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Apple buys “Pandora-for-talk-radio”

By | Published on Tuesday 29 July 2014

Swell

It’s all about the curation, isn’t it? Apple has reportedly made another purchase to ramp up its curated content services, having bought the Beats business earlier this year, in no small part to take control of the curation-heavy Beats streaming music set-up.

According to Re/Code, The latest purchase is an app called Swell, dubbed by some as “Pandora-for-talk-radio”. The Swell iOS app taps into podcasts and other spoken word downloads on the net, providing users with a stream of speech content that in theory suits their interests.

Having raised $7.2 million to date, Swell had a loyal following, though it seems unlikely the firm’s relatively modest user base is of interest to Apple. Rather it will likely incorporate Swell’s functionality into its own platform, presumably replacing the not especially well received Apple podcast app.

In related news, Apple’s big Beats deal has just got the green lights from competition regulators in Europe who said the acquisition didn’t raise any concerns.



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