Silicon Valley startup Concept.io has launched the Swell smartphone app, which automatically collects Internet radio and podcast content based on user interest. Swell tracks what content is played, how often, and what is skipped, using an algorithm to build a user profile. The app also tracks a user’s Twitter stream to identify areas of interest in order to add relevant audio programs. Swell is currently available for iOS, with Android on the way.

“It grabs shows from NPR, ABC News, Comedy Central, TED, and the like, based on how you advise the app about your interests,” reports Businessweek.

Concept.io emerged as an incubation project at venture capital firm Charles River Ventures. The co-founder and CEO is Ram Ramkumar, who was formerly chief architect for visual search at Amazon’s A9 search engine company and, before that, founder and CTO at image recognition startup SnapTell (the Amazon subsidiary acquired SnapTell in 2009).

“Swell was built to cater to people who like to listen to podcasts, radio shows, and talks — in their car or while exercising — and who think it’s a pain to pull so much audio into their smartphones on their own,” notes Businessweek. “For the moment, the company’s list of content partners looks limited and Concept.io has yet to reveal its sales model, so lots of issues remain to be worked out. Still, the Swell app seems to serve as a nice personal audio assistant, and the algorithmic smarts behind it work well.”

TechCrunch offers a positive review and compares Swell to the more established Stitcher app (the post also includes a 3-minute video demo).

“There are other apps focusing on that kind of content,” explains TechCrunch. “Stitcher, however, actually follows more of an on-demand model — you choose what you want to listen to (although there are also content recommendations). Swell, on the other hand, is closer to the Pandora experience, where you just open the app, hit play, and interesting content should immediately start streaming.”

Launched last week, the Swell Radio is currently available as a free iOS app. Ramkumar plans to eventually earn revenue with advertising and premium features.