"We started from scratch and in one year, we reached a very significant level: application downloaded 500,000 times" and 3.5 million plays of more than thirty seconds in April, twice as many as in September 2021, s Jean-Éric Valli, president of Radioplayer, Groupe 1981 and also of Indés Radios, was congratulated during a press conference.

Launched in April 2021 in France by six radio groups (Altice Media, Lagardère News, the radios of the M6 ​​group, Les Indés Radios, NRJ Group and Radio France), Radioplayer has positioned itself as a response to competition from Internet giants (voice assistants, connected speakers, podcast applications, etc.) and streaming services (Tune In, Radioline, etc.), by providing access to all of their content on a single free platform.

For its first anniversary, the application announces the conclusion of a partnership with the car manufacturer Renault, which will feature in its new electric Megane E-Tech and New Austral models a Radioplayer application, specific to the French group.

This will offer all the radio stations, web radio stations and podcasts of Radioplayer France as well as the European and Canadian versions of the application, whose network is present in 14 European countries and in Canada.

Eventually, the application will be present in all Renault vehicles equipped with the OpenR Link home multimedia system, specifies Radioplayer, which had already entered into a partnership with Volkswagen and BMW.

The application is also available via Android Auto, Apple CarPlay or from the Android Automotive system.

Another reason for satisfaction: the conclusion of a partnership with Amazon around the Alexa voice-activated speaker.

"The idea is that Radioplayer France becomes, for radios that wish it, the default gateway to Alexa", explained Yann Legarson, general manager of Radioplayer France.

For the radios, this allows "to keep the direct relationship between the radios and their listeners", he argued.

"The radio must be sovereign, it cannot end up with counters which prevent it from speaking to its listeners or which monetize the speaking time to its listeners", continued Mr. Valli.

Hence the importance of forging partnerships in the future to increase the audience of the application, he defended.

© 2022 AFP