Lychee FM is a Light Radio(online radio) station APP (application), provided by Guangzhou Lizhi Network Technology Co. Ltd in 2013 which allows users to set their own radio station and recording their own program on their phones. Lychee FM provides the function of recording, editing, uploading, downloading, storing, listening. Up to now it has been: IOS version, Android version and WP version. By 2015.10.15 it has updated 20 times. The latest version is Lychee FM 3.1.0.
Contents
Layout
Lychee FM is available for free on the web, iOS, and Android. Though the layouts differ from the different facilities, all hold the same design concept. For the web version, there is a logo on its top left corner followed by three buttons: Discovery, the Entrance for Podcaster and Download.
There will be a big floating window on the top which are used to recommend some new or popular podcasting stations to the users. In addition, it is also used to announce some important news to both users and podcasters. Usually It contains five pages. At the bottom of the web, Lychee FM catalogues the programs from different aspects like style, scene, and age in order to meet the diverse needs of users.
Next is the Entrance for Podcaster. This is prepared for the users who want to establish a podcasting station on their own. For those already having a Lychee FM account, they just need to input the password and login. If not having an account, users can register an account with their phone number, QQ account and WEIBO account.
The last is the Download. Lychee FM provides its services for nearly all kinds of clients such as iPhone, iPad, Android, etc. Users having different facilities can all receive the services without obstacles.
Features
Lychee FM as the founder of the concept "Light Radio" in China plays an important role in facilitating the development of the podcasting in China. It changes the process of podcasting completely. Lychee FM successfully lowers the technical threshold of producing a podcast by eliminating the need for hardware, servers, and complex software. Users can record their own shows and finish the editing and polishing within the application on smartphone, and then make their shows available in podcast form. Therefore, each person has the opportunity to create their own special podcast channels. It supports online and offline listening. Users can listen to podcast programs anytime and anywhere and "subscribe" their favorite stations even communicate with favorite podcasters online. The founder of Lychee FM Macro Lai said, “everyone can be a podcaster”. It is the Lychee FM that realizes the dream of being a podcaster of thousands of people.
Lychee FM compared with competitors
Generally, there are many similar apps in the online market, and one of Lychee FM’s main competitors is Ximalaya FM. Users can not only listen to the existing broadcasting stations but also record, editor and upload radios made by the users themselves on both of them.
However, Lychee FM concentrates more on entertaining radios and private radios. It acts more like an online platform for users to publish their own voices and make friends with people who has similar interests, rather than other apps, like Ximalaya FM, are a platform where users can listen to various of broadcasting stations which are mainly published by registered media.
Prospects for future
1.Sign some popular hosts,helping them create commercial opportunities, make good use of Fans economy, and even join the E-commerce.
2.Lychee FM has already persuaded QQ Games to provide Lychee FM’s programs as the background music for people who play games.
3.Attempt to cooperate with Taobao. Help people develop the habit that listening to Lychee FM’s programs when shopping online.
4.Plan to cooperate with Bosch and try to bring Lychee FM into vehicle control system as vehicle radio, since currently it is a necessary trend for FM to combine with smart hardware.
5.Prepare a project named “a museum of sound” which record and collect all kinds of sound from the nature like Encyclopedia.
6. “Light Radio”, the new concept presented by Lychee FM, offers traditional radio more innovation opportunities and development space.
Problems and Challenges
1.Defects of UGC (User Generated Content) —— copyright disputes. On April 17, 2015, Lychee FM was once put off from Apple store owing to infringement of copyright. It is not hard to find one program with copyright disputes from tens of thousands of programs. As far as there is one program with problem Lychee FM is likely to be involved in copyright disputes. Besides, the grass roots may not have much attention to copyright.
2.Lack of programs with high quality. Since everyone can be an anchor, the quality of each program can not be promised. Not all the people can do it very well. The program with skillful manufacture is not enough.