Jake Shapiro of Public Radio Exchange is giving a lunchtime talk at the Berkman Center about how PRX is making it easier for creators of radio programming to get their stuff found and picked up by non-commercial radio stations.

PRX sits between stations and producers. It’s “a web-based service for digital distribution, peer review, and licensing of radio content.” You upload content, and others can peer-review it. Then stations can download it and use it. Creators get royalties. PRX is a fair and transparent broker between producers and multiple stations. Jake says the market is ready for it because there’s a desire for new voices, because people are concerned about commercial consolidation, and because we’re getting used to new distribution paths.

Core tools: Digital storage and delivery, searching, peer review, rights management (not hardwired into the files themselves) and the “PRX economy” (i.e., producers and stations pay PRX, and royalty checks are sent to creators). So far, they’ve paid out $25,000. “But mainly that’s for pieces that otherwise would have gone for zero.” Stations pay based on their size. Producers pay for storage ($50 for 5 hours). Anyone can create an account and upload stuff. Only non-commercial radio stations can download, although there are some exceptions and Jake expects there will be more. Anyone can listen to a program — registration is required but free — although it’s intended for other producers to review it. (Jake says anyone can listen to the programs, but it’s not well set up to be used as an Internet radio station itself.)

They opened their gates 14 months ago and now have 2,045 pieces (filling 539 hours), 4,544 accounts, 1,968 reviews, 220 radio stations with accounts, and about 1,500 pieces that have been broadcast. They use peer reviews to surface items, but also use an editorial board to write “magnet reviews.” PRX generally doesn’t deal with pieces with immediate news value, although they’re working on it.

Rebecca MacKinnon points out that PRX could be a valuable source of international news and features that aren’t showing up elsewhere. It’s already happening to a small degree, Jake says, and they’d like to do more.

Yes, they’re experimenting with podcasting. In fact, they’re listening to podcasters and wondering which ones would make good radio producers. But, Jake says, often production quality is poor; sticking a mic into your laptop apparently just doesn’t cut it. Jake recommends Transom.org for information about tools.)

This is exciting stuff.

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