In a content-saturated world dominated by algorithms and attention-hijacking design, tale’O’meter stands out as a fresh breath of intentional storytelling. We had the opportunity to connect with the minds behind this mindful entertainment platform to discuss their philosophy, vision, and the journey of crafting purposeful audio content—especially for children and Tamil-speaking audiences worldwide.
1. tale‘O’meter stands out as an ad-free, algorithm-free platform. What inspired you to build such a mindful alternative in today’s attention-driven content world?
It started with us as users. We are heavy consumers of content and we felt that many a times we felt bad after consuming content of having wasting our time. The after-taste was not great. We decided to change that with tale’O’meter – where we focus on the aftertaste and how one feels after using or listening to us. We want people to feel happy about consuming our content. We believe that ‘we become what we consume’. For a paying customer there shouldn’t be interruptions and there definitely shouldn’t be algorithm-driven interventions.
2. The new Kids Section is a delightful addition. Can you walk us through the creative process behind developing audio shows like Buddy Battle and Visiting Kaadu?
Buddy Battle is aimed at activating the play mode learning. We keep the questions interesting with an interesting ‘why’ to the question and share more context with the question and answer. Visiting Kaadu is our unique take on episodes on animals. We take some less known animals like Lemur and Pangolin to introduce kids to new animals and even with the ones that we think we are familiar with, we highlight the nuances. Each episode ends with a special song that captures the essence of the episode, for kids to easily remember the key pointers.
3. In a screen-dominated era, how do you see audio storytelling shaping the way children learn, imagine, and engage with the world around them?
Audio and books are sources of great imagination. With audio, we nurture kids to think and visualize the way their imagination takes rather than showing one visual and robbing the kids of their own visualization. Also, it is important to take out the visual distraction to slow down to enable kids to be in the present and be aware.
4. tale‘O’meter promotes “listening to grow.” How do you ensure each piece of content contributes meaningfully to personal development or mental well-being?
Each content goes through a process before even the draft is written which ensures the reason the content is being made is aligned with the vision. Our app has purpose driven curation, which already gives guidelines to the content of that particular stream. For e.g.: Chinspiration is meant to nudge listeners to think in a new light, so the content will carry a clear message, relatable instances, examples and reflective questions.
5. From intimate storytelling events like NILA CHORU to workshops like Solla Vaa, tale‘O’meter seems to be building a real-world community. What role do these offline experiences play in your platform’s journey?
tale’O’meter is a mindful entertainment company and we like to extend that in as many forms as possible to reach the audience and be effective. We started with Instagram, then launched our own app and now going beyond digital with events like nilaa chOru and Villains.
6. How do you curate or develop content that balances cultural depth with modern relevance, especially for Tamil-speaking NRIs and the diaspora?
In general, purpose driven curation takes care of this requirement. For e.g.: Shows like Oru Cup Oxygen is aimed at sharing pop culture and news in a discussion format. The co-founders were NRIs for most part of their adult lives, so the direct experience and the network helps us keep a tab on the need.
7. Could you share any listener stories or feedback that deeply moved or validated your mission?
A couple wrote to us on how tale’O’meter created a ‘we’ time for them; a teacher from Thenkasi writing to us on how she was able to handle a school assembly in the absence of their principal and effectively engaged the students with the content that she listened to that morning; a person wrote to us on how she was thrilled in her vacation to Rajasthan when she was able to add more story pointers to a palace based on our content; A US corporate employee on how our app is his lunch time companion; a NEET aspirant manifesting with us on his aspirations, upon listening to our chinspiration content Keechi Thai.
8. The app’s privacy-first approach is rare today. Why was it important for you to design tale‘O’meter without tracking or personalized data harvesting?
Founders’ experience with technology and data analytics were the driving forces of our data and privacy policy. Even as users, we feel irritated to be asked for phone numbers, even when we buy popcorns in theatres and we wanted to make sure that we respect people’s privacy. For our app, we only need our listeners’ ears and hence allow any possible registration modes like mail, phone, apple, google, meta. User convenience and privacy is of utmost importance to us.
9. What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in building an intentional content ecosystem — and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge is getting into the listeners’ routine. Asking for 30 minutes from someone’s routine isn’t easy and that takes a lot of effort and time. Our success has been the quality of the content and when someone listens to content from our app for a week, we are confident that it becomes part of their routine.
10. What’s next for tale‘O’meter in 2025 and beyond? Any new genres, features, or community collaborations on the horizon?
Delivering what we have committed to is our first priority. And in 2025, we are taking our content beyond app as well, with events likes Nila Choru, Villains and PopCon. The recently launched KIDS section is a top priority as well. Features will be added on a continuous basis. Every 6 months we have a major update in our app, like the recent launch with the KIDS section. Our future plans for features include, carplay integration, sleep stories for kids, and focus improvement stream. We will continue to walk in the path of demonstrating that entertainment can be mindful.
Closing Note:
As tale’O’meter continues to grow and connect with audiences across age groups and geographies, their mission of building mindful audio spaces stands as an inspiring alternative to mainstream content. With a clear commitment to intentional storytelling, cultural relevance, and ethical technology, tale’O’meter is not just another app—it’s a movement toward meaningful media.
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