Accordion Innovation Ltd is led by Andy Taylor, whose background in media (BBC Radio 1, Capital) and pivot toward founding his own production company (Bwlb) and Research & Development (Clwstwr, Stars4Media) led him to first invent Accordion, then found Accordion Innovation Ltd -  a company dedicated to creating new tech for audiences and creators alike. 

Bwlb | Accordion Innovation

Accordion | flipformat

Bwlb was founded by Andy Taylor in September 2019 as a creative consultancy and podcast production house. Growth into tech R&D led to the formation of two companies in 2022 - Bwlb Ltd and Accordion Innovation Ltd. Bwlb has a stable of 4 growing and successful client podcasts.

Andy / Bwlb got involved with Clwstwr in 2020 and developed Accordion via seed, then project funding from this Welsh innovation hub. Accordion is now a successful product with paying customers. Accordion Innovation's newest product in development is flipformat.

Andy Taylor - CEO, Accordion Innovation Ltd

Accordion and flipformat Q&A:

What is Accordion?

Accordion is a new way of letting audiences take control of duration without speeding up. Accordion works by dynamically re-versioning content to the exact duration the user wants. 

It works with both audio and video. To listen and watch demos of audio and video content go to www.accordion.live

With Accordion, shorter versions still have all the key moments and best bits (and still have a beginning, middle and end)... they just contain less detail. In the medium and longer versions (building back up to the original length) the detail gets added back in incrementally.

Crucially, at every length, a podcast (for example) will still sound like your podcast - the same structure, tone and listenability.

People have commented that it is so seamless that it seems to work by magic. I believe it offers immense potential to revolutionise the way all audio and video content is consumed.

How do you use it?

There's a slider bar which gives different durations to choose from. The lowest tends to be about a quarter or a third duration (any lower than this and the content doesn't seem natural or hang together... and it's really important to me that it "works").

The user just picks the duration that matches the time they have available and hits play.

Why use it?

Take podcasting as an example, your listeners are adjusting the duration when they listen anyway. Some (around 26% according to recent research) speed up, others just stop listening part the way through when life gets in the way.

Many never click play in the first place because they know they don't have the time to get through the whole episode. There is too much content and not enough time.

But speeding up feels weird and stopping part the way through means people lose the thread / narrative / miss the best bits or the stuff you'll reference in future episodes.

Accordion works in a different and better way.

Over the last two seasons of the 'Planet Possible' podcast (which uses Accordion) we have noticed an average 25% upward bump on listening figures for the Accordion version without any noticeable drop in traditional listening. In fact, traditional on-podcast-platform listening gets boosted too as people use Accordion as a kind of "super-trailer". Once they know an episode will be genuinely useful or enjoyable to them, then they go an invest their time in the full episode.

So, Accordion is a way to boost the impact and reach of your content and improve the audience/customer experience... and all the revenue-increasing opportunities that brings.

People who try Accordion love it. As one of our user testers put it:

"I have no idea how this is possible... but now I know that it is, I want it on everything please."

How can I get it to work with my content?

You've got two choices. If your audiences access your content via a website or app that you have access to the code for, I can supply you with a slider bar widget that will slot into your code so that an Accordion slider bar will appear under your normal media player.

If that's not an option, you can have a page at www.accordion.live devoted to your podcast. Your content lives there with all the usual metadata, but now with an Accordion slider bar and player too. The website works great on desktop, tablets, phones, all the usual places.

Who makes the Accordion version?

Two choices again. You can get your own Accordion login (I can train you to use it) and make it yourself, or I can make the Accordion versions for you.

How much does it cost?

For a one-off Accordion of a piece of content like a podcast, video webinar or conference keynote the cost is likely to be up to £250. Of course, once multiple Accordions are needed (for an ongoing series or package of content for an archive or similar) vast per-Accordion savings can be made.

If you want to license Accordion for your own use, we can build a package including training and integration with your own systems that can be as low as a few thousand pounds a year (and you would have the ability to use Accordion as much as you want to). 

This is based on UK sales, prices can be a lot less overseas due to different market conditions.

Price is tricky. I don't want to be one of those companies that doesn't list its prices at all (that annoys me) but at the same time, we are a small company with a brand new innovative product - I wouldn't want price to be the reason not to take a great opportunity. 

Can I have a look at it / have a demo?

Sure. The best thing is to go to www.accordion.live/planetpossible and see how it works on the current season on one of the UK's most listened to environmental podcasts 'Planet Possible'. 

I'm always happy to make a free, no-strings-attached demo for anyone. Ideally I come away with a new customer, but if all I end up with is a "No thank you" and some honest feedback that can help improve Accordion, then I am genuinely fine with that.

What about flipformat?

I was delighted to get prestigious Innovate UK funding to develop flipformat.

The feedback on the application noted how my experience with Accordion, and the IP already created within it, are great foundations for this new product aimed at making video promotion quicker and easier on all the different social media platforms. 

Harnessing Accordion tech, flipformat can adjust the duration of content, and then, with additional functionality being built at the moment... make it the perfect format for each of the social media platforms.

Using flipformat you won't need to re-shoot or spend hours manually re-versioning and clipping up, for example, landscape original content for new vertical video clips on social media. flipformat will make it quick and easy - freeing up time to create more content plus enabling audience growth and increased revenue.

I have more questions, who do I speak to?

Get in touch with me, Andy - [email protected]