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iHeartMedia Enhances Usability and Performance of Active Media Archives

Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage enables iHeartMedia to archive and access past radio broadcasts easily—without complicated tiering, egress fees, or unpredictable cloud costs.

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2x

Less expensive than other providers 

0

Egress fees 

1

Line of code changed to deploy

Overview

iHeartMedia, the largest U.S. radio broadcaster, maintains an active archive of past episodes to support operations. By switching to Wasabi, the team simplified storage, eliminated hidden costs, and ensured fast, reliable access for daily use. 

INDUSTRY:
Media & Entertainment

USE CASE:

  • Active Archiving

Challenges

iHeartMedia maintains an archive of past radio broadcasts to support host and ad operations. But storing large volumes of small audio files in tiered cloud platforms led to complexity, slow restores, and unpredictable billing. The team needed a simple, high-performance solution with flat pricing and daily accessibility. 

Unpredictable cloud costs

Traditional tiered cloud pricing models and egress fees made budgeting difficult.

Access vs. affordability

The archive was used regularly, but frequent access triggered additional fees.

Data integrity

iHeartMedia needed secure, unalterable storage for audit and compliance needs.

With other providers, cloud costs get complicated. With Wasabi, it’s simple—you know what your storage will cost, and there’s nothing to track across tiers.

– Ryan Mannion, CTO - iHeartRadio

Moving to Wasabi was easy. We only had to change one line of code to redirect to the new bucket.

– Ryan Mannion, CTO - iHeartRadio

Onboarding was hands-on. The Wasabi team offered real-time solutions during calls; it was super helpful.
– Ryan Mannion, CTO - iHeartRadio

Solution

To address these challenges, iHeartMedia evaluated various cloud storage solutions before deciding to go with Wasabi based on ease of implementation and the straightforward pricing model. Using the Wasabi API, the company was able to redirect its storage to the Wasabi cloud by changing only a single line of code. The platform now provides cost-effective, immutable storage for thousands of frequently accessed audio files, without tiering complexity or egress fees. 

  • Flat-rate pricing – Eliminates fees incurred from accessing data in cooler tiers and simplifies forecasting for large-scale storage.

  • Active archive support – Audio files are written to and accessed daily or weekly, making access speed and affordability critical.

  • Future-proof data protection – Immutable storage with Wasabi Object Lock ensures audio files cannot be modified or deleted, supporting long-term accuracy.

Results

By moving its broadcast archive to a warmer cloud platform with Wasabi, iHeartMedia simplified access, improved cost control, and secured long-term data integrity. The team now retrieves archived content daily, without worrying about retrieval costs or storage complexity. 

Secure cloud devices

  • Predictable cloud spend – Flat-rate pricing with no egress or API charges resulted in simplified cost management. 

  • Reliable daily access – Teams access past broadcasts quickly and affordably, supporting production and compliance. 

  • Long-term confidence – Immutability ensures archived files remain unaltered and auditable over time. 

Simplify long-term storage and cloud cost management

Explore how Wasabi helps media teams archive and access content, without hidden fees or complexity. 

Build an Active Archive