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
Media intelligence company Samba TV has released Podcasts On The Big Screen, a measurement study of podcast consumption via televisions. The research is powered by Samba TV’s proprietary chip technology which is embedded in a global footprint of about 46 million TVs, 28 million of which are located in the U.S. There’s also an “identity graph that identifies users across devices. 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
We receive this from Spotify: “Starting today, Prompted Playlist is expanding beyond music to now include podcasts.” This ingenious feature can create playlists based on the user’s listening history and real-time signals. Click for video. Continue Reading
In what seems like a progressive and productive initiative, radio distribution giant American Public Media has partnered with enterprise streaming and podcast delivery platform Streamguys, to launch the Inform Media Network. The intent is to support noncommercial public media stations with a private, central marketplace for digital underwriting and sponsorship across podcasting and livestreaming. Continue Reading
American billionaire and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has launched an effort to acquire Universal Music Group (UMG), one of the world’s largest music ownership labels. There is a speculative acquisition cot of $64 billion. UMG stock jolted upward and seems to be holding. The takeover could be slowed or conceivably prevented by one family which owns a large share of UMG. Click for details and the chart. Continue Reading
Database and search engine Podchaser has released its first Power Score, a ranking success metric of recently released podcasts. This exercise is intended for advertisers, publicists, and researchers identify high-impact shows. The results provide a comparative measure of success and standing in the podcast ecosystem. Continue Reading
Audacy steps onto the mound (sorry, we’re taking a swing with the puns) with a bit of research and an announcement. The announcement is somewhat buried in the company’s summary of research findings, but we will reverse the order of events. Continue Reading