Interview with Jon Bischke of Learn Out Loud
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“LearnOutLoud”:http://www.learnoutloud.com is a one-of-its-kind portal for audio and video educational material which pull together the best of the worlds of audiobooks, podcasts and free resources on the Net.
Jon is the Founder of LearnOutLoud and a serial entrepreneur who sold his previous business (The 2000Tutor.com Network) to a publicly-traded company. He has spent a good chunk of his professional life in the training and education world and is launching a new company called Education Revolution this year. |
Talk to me about the mission of Learn Out Loud - what does the site hope to accomplish?
We hope to help inspire people to turn their “dead time” into “learning time.” Each person spends hundreds of hours each year commuting, exercising, cleaning up around the house, etc. and a good chunk of that time can be spent learning. Whether it’s something to help them get the edge professionally or make them more fulfilled personally we aim to provide them with a one-stop resource to find tons of material to use in the learning process.
How has Learn Out Loud’s decision to include DRM-free audio affected the company?
We’re actually the only major site only that sells DRM-free spoken word audio. We also don’t sell any content that has DRM applied to it, something I’m very proud of. Like “eMusic”:http://www.emusic.com, the challenge with selling DRM-free is that it’s an uphill battle to get the latest and greatest content. However, the bonus to our customers is that they know they’ll always be able to play our content on any device. That’s something that none of competitors can say.
Where is Learn Out Loud going next?
There is a lot planned for 2007. We’re going to launch kids.learnoutloud.com soon which will give parents a great place to buy audio learning material for their children. Our podcasts are doing really well right now too so we plan to launch more of them. And our download library should at least double this year. We’re really bullish on this audio learning thing - especially given that several billion people are going to be downloading audio to their phones in a few years and we’re the only site selling universally compatible content with which they can learn.
Bonus: What’s your personal favorite Learn Out Loud podcast?
In terms of podcasts we’ve produced, I’m a big fan of The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson podcast. As for other podcasts, my personal favorite of late is Calacanis Cast although close runners-up are Steve Pavlina’s podcast and Venture Voice.
Copyright © 2007 by Sonia Aggarwal
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