> I don't know how the business model works exactly, but I would imagine that paying people to narrate would be fairly expensive.
They sell premium memberships now that allow for things like offline listening and better playlist management.
Thanks for showing me umanoapp.com. Definitely something to consider and learn from.
I have looked in to what NPR is doing as well. I find it motivating because they also recognize that there is a problem here worth solving.
You might check out this startup: http://umanoapp.com/ which does almost exactly what you want. I don't know how the business model works exactly, but I would imagine that paying people to narrate would be fairly expensive.
You might also have a look at some of the stuff NPR is doing: http://www.npr.org/infiniteplayer/ http://www.npr.org/blogs/inside/2011/11/14/142303990/introdu... they are working on breaking the traditional radio show mold and queueing up individual stories based on personal recommendation.