Anchor 2.0 — Make audio Stories, with voice, music, clips, and call-ins

Hello, Product Hunters! Mike from Anchor, here. A year ago, we launched Anchor 1.0, a social audio product aimed at democratizing radio, right here on Product Hunt. The support we received from the PH community was incredible. Not only did we instantly gain an audience through PH, but we also received a ton of helpful feedback that helped shape our roadmap and the future of the product. Think of Anchor 2.0 as radio 2.0. With this new version, we’re aiming to completely reinvent the radio format by making it easy for anyone to easily broadcast high quality audio from your phone, to wherever audio is heard, literally (currently iOS, Android, Alexa, Google Home, web, and in the car via Bluetooth). The biggest thing you’ll notice is the new “Stations” format. In Anchor 2.0, everyone has a Station (sort of like a radio station): an audio Story that supports lots of different types of audio, through new creation tools: * Record and broadcast your voice, via our signature telephone-mode recording * Mix in full length songs, powered by the Spotify and Apple Music APIs * Clip external sound bites. Donald Trump holds a press conference? Clip a sound bite then talk about it. * Take call-ins from your listeners (like replies from Anchor 1.0, but moderated) * Transition with interludes designed by world class musicians and sound designers * Echo anyone else’s audio into your station Other product features that we hope you’ll love: * Applause: a Like you can hear. Since audio is consumed without visuals, we wanted to build an audio-first feedback mechanism. When listening to Anchor with your phone locked and in your pocket, gently knock on the back of your phone to trigger applause. Not only will the creator hear this positive feedback, but other listeners will too, making for a unique shared listening experience. If you haven’t downloaded the app yet, here’s a sample video of Applause: * The Rundown: an A.I.-powered news and weather station, designed just for you and powered by Dark Sky. You have to hear it to believe it. (iOS only for now) *The Dial: a new way to browse audio on mobile, inspired by a physical radio dial. * Shareable Videos: audio is finally shareable on social media. All audio is instantly converted to video, making it easier to share on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Plus, the best videos feature captions via automatic speech-to-text transcription, powered by IBM Watson. Here’s a sample of some audio that The Outline recorded: * Archive and Export: at any time, you can archive your station so you can listen to it privately forever. You can also export any archive in case you want to take it off-platform or publish it as a podcast. * Lots of fun product easter eggs. Hint: pay close attention to the falling emojis you see when listening to Anchor. * The same onboarding you all loved last year, but with a much faster workflow. There are tons of other improvements you’ll notice once you start using the product. We hope you’ll download it and give it a try. Feel free to AMA about the new Anchor - I’ll be here all day. Thanks!

Anchor has pivoted into audio storytelling - the onboarding and flow of the app is shit hot IMO. Feels really nice to use and makes me feel like I want to tap around, swipe and play with it. Been on the beta for a few weeks now and enjoying it! Need to find myself some awesome stations to follow and get into! Also I like seeing the style of websites like https://anchor.fm/ - fun colours, bold, simple. Mike + co, tell us the story behind the pivot and what you see for Anchor 2.0

BIG update since Anchor's debut release a year ago. I like that I as an audio creator/radio host can mix together content, including audio clips and music. Last night I played radio DJ and shared some music I love. 😁 The future of voice is super interesting to me, and now might be the best time to be working on something in this space. Do you have plans to integration with Google Home or Alexa, @mignano?

Congrats on the update Mike. Looks like a lot of cool features have been added which I'll be interested in trying out. TL;DR version: music licensing is a massive headache and might cause issues at some point. The immediate question I have is regarding the ability to pull in full-length songs (anyone who knows me knows where I'm going with this). Using the Spotify and Apple API's is intriguing, but ultimately still leaves the question of royalty payments and licensing parameters on the table. Taking Spotify as an example, their music business model is predicated on the walled-garden system, wherein one must have an account (free or premium) to consume the material. Most other streaming sites are effectively the same. However, since I don't use Spotify (I have my reasons haha), theoretically I will now still be able to listen to artists by going through Anchor (which is free, no?) and following certain people for certain artists. This is a cool opportunity for people who want to broadcast, but presents a conundrum in the music business/publishing area. While you will be able to potentially deliver stats on the music tracks which are utilized (I see no way around making this a bare-minimum feature), depending on the deals which Spotify hs procured, Anchor may now be on the hook (depending on the argument) for potential royalties. In a nutshell, this is one of the real problems with the walled-garden approach as it pertains to music. The nature of music is to be open and shared, and because the system is constructed as it is currently, that makes utilizing content from any of the major label sources very tricky. And that's before one takes into account the geographical constraints which may arise. I wrote about this more in the link I'll post below. I'm not looking to rain on the parade, but merely alert you to the rats-nest which is music licensing and royalty structure. In many ways, this is why I think that we'll see an evolution in how music is distributed and consumed; because people will want to continue to share it in new social ways, and the current model is too inflexible for that. Otherwise, awesome new update, and congrats to you and the rest of the team! Link for further reading: https://medium.com/startup-study...

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼Nice work! Question: how does Anchor currently work with Google Home and Alexa? Options on both platforms for content are still quite limited at the moment so I'd love to learn more about how you're thinking about this. Thanks!

Applause was used in the new Medium Series, but this! This next level!

Impressed by the quality of content, and how seamlessly it all plays. Call-in and Applause features are excellent. Congrats to the team.

Currently listening to a station about SPACE on Anchor. So yeah, I'd say my day is going pretty great so far. Congrats Mike, Nir, Maya and Team Anchor on a great update.

Love this update! Comes just as I'm phasing out my podcast... so I may start using Anchor more regularly instead. Quick question: Is there a plan to add memorable profile/story URLS like anchor.fm/johnmeese? IMO that would help with cross-platform promotion of Anchor.

This is brilliant! It feels like a Snapchat for audio (sorry for the comparison) and is totally addictive. I especially like that it really takes audio content production to the next level. Never seen an interface that easy for producing really good audio shows. Keep up the good work!

I've been using the beta for a couple of weeks now, and I love it! I've actually started listening to Tom Merritt again on his Daily Tech Headlines section. I love just dropping Spotify tracks in once in a while. Anchor has always had a great, if small, community, and I hope that's able to flourish with Stations.

Love this applause feature. It's a perfect interaction and easy to access in the context in which the user is likely to be listening. 👏 👏 👏

Congrats on the launch, love the design! (and the 👏 feature) Enabled the Alexa skill as well, but there was a problem while connecting. I'm going to try it again later.

Have yet to figure out how to view and share the “recorded audio [as] rich, colorful videos that play seamlessly on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram” — where is this feature within the app? @mignano @mayafish

New version looks great - well done. Quick question. I've been adding some tracks from the app (android) and desktop, but I don't see how I get to 'preview' or 'publish' my station. How do I share the station with peeps? I KNOW YOU WANT TO HEAR MY MUSIC :)

Very nice update!!

This is amazing, love everything about Anchor. This is a great interaction medium, also the stations section is amazing, it's super easy reposting content using Echo also adding your point of view beforehand. It's your own podcast anywhere anytime, whoever came up with the applause idea is a genius. Kudos to everyone at Anchor.

like the product, like the team, v2 seems like the natural place to go, just before sxsw. good moves. best of luck my aural friends. .

Love it! Throwing my hat into the ring later today. Can't wait to tell stories on Anchor 2.0. Well done Anchor team!

I always like to surf other content while listening to something. That's not possible right not.