Former Imgur COO Joins Earplay To Grow Voice Publishing Technology Business

BOSTON, July 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Voice industry veteran Earplay brings on Matt Strader, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and former Imgur COO. With the hire, Earplay will expand its partnership program and grow the external use of its voice technology publishing platform in order to scale a new business model.

"There is a lot of enthusiasm and experimentation happening in voice. But the reality is that there are few premium voice experiences being created, and that is what the industry needs to draw users in, and to keep them coming back." Strader said. "Larger scale voice production and distribution is still an expensive pain point at this stage of market growth. We want to partner with the world's top brands and content creators to leverage our platform as they look to engage their audiences and launch the next generation of killer voice experiences."

First announced in January, Earplay initially built the publishing system as a set of connected internal tools that allowed their team to create high fidelity voice skills with faster and more efficient production processes. Touted by Earplay as the ultimate creative platform for producing and publishing voice-first interactive audio experiences, their product is aimed at the premium tier of the market. Earplay's offering includes robust features for handling the most complex, state-of-the-art voice skills, including real-time "live" collaboration among team members. The company states that they seek to build partnerships with brands and professional creators who can move the industry forward.

The move to enlist Strader comes as the company expands early access to the platform through the Earplay Partners Program, although it remains invite-only for now. The first participant in 2018 was educational publisher Capstone, who used the Earplay Platform to adapt the You Choose book series into more than 50 hours worth of interactive audio content, publishing twelve story bundles as Alexa skills in just over 90 days. Additional creators include Xandra (the most awarded conversation design studio in the world), BOOM Integrated (a new venture from GRAMMY Award-winning John Marshall Media), and Vixen Labs (Europe's thought leaders on voice first technology).

Earplay's voice production expertise is already well-known, having garnered critical acclaim for producing high profile award winning voice skills such as Jurassic World Revealed, Mr Robot: Daily Five/Nine, and Jack Ryan: November Morning. Lesser known is that, alongside its many creative successes over the six years since founding in 2013, the iterative development of proprietary voice software was always an internal focus for Earplay.

Earplay CEO Jon Myers explains, "In the voice space we always find ourselves wanting to push ahead, to create experiences that haven't been made before. To do that, from the very beginning, even prior to the launch of Alexa, we built our own voice publishing tools. And so now, Matt not only adds the operational experience we need, but he will also be a critical component for directing growth as we scale up our business in this next phase. We're now ready to grow the use of our technology by external partners."

About Earplay
Earplay is the ultimate creative platform for producing and publishing voice-first interactive audio experiences. Our suite of smart tools and world-class technology helps creators build, distribute, measure and manage multiple immersive titles across voice‐enabled media and devices. Named Alexa Developer of the Year and winner of multiple Webbies, Earplay proudly works with leading brands including Amazon Studios, A+E Networks, Bose, Capstone, Disney, NBCUniversal, Ubisoft, USA Network, Viacom, and VICE. Based in Boston, Earplay was founded in 2013 with the release of the first voice operated interactive audio drama on iOS. www.earplay.com

Earplay At #VOICE19
VOICE Summit
July 22-25, 2019
https://www.voicesummit.ai
New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)
Expo Hall, K37/K38

VOICE Summit Awards
Wed. July 24, 6-8 pm
https://www.voicesummit.ai/awards
Jurassic World Revealed - Nominee, Best Game, Best Brand Interaction
Mr. Robot: Daily Five/Nine - Nominee, Best Game, Best Brand interaction

SOURCE Earplay