IAB Tech Lab has created and launched an industry council to address challenges of programmatic advertising. It’s called the Programmatic Governance Council, designed to bring together media buyers, media owners, and ad tech platforms to ensure that programmatic advertising’s automation and AI reshape digital advertising. Continue Reading
Audioboom released its Q1 financial report, telling a story of growth, record revenue, and new partnerships. Continue Reading
Following the announcement in March that Cumulus Media was headed for a second bankruptcy, we learn today that the plan is approved and moving forward. Continue Reading
Spotify Wrapped — the annual personalized deep dive into Spotify use — has become a branding meme. We asked AI to comment, and learned that annual Wrapped-like campaigns have increased since Spotify first launched Wrapped, and gave us a three-part answer detailing direct adaptations. Continue Reading
— Is radio still viable? (Jacobs Media)
— Circular (Michael Mignano)
— At the top (Cathy Csukas)
– All the hats (Morgan Wiedmann) Continue Reading
We learn from a variety of second-hand sources that DistroKid, an open-to-anyone digital music distribution service, is exploring a $2B sale. Prospective suitors are not identified, and this appears to be exploratory. Continue Reading
Audiobooks are popular, and consumption is growing. Likewise e-books. Printed books are more than twice as popular, but declining. Those results come from the Pew Research Center, which focuses on the persistent domination of print while acknowledging the decade-long incremental rise of audiobooks. Click for details and graph. Continue Reading
“A download is not a listen” — that’s a key message in Steve Goldstein’s latest guest column. He calls it “the download illusion” — a download is a metric of distribution, not consumption. This is key to the slow shift undertaken by the podcast industry to understand consumption realistically. Big platforms are moving beyond the download, and Steve discusses Spotify, YouTube, Apple, and Netflix. Then Steve extends the principle beyond audio to hotels (Marriott) and restaurants (Starbucks). “Radio knew this all along,” Steve asserts. There is also consideration of loyal fandom compared to large audiences. “You don’t need massive scale to build something valuable.” And more. This is one of the most compressed pieces of wisdom Steve has produced in this column. Continue Reading
Spotify has launched a feature which harks back to its founding purpose as an audio app — a set of toggles which turn off three experiences. Continue Reading
— Scaling the pod boom (AdsWizz)
— Tip-toeing through the tipping points (Podcast Movement) Continue Reading
Broadcast automation company ENCO Systems is announcing (pre-announcing, really) a new-and-evolved version of its aiTrack content insertion technology. The company describes it as “a fully cloud-native, automation-agnostic platform designed for modern broadcast environments.” The key function is scheduling AI-driven audio segments for live and automated programming. Continue Reading
Media consultancy and data company BIA Advisory Services has revised a previously released forecast of local ad revenue in 2026. The upbeat data separate digital media and traditional media. The headline number is $184 billion, and there are interesting stories in the details. Continue Reading