Lava is a mobile-first app that enables anyone to create, share, & discover social audio. Our platform transforms podcasting into a casual social experience that blends the authenticity of audio with the creativity of user-generated content.
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Audio is a profound medium for stories, conversations, & monologues. Audio empowers people to share ideas through the authenticity of their voice which fosters deep connections between creators & their audiences. Audio also enables people to hear ideas through a natural format that is passive yet engaging. The emotions that arise from speaking and listening are rarely felt through digital videography, photography, and literature.
Yet social audio is still rather undeveloped on the internet. Podcasting requires you to buy equipment, coordinate with guests, record your content, edit your audio, host your podcast, distribute via RSS, promote on social media, then connect with fans thereafter — typically through social media. There are so many steps to create a podcast and the content is not social after it has been created.
The listening experience is universally broken across audio apps; discovery takes place offline via word of mouth, search is geared towards shows instead of people, details such as notes and guests are usually hard to uncover, and disruptive advertisements are typically embedded into the experience. The audio itself is the only well-designed experience of a podcast app.
Live audio, in contrast, is spreading throughout the world as more people discover new products that connect audio communities. But live audio also has imperfections; the content is ephemeral, the conversations are redundant, and the quality is unpredictable. Live audio is great for meeting people but fails at building sustainable connections between creators and consumers.