Audio is big news right now. “Racket” is a new audio based social network that is currently available on iOS (Apple App Store) & the Web. It has been co-founded by Austin PeterSmith (partially funded by Stu Smith), & offers users the opportunity to record short (99 second) audio clips & share them with the on-app community.
Racket has raised a total of $3million in funding. The latest funding was raised in November 2021. The app has a simple onboarding process, which should be attractive to users – simply enter an email address & select a password to join up.
The Los Angeles, USA-based company is betting that short-form audio will compete with video very favorably over the next decade. It has delivered the tools so that Content creators can make this a reality. The app’s homepage shows a scrollable list of mini-podcasts users can listen to & once selected, users can view the creators stats & follow their channel, much like the functionality of Twitter.
For creators, the app has a built-in recording studio that offers a basic set of editing tools that include the option to stop or start recording, drag audio segments to reorder a broadcast, delete or recover audio segments as well as create an automatic transcript of their recording. Once satisfied with their recording, users can share their mini-podcast with the community or share it on other social networking sites.
By using the app’s tools creators have the opportunity to create an audience & grow their followers. This option means that Racket will probably grow its user base substantially, because a community of ready made listeners is a better option for podcasters than producing their Content in the wild where it’s often difficult to grow a following.
Currently, audio is having a moment mostly because it’s so convenient to listen to something rather than watch or read it, particularly if you’re a busy person or someone who needs to fill up their time in an interesting fashion while doing something else, like making dinner. All this is very promising for Racket, indeed.
Image credit: Racket
