florl

Read/Write Web writes:

I get a lot of product pitches by email every day, but few of them are
really compelling enough to grab my attention. But this one did, perhaps because
it is a product that promises a much-needed media tracking solution. In this
case, podcasting statistics (and later video-blogging). From the SONR
homepage:

\\\”SONR (Sonar) is a media tracking tool for content providers. Specifically
geared towards podcasters (and later, publishers of video content), SONR\\\’s goal
is to provide detailed information on how listeners interact with your
content. Currently, most podcasters only know when a listener has
downloaded their content, but with SONR\\\’s media player, providers can now track
how much of their podcast was listened to and what the user did while
listening.

The SONR media player also gives listeners a playlist of your content so they
can easily find other work you\\\’ve published. There is also the ability to add
flags to your podcasts so that users can immediately jump to sections of your
file that they find most interests in, a table of contents of sorts for your
podcast.\\\”

[emphasis mine]

This is something that has been needed in podcasting for a long time - ways
to put metadata into your podcast AND track usage. I know Marc Canter for one is going to
be very pleased about that!

The only catch is that users need to listen to your podcast on the SONR app.
But you can embed your podcast file in your webpage, so that it opens using the
app. The process is explained on the
About page:

1. You create an account as a content provider (of audio podcasts).
2. You add your podcast information to our system.
3. We create a link that you use in your HTML to launch our player with your
   content.
4. You add that link to your HTML, for listeners to click on.
5. Once a listener clicks on the link (from your site), the player launches and
   streams your MP3.
6. Our player creates the needed information to track every second of your
   audio file, and begins tracking which actual seconds have been listened to.
7. Flags (or your audio\\\’s Table of Contents) are loaded in (if available),
   after the MP3 has fully loaded.
8. Any user interaction is recorded and saved (Pauses, Rewinds, Etc.).
9. Once the user closes the player, the data is saved in our databases
10. You return to our site and check the recorded stats for your podcast.

Sounds very promising! Future plans include video stats, \\\”customizable media
players\\\” and a desktop client.