In Los Angeles, a startup called LiveRead formally launches today, promoting process integration as a central distinguishing feature which simplifies audio advertising, reduces errors, lowers costs, and reduces barriers to entry.
The company launches with existing podcast creators as clients, including Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, Whitney Cummings, Joe Santagato, Andrew Santino, Bobby Lee. Other beta users include The Always Sunny Podcast (Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, and Rob McElhenney), Good for You (Whitney Cummings), The Basement Yard (Joe Santagato), Bad Friends (Andrew Santino, Bobby Lee), Flagrant (Andrew Schulz), Brilliant Idiots (Charlamagne tha God, Andrew Schulz).
BlueChew, Miracle Brand, Magic Spoon are among the brand testers.
The company offers a product that “streamlines creating media plans and insertion orders, automates ad copy delivery instantaneously to its entire roster of hosts, maintains ad calendars, confirms ads ran correctly, sends/tracks invoices and payments, audits assets to maintain deadlines, aggregates episode delivery impressions across different hosting platforms, and much more.”
In describing a recent case study, the company press release offers this account: “One case for a mid-size podcast network demonstrated that LiveRead decreased time spent on accounts receivable and accounts payable by 88%. LiveRead also identified and prevented errors totaling 1.67% of the company’s annual revenue. This resulted in an ROI of 453.33%, and this figure doesn’t even include the time saved on administrative tasks through the platform.”
“I use LiveRead for all four of my podcasts, and it’s been a major reason for my content expansion over the last year,” said Joe Santagato, host of The Basement Yard, The Joe Santagato Show, Other People’s Lives and Santagato Studios. “Having a single platform where I could check my stats and see all ad copy on my phone at a moment’s notice makes my life so much easier. LiveRead is a game changer!” Santagato adds, “I was held hostage and forced to write this.”
LiveRead is founder-funded, and has intentionally not raised investor capital. ““We wanted to make sure that our interests are always aligned with the customers we created LiveRead to serve,” said founder Alex Aldea, who was an early employee of Midroll Media.
