ListenUp to showcase audio storytelling app during Final Four weekend

The NCAA Men’s Final Four tournament is expected to draw thousands of visitors to the Valley this weekend, and a Scottsdale startup aims to capture their attention.

ListenUp is partnering with Visit Phoenix to showcase capabilities of its real-time audio storytelling app to tourists. Visit Phoenix will be marketing ListenUp and its app throughout the Final Four tournament, according to the company.

Scottsdale couple Irina and Igor Ilyinsky in 2023 launched ListenUp’s free app featuring immersive audio stories of points of interest and landmarks as users travel through a particular area in the Valley.

“There is a good number of people that are going to come through town and that are going to get our experience,” Igor Ilyinsky said. “Specifically, for the Final Four we’re doing just content.”

That content includes real-time scores of the NCAA basketball games every 15 minutes and at halftime. The app will announce when the games conclude so users can prepare for heavier traffic, Igor Ilyinsky said.

“We’re going to convey where these events are in town and how to either avoid them or engage in them. … It’s not just the games,” he said. “There’s a bunch of things going on. So it’s just showing that we can deliver content in real-time.”

Some of the many events planned this weekend include the Men’s Final Four Fan Fest at the Phoenix Convention Center and the NCAA March Madness Music Festival at Hance Park in downtown Phoenix.

ListenUp uses AI to power the app

The company’s app leverages geospatial technology to determine a user’s location and highlights points of interest on a map. As users approach a landmark while wearing earbuds, the app curates stories narrated by an artificially intelligent voice. Stories are sourced from the internet, articles and content contributors.

Community members can also submit their stories via TourRecord, a platform also developed by the Ilyinskys that allows users to record tours with voice narration, a map and photos.

ListenUp uses artificial intelligence to transcribe text-to-speech into multiple languages. The app “learns” topics of interest for users and provides content specifically curated for them.

Since launching last year, ListenUp has forged partnerships with the Arizona Office of Tourism, the Arizona Commerce Authority and the Arizona Historical Society, according to the company.

“We had a great event in the [Arizona] town of Superior, which is where we essentially just rolled out our technology,” Igor Ilyinsky said. “They have a home tour that they do every year and basically what it allowed us to do was not just tell the stories of the town of Superior, but also some of the local businesses and the individual homes.”

The Ilyinskys have bootstrapped ListenUp and are focused on continuing to scale the company’s app to showcase points of interest in all cities within the Grand Canyon State.

There’s also future potential to expand the app’s capabilities beyond tourism and historic landmarks to include curated information on real estate, traffic, specific neighborhoods and local businesses.

“If you’re flying into Sky Harbor, you should be able to download the app, hop into a Waymo or a taxi and hear the stories of what you’re passing wherever you go,” Irina Illinsky said.