Clammr launches with Twitter-like clipping and sharing of audio

Why isn’t audio as social and viral as video and web pages? If lack of an easy platform is the problem, Clammr seeks to solve it with today’s launch of its new service on web and mobile.

“We wanted to make it incredibly, brainlessly easy,” Clammr co-founder Parviz Parvizi told RAIN News.

Clammr’s currency is audio clips capped at 24 seconds. On the Clammr site and in the app, anyone can browse around listening to short clips, each of which leads back to the source — a podcast website, for example, or a news site that publishes audio. Like Soundcloud and YouTube, Clammr encourages creators to create Clammr channels with their own clips. (See the TIME Magazine channel here.)

Between consumers and creators is a middle layers that Parvizi identifies as curators. A curator is anybody who clips an audio piece no longer than 24 seconds (think of Twitter’s character limit) and uploads it. Clammr makes it easy with a “Share a Clip” button that can be attached to podcast players.

The clipping and sharing experience is elegantly executed. Clicking that feature on an enabled audio file in a web page brings up a waveform of the entire program, with a 24-second highlighted selection starting at the moment of the click. You can then trim the clip, or move it around the entire show’s waveform to capture a different excerpt. From there, sharing to Clammr is a one-click deal.

Parviz regards this feature as a key attraction to podcasters. “It’s a game-changer, for podcasters to basically say, ‘Hey Clammr me.’,” he told us.

“Share a Clip” is currently enabled in podcasts hosted on the PowerPress platform, a WordPress extension operated by the Blubrry hosting service. Libsyn and Spreaker are working on integrations also. Other partners are in progress. In some iOS mobile podcast apps, Clammr is an option for sharing.

The goal with all these outreach spokes from the Clammr hub is to make audio clipping and sharing as ubiquitous as possible. It’s easy to compare the service to Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter.

Prowling through Clammr itself is an experience that answers a question that Parviz Parvizi puts this way: “How do you make audio browsable?” YouTube (and others) answer that question for video. Clammr is an audio answer that adopts the Twitter ethos of ultra-short, snackable content that leads back to longer forms.

“We want to help storytellers extend their reach by using their top two assets — the best moments from their content and their existing audiences — to make their audio more shareable and accessible via social media,” said Parvizi.