than any other media outlet, and Super Hi-Fi, a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) platform that delivers innovative audio solutions, announced today the launch of an industry-first technology that provides an optimized digital music listening experience unlike any other. The new AI capabilities will allow iHeartRadio to revolutionize its digital music service by creating a listening experience that mimics the polished production of live radio.
The new integration brings the best of live broadcast radio to digital streaming music by delivering flawless song transitions, including precise crossfades, volume leveling and truly gapless playback to iHeartRadio’s listeners. iHeartRadio is the first and only digital music service to leverage AI for intelligent audio transitions that completely eliminate the space between songs to deliver a fluid and fully produced listening experience that preserves music’s energy and momentum from song to song.
“Radio DJs and programmers have mastered the art of segueing music to create beautiful transitions from song to song, maintaining the desired energy and mood of the listening experience that more than a quarter of a billion live radio listeners have grown accustomed to hearing,” said Chris Williams, Chief Product Officer for iHeartRadio. “Creating transitions that are unique to each individual song combination is not an easy task, and with the billions of potential song combinations available on our platform and new ones coming every day, it was impossible to scale this by hand. Working together with Super Hi-Fi we have made the impossible, possible, and we are excited to share this new listening experience with our listeners.”
“Broadcast radio sees the highest market penetration and longest user engagement over any of its digital counterparts, and this is in part due to the masterful capabilities of their on-air talent,” says Zack Zalon, Super Hi-Fi co-founder. “We are thrilled to be launching with iHeartRadio to deliver radio’s skillfully produced audio listening experience to its digital users. This is the next frontier for innovation and growth in the digital music industry, and we are excited to be working with iHeartRadio to roll out the first phase of these cutting-edge products.”
Beginning today, iHeartRadio listeners will experience three powerful enhancements architected from the ground up, and powered by AI technology that understands the nuances of music with a depth similar to a human DJ:
- Perfect Transitions: Dynamically creates the perfect transition between songs every single time. Whether picking the ideal crossfade or recognizing when to simply place the right ending next to the beginning of the subsequent track, this next-generation solution uses real-time AI-processing to create the ideal transition every time a song plays. The result is a smooth tapestry of music listening, crafted to deliver an optimum experience for all listeners.
- Sonic Leveling: Automatically adjusts song volume to create smooth and consistent listening sessions. Not all tracks are created equal – some are louder or softer than others. Sonic leveling capabilities eliminate the need to adjust the volume every time a new song comes on. The tech automatically recognizes the volume differential and adjusts it allowing listeners to just sit back and enjoy their favorite tracks.
- Gapless Playback: Eliminates the gaps between music tracks. On average, there are currently eight seconds of silence between songs on all streaming services that interrupts the music listening experience. The new AI technology now deployed on iHeartRadio automatically and completely eliminates the silence, bringing the listening experience in line with live radio.
These industry-first enhancements are now available across iHeartRadio’s custom Artist Radio stations, on demand Playlists, Playlist Radio and more for iOS users. Android users will experience the enhanced listening experience across custom Artist Radio stations with all features available for Android users in the coming months.
This will be the first in a series of planned innovative AI enhancements set to rollout throughout the year.