Interactive Audio Platform Earplay Announces Launch Of New Publishing Tools And Strategic Alliance With Design Studio Xandra

BOSTON, Jan. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Voice industry leader Earplay has launched a private beta for new production-focused tools on its interactive audio publishing platform. Conversational design studio Xandra and Earplay have entered into a strategic alliance so that Xandra and its clients will receive early access and support for upcoming projects. The Earplay Platform enables top industry Creators, Publishers, and Brands to design and produce immersive audio stories for distribution across voice-enabled devices.

Best known for its long form premium narrative content, Earplay has released more hours of voice-controlled interactive audio than any other developer through Amazon, Google, and iOS.  Coupling this with the new studio alliance between Earplay and Xandra, creator of premium voice-controlled content for some of the world's largest entertainment brands, 2019 promises to be a breakout year for "feature-film quality" voice-first entertainment. This is good news for the voice industry because it opens the door for a greater amount of high-quality interactive storytelling content following the mass adoption of smart speakers by consumers over the holiday season.

The Earplay Platform is proprietary technology built by Earplay for the creation and distribution of voice-controlled interactive audio experiences across all voice-enabled devices. In addition to authoring tools for the creation of best-in-class experiences, additional announced components include a voice UX engine, databases for retaining user progress, content hosting and version control, instantaneous publication management, and more. The cutting edge capabilities of the Platform architecture have been assembled and optimized over five years with a focus on web service reliability, high traffic scalability, and creative production usability.

Founded 2013 by Jon Myers, Dave Grossman, and Bruno Batarelo, the Earplay Platform was built with a focus of attention on interactive storytelling and narrative game play. The Platform is already operational, as evidenced by the Earplay-Capstone partnership launching 50+ hours of interactive kids content prior to the holidays. Components of the Platform already run some of the most popular voice-first experiences released to date. As a pioneer, Earplay has been able to leverage its in-house creator and developer experience with A+E, Universal, USA Network, Amazon Studios, and WBUR to offer major publishers an opportunity to more rapidly build greater amounts of interactive audio content.

"After years of developing our own tools and publication system, we're excited to open up our cutting edge solution to industry creators, publishers, and media companies so that they may scale the production of interactive audio for distribution of their own stories," said Earplay CEO Jon Myers. "By joining talents with innovative studio partner Xandra, a greater number of brands and media companies can take advantage of Xandra's conversation design expertise and Earplay's technology, building and retaining a high quality bar for future interactive audio experiences across all voice-enabled devices."

Xandra is a design studio that combines UX research, dramatic writing and audio design to create premium content and voice-controlled applications for some of most publicized interactive audio voice experiences.  "Our goal since inception has been to bring more humanity to technology by focusing on artistry, creativity and empathy. The Earplay platform was explicitly developed to nurture the exciting new medium of interactive audio storytelling, and given our collective philosophies and shared commitment to premium storytelling content, we already see strong alignment for upcoming projects", stated Zach Johnson, Xandra's founder and CEO.

Earplay will be an exhibitor, joined by Xandra (booth #506) and adjacent to Capstone (booth #407) at the inaugural Alexa Conference, January 15-17, 2019, in Chattanooga, TN, signaling more voice-controlled interactive games and storytelling this year from Publishers and Developers eager to engage consumers rapidly adopting smart speakers, AI assistants, and IoT.

About Earplay
Earplay is the proven leader in voice-first entertainment with its platform for the creation and distribution of interactive audio content on voice-enabled devices. With its proprietary technology, Earplay has created a new immersive storytelling medium and set the standard for long form voice entertainment. With Earplay, players become part of the story, interacting with characters and affecting outcomes with their voice. Based in Boston, Earplay was founded in 2013 with the release of the first voice-operated interactive audio drama on iOS. www.earplay.com

About Xandra
Xandra is the Brooklyn-based conversation design studio on a mission to bring more humanity to technology.  A pioneer in conversation design for messaging, Xandra has capabilities spanning multiple platforms, including Facebook Messenger, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home, with global experience delivering services on emerging technologies to improve the way brands engage customers daily.  Founded by Zach Johnson, Xandra has recently created some of Hollywood's best smart speaker experiences.  www.xandra.com

SOURCE Earplay