Pocket FM Leverages AI Innovations to Widen Content Horizons
Pocket FM, an audio platform from India, boasts over 200,000 hours of content but seeks to further enhance its library by employing AI tools. These tools assist in audio production and regional story adaptation, allowing the platform to explore various genres effectively. The initiative aims to create blockbuster content while maintaining creative quality.
The Indian audio platform, Pocket FM, already hosts over 200,000 hours of content, but its CEO, Rohan Nayak, sees significant potential for growth in original content and genre diversification. Harnessing AI tools is the chosen strategy to accelerate audio production and tailor storytelling across regions.
Nayak remarked, “Our current catalog isn’t comprehensive. We lack in mature entertainment content depth. AI can help bridge this gap.” Collaborations, like with ElevenLabs, have radically reduced production costs and time, achieving fivefold faster outputs at only a fraction of previous costs.
The company is trialing AI solutions that help render stories appropriate for varied cultural contexts beyond basic translation, addressing unique challenges like prolonged storylines that introduce hallucinations in AI models. Pocket FM customizes models, ensuring stories retain character consistency by overcoming limitations in open-source models.
Moreover, a writer’s creative assistant tool is in development, aiming to empower solo writers with innovative storyline prospects and idea inspiration, integrating platform data insights to suggest effective narrative elements. Nayak emphasized that this tool seeks to mimic the collaborative environment of a writer’s room.
In pursuit of blockbuster content, Pocket FM is investing in an analytical engine to predict hit shows, crucial for scaling their presence in a competitive market. While AI aids in generating popular content, Nayak acknowledges the risk of quality dilution amid rapid production increases.
The platform has successfully implemented AI for voice creation in over 40,000 series, amassing $3 million in resulting revenue, part of $127 million total earnings for fiscal year 2024.
The act of balancing AI efficiency with maintaining creative integrity is Pocket FM’s biggest challenge. The risk lies in AI expediting content, potentially resulting in a deluge of formulaic work. As India-based writer Puneet Sharma noted, amidst automated creativity, validating authentic artistic acknowledgments remains vital. Sharma further observed that while AI can inspire and educate, the potential bypassing of growth through trial and error is a pivotal concern.
With $197 million raised from investors like Lightspeed Ventures, Tencent, and Times Internet, Pocket FM stays competitive with players like Audible and India-based platforms Pratilipi and Kuku FM. Through AI, the company aims to create quality content while expanding its creative and commercial reach.