Blog Relations

Rockford’s Rock Opera is a site that has quite a bit in common with our own Storynory. It’s made in the UK and offers high quality audio stories for children. There are some differences – for example Storynory is totally free, while Rockford is “freemium” – (six episodes free, the rest paid for). But the dedication to children’s audio over the net is the same. A couple of years ago, we helped create Rockford’s iTunes feed. Yesterday I caught up with Rockford’s impresario, Matthew Sweetapple, in his club – the Union in Soho.

Matthew is a musician as well as a marketeer – and music is one of the big features of Rockford. We were talking about our early memories of music from – dare I say it – circa 1969. We both agreed very much that there is a big overlap between the music   that children and adults enjoy listening too. Too much children’s music is sing-along, clap-along – when actually there is no need to be patronising to kids.  The same goes for stories.  Everyone enjoys a good story, however old they are. While talking about this, we  discovered that we were born within 2 days of each other. Perhaps there is something in the stars after all.

Rockford has a message about maintaining animal and plant diversity, and Matthew has struck up alliances with good causes ranging from Battersea Dog’s Home to The World Wildlife Fund. Storynory doesn’t really campaign with a message. I see stories as an end in themselves.

One thing we discussed is having a Rockford page on Storynory. A couple of years ago, I didn’t feel we were quite established enough to carry third party material, and I was worried about diluting our brand. Now I think we can benefit from widening our offering. Rockford and Storynory seem like natural partners. So look out for Rockford on Storynory.