Thursday, 04 July 2019

Set to revolutionise how tourists and locals explore a city, Hidden Trax delivers the ultimate authentic city experience, through a series of experiential podcasts curated and delivered by local legends. Blending insider knowledge, independent businesses, and vibrant local voices to create original guides to hidden favourites. The experiences, or ‘Trax’, range from captivating stories and pavement adventures to insider tips and walking tours catered towards a specific interest. From coffee culture and record shops to neighbourhood haunts and galleries - Hidden Trax teams up with local tastemakers to showcase the best, and often unseen, bits of the city, available to listen to from your smartphone or device, and ready to go whenever and wherever you are.

Hidden Trax aims to support community and creatives through a collaboration initiative. Working with a creator, who can be anyone from artists, craftspeople, and local businesses to grassroots events organisers, expert residents, and tour guides, we support them in writing and recording their audio guide. With every paid listener, a creator receives 50% of the net revenue, resulting in Hidden Trax giving back directly into the community promoted.

Each experience (Trax) is between 12 and 40 minutes long with a focus on delivering entertainment, storytelling, and information. The app allows the user to select a Trax based upon location or category and provides directions to the start point as well as a GPS map throughout.


With a desire to turn tourism into a real benefit for the local community and its independents, Hidden Trax aims to draw visitors to the neighbourhood hubs that are loved by those who know the city best. By celebrating those who make a city unique, Hidden Trax champions investing locally and protecting the future of our communities.


Launching on the 4th of July 2019 with its first location, Edinburgh, a comprehensive selection of audio experiences will be available as a 6.99GBP subscription, including free app updates which will load new Trax to keep listeners up to date as the city evolves. Throughout an initial complimentary month to celebrate the launch, users will have more than 30 Trax available to choose from.


Designed and developed by a growing team in Edinburgh, the app will launch on Apple with a Google version to follow. Select Trax will be available in French, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese. Users will be able to sample a recording, filter preferences, and be guided via their GPS map for a smooth, user-friendly experience.

Discover someplace new and walk it your way with Hidden Trax.
www.hiddentrax.co



Notes:

Hidden Trax is delivered through a mobile phone application. A monthly subscription costs 6.99GBP while an annual subscription costs 12.99GBP and provides unlimited content access with up to 100 audio experiences per city and new content arriving every month. A one-month free subscription will be available throughout the month of July.

Having launched in Edinburgh with over 30 audio experiences, Hidden Trax plans to expand to another 5 cities across Europe with the aim of being in 50 cities after three years. 



About Hidden Trax:
International tourism is growing at unprecedented rates. Globally, 2018 saw a 6% year-on-year increase to 1.4 billion tourists*, two years ahead of industry forecasts. Over-tourism in many cities is driving tourists to look for different experiences beyond the major attractions and away from the crowds.



City visitors want to make memories they can share, and locals are demanding more of a benefit from the tourism industry taking over the hearts of their cities. Simultaneously, podcast consumption is exploding: Spotify expect spoken word content to account for 20% of customer usage within five years**. 



Put these factors together and you have Hidden Trax: where culture-curious locals and intrepid travellers can experience the insider view of the city.

John Maxwell, Co-Founder:
A global executive for UK and French publicly listed companies over the past 25 years, John has previously lived in China, Germany, Belgium, and the US. His experience is in growing new business units and managing large organisations as well as responsibility for marketing and business development which he translates to Hidden Trax. 



Donald Taylor, Co-Founder:
A global executive with Microsoft for over 20 years, Donald has lived in the US, India, and Germany. He has managed service delivery at a global level with large organisations and is experienced in regional and global start-ups and turnarounds. With Hidden Trax, Donald is responsible for content and app development. 


*https://www2.unwto.org/press-release/2019-01-21/internationa...

** https://newsroom.spotify.com/2019-02-06/audio-first/


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Media Enquiries:

For further information about Hidden Trax or the founders John Maxwell and Donald Taylor, or to set up an interview with them, please contact Rachael Grieve - rachael@wonderhousecreative.com or call 0131 553 5961.