The BBC has released the first version of its stand-alone audio app, BBC Sounds.
Acting as the auditory equivalent of the BBC iPlayer, the Sounds app will provide live and on-demand radio shows, music and podcasts into a single personalised app.
Whilst the BBC already has a prolific podcast offering outside of its own platform and a ‘BBC iPlayer Radio’ app, the Sounds app will offer access to all of its services under one umbrella.
Additionally, in line with the current trend for AI-based recommendations, the Sounds app will analyse users listening habits to recommend new shows from its 80,000 combined hours of on-demand audio.
The app will also offer access to live-streaming of its 18 national and 40 regional stations and CBeebies Radio.
“This is very much a first release,” the corporation wrote in a post on its website.
“There’s a bunch of additional features we’re already busy working on (including downloads, to enable offline listening), and we’ll have lots more to add later in the year.”
As with the BBC iPlayer, the Sounds app will require a BBC account which can then sync listening across devices.