RAIN Notes: April 2
— Parallel moves (iHeartMedia)
— Grading season (Podnews) Continue Reading
For April Fools, History Daily Partners with Magellan AI to Monetize 16th-Century Podcast Advertising
Right on schedule, History Daily has released its annual April Fools episode. This year, in what we regard as comedic genius, expert historians uncovered leading podcast advertisers in 1572. The episode is freely available on Spotify. Click for link. Continue Reading
Streams up; downloads down. RIAA’s 2025 year-end report
The Radio industry Association of America (RIAA), the 74 year-old trade association of the record industry, has released its 2025 year-end revenue report. It delivers a concise review of total recorded music revenue and its components. Continue Reading
New audio ad service seeks reach + relevance
Audio/video streaming, podcasting and analytics company StreamGuys has started a new audio advertising service called SGcreative. Partnering in this venture is Nueva Network, a media company which specializes in targeting the U.S. Hispanic market. Nueva reaches about 600 radio stations… Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: March 30
— A unified experience (iHeartMedia)
— Celebration (Canadian Junos) Continue Reading
ChatGPT advertising watershed: A hundred million $ in six weeks
The ChatGPT advertising platform has reached a notable milestone: $100,000,000 (one hundred million dollars) in annualized revenue. OpenAI launched that ad platform as a test in February, and the proprietors are presumably pleased with the quick start. Continue Reading
Why not? New research identifies “podcast holdouts” — the 25% unlisteners
Research studies abound, measuring who listens to podcasts and how they listen. Much of that output is organized and presented by eminent audio researcher and Sounds Profitable partner Tom Webster. Such it is with the recently released presentation The Last Quarter: Understanding America’s Podcast Holdouts. The information in this package derives from a 2025 survey (“The Podcast Landscape 2025”) of over five thousand respondents. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: March 26
New phases and hidden risks — two podcast thinkers lay out divergent visions of podcasting.
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Trash(no)more: Reminder to radio as April 1 approaches
Attorney and digital media expert David Oxenford has published his annual cautionary note to broadcasters regarding April Fools tomfoolery. There is a law against announcing a fake emergency. Continue Reading
Apple formally releases HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) podcasts
Apple developed the HTTP Live Streaming video protocol in February, and released it publicly via the March 24 update of the company’s iOS operating system (v. 26.4). The program allows podcast creators to create high-quality video podcast episodes directly within… Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: March 25
– Catch-up (Paul Riismandel))
– Seats at the table (E.B. Moss)
Continue Reading
Podcasts are dominating (Audacy research)
Broadcasting and entertainment giant Audacy has released the latest in a seemingly unending streaming of industry podcast endorsements. The thesis of this one is that the expansion of podcasting is understated; the audio category isn’t only dominating — podcasts are… Continue Reading