By Sheila Dang
(Reuters) – Fireside, an app co-founded by entrepreneur Mark Cuban, launched on Tuesday to help podcasters, musicians and other professional content producers create live shows with the ability to interact with the audience.
The app launches at a time when social media giants and other startups are increasingly focusing on live features. For instance, Twitch and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube offer live video streaming, while Facebook and Twitter have launched live audio room chats.
“The vehicle we’ve built is a production studio on your phone,” Falon Fatemi, Fireside co-founder, said in an interview.
Content creators will be able to start interactive shows from their phone using the Fireside app, which will record and transcribe the show automatically.
Fireside also lets users stream their show automatically to other platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitch, which helps streamline an otherwise complicated process if creators want to distribute their content in several places, Fatemi said.
Creators can also earn money from their shows by selling tickets for virtual entry or inserting ad breaks.
Being able to hear how listeners are responding to the show in real-time can help creators improve their content, Fatemi said.
“Quality content is king. … Attracting audiences, that’s the biggest challenge,” Fatemi said. “Understanding how audiences react to content as they’re consuming it live is the key.”
Fireside is the latest tech venture for Cuban, who is also an investor in other tech startups such as Samba TV and streaming service Philo.
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Will Dunham)
