FlyCast 2.0 Comes Out of Beta – Charging for Station Caching

We previously mentioned the beta of FlyCast 2.0 which added radio station caching and Twitter features. FlyCast let me know that version 2.0 is now out of beta. They have also added in a sort of business model around the caching and some new micropayments.

To make use of the station caching there is a one time fee of $9.95 for 5 hours cache and $19.95 for 20 hours of cache. They also added in micropayments which lets them have premium content. For example, they could add in sports content and sell subscriptions for the season.

I am interested to see how users respond to these new freemium options. What do you think?

You can pick up the new version at www.flycast.fm

First and foremost, FlyCast 2.0 adds advanced station caching capabilities. This means that users will now be able to take their favorite stations with them wherever they go – including planes, trains and automobiles.

• We use OTA (over-the-air), or wireless caching, so the user will not need to be tethered via USB to cache stations
• We’ve added the concept of burst-caching, allowing users to burst hours of a station to their device in minutes. This has 3 significant advantages over all other mobile streaming products:
• A user can get their favorite stations on their devices while connected to a good signal. Once cached, they no longer need to worry about cellular signal quality. As an example, a user might get 2 hours of station cached in just 20 minutes. Poor cellular data connectivity is the single biggest issue that consumers have with mobile radio delivery.
• Once they have their content, they can turn off the cellular wireless connection from “tuning” the radio. This turns FlyCast into a media player and dramatically reduces battery usage. Rather than 5 hours of listening time with the wireless connection on and receiving data, they might get 10 hours of station playback before their battery dies.
• The 3rd advantage is that even when listening to live stations (vs. cached ones), users will generally have a better listening experience due to our burst caching capabilities. By utilizing our FlyBack features, users can skip back in time on any station and begin burst caching the stream. This will allow them to get more data when in good connection areas that they can play back when in poor signal areas. The experience becomes less dependent on continuous good cellular reception.
• Users will be able to listen to cached stations up to 3 times before the cache is deleted. The cached station will also be deleted after 30 days automatically.
• Users will be able to try the station caching for 7 days, after which they will be able to purchase the 5 hour cache version for a one-time fee of $9.95 and the 20 hour cache version for $19.95. This fee is good for the life of the device.

FlyCast 2.0 will be delivered to BlackBerrys 1^st and the other platforms will follow over the next 60 days, including a few new ones. You can get FlyCast 2.0 for the BlackBerry Bold, Curve and Storm by pointing your BlackBerry browser to www.flycast.fm. We’ve submitted it to the BlackBerry App World and hopefully it will be available there also in the next few days.
For the official press release, visit the press page at our website: http://www.flycast.fm/FlyCastInfo.aspx?PAGE=press It is the 1st document on the page.