Radio Tel Aviv and Nobex produce world’s largest ever headphone-streaming event


We received word today of an intriguing event on June 27 — a “silent disco” outdoor gathering in Tel Aviv produced by Radio Tel Aviv and Nobex. Thirty-thousand people wearing headphones attended the White Night Festival, an annual celebration of UNESCO’s designation of the Tel Aviv’s historic White City as a World Heritage site in 2003.

Music for the event was provided via exclusive streaming through the station’s custom Nobex mobile app. The gathering occurred in a large square in a residential part of Tel Aviv. To get a feel for the unusual nature of this event, imagine 30,000 people rocking and dancing to the beats in silence — well silent of music, some yelling and dancing. (See a news video here.)

This portion of the White Night Festival proceeded for six hours, from 8:00pm to 2:00am.

For Nobex, whose Nobex Partners division makes apps for many thousands of radio stations, and for Tel Aviv Radio, the occasion provided a dramatic usage bump — 40 times the usual daily number of app downloads occurred, resulting in five times normal streaming minutes and seven times normal sessions.

Brad Hill