Music
Singer Ed Sheeran performs at the 2014 Wango Tango concert at StubHub Center in Carson, California May 10, 2014, file photo. British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran's scored his first top album on the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 chart on July 2, 2014, as "x" easily lapped the competition selling 210,000 copies, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/Files (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)
Singer Ed Sheeran performs at the 2014 Wango Tango concert at StubHub Center in Carson, California May 10, 2014, file photo. British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran's scored his first top album on the weekly U.S. Billboard 200 chart on July 2, 2014, as "x" easily lapped the competition selling 210,000 copies, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/Files (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)

World Cup is the buzz phrase of the week after various media platforms aired the humiliating defeat of the host country's national soccer team, Brazil, to the Germans with a score of 7-1. All eyes are now on Sunday for the championship match between Germany and Argentina.

Riding high on the World Cup fever, Radio Nova launched The World Cup of Music in which the station would pitch 16 of its biggest artists against each other for four day. Similar to the FIFA soccer games, the music competition would have quarter final and semi final rounds.

The final playoff is scheduled on Friday afternoon, with the winners to be determined by Nova listeners.

Dave Alisbury of Nova said among the artists who will be in the Round of 16 are U2, The Who, The Stones, Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC and Bowie. The World Cup of Music will be hosted by Greg Gaughren and Pat Courtenay of Radio Nova.

Meanwhile, from music, which is one of the main staples of radio, viewers and listeners would shift back to sports on Sunday for the anticipated finals game to determine who will succeed Spain, the FIFA 2010 champion.

Some observers, in fact, have reduced the finals match to a prayer power battle because the present and immediate past popes since they come from Argentina and Germany, respectively, the two contender-nations for the championship.

An recent photograph of Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI praying together in one pew was Photoshopped and made to appear the two pontiffs are storming heaven's gate for their respective favourite national soccer teams to win.

World Cup fans would be happy to know that major broadcasting companies such as BBC, CBC of Canada, ESPN and Radio New Zealand are providing live streaming of the finals game.

The live stream would be on both TV and radio to ensure that the coverage would be available to as many people as possible by tapping various media and platforms.

BBC, for instance, will broadcast the Germany vs Argentina match at the Maracana on Sunday at 20:00 BST. The broadcast airs live on BBC Radio 5 and BBC One from 19:00 BST.

BBC uses a Software-as-a-Service platform from Audioboom Group PLC (LSE: BOOM.L) that allows straightforward upload or download of content.

Audioboom has positioned itself as the global leader in spoken audio content, or the audio equivalent of the YouTube, the most popular video sharing site.

The UK-based publicly listed company is the provider of social media platform for audio producers to record either live or from the studio, upload and share audio by syndication and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

By tapping these social media sites, audience reach expands dramatically since the popular microblogging site and favourite social media site have millions or even billion of followers in different parts of the world.

At present, Audioboom has about 2,000 content channels from the initial 19 channels during the platform's launch in March 2013, said Rob Proctor, company CEO. Audioboom currently has 2.5 million registered users and 12 to13 million monthly active users across platforms.

After the World Cup fever subsides, people will go back to normal listening and viewing habits, no doubt made enjoyable and enhanced by technology offered by companies like Audioboom.