The BBC is planning to create a new radio service that would act as a “Netflix of the spoken word.” Details are still scarce on this proposed plan, but it would involve paid access for BBC radio listeners outside the UK. There’s a fair amount to unpack in this development. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: BBC and it’s on-demand audio plans. Studies on in-car listening habits and preferences. Much, much more. Continue Reading
PodcastOne and leading Australian radio group Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) will jointly launch PodcastOne Australia in 2017. The deal marks an important internationalization of American-based podcasting, a dramatic territorial expansion of the PodcastOne brand, a milestone entree into the podcasting field for SCA, and a general lift for Australian podcasting. Continue Reading
Apple Music has entered an arrangement with Deutsche Telekom. Thanks to this deal, the German telecom is now advertising that its customers can have six months of free access to the streaming music service. Continue Reading
SoundExchange shared its data for Q3 2016 royalty payments. The company paid out $263.5 million in royalties during the period. That’s growth of 29.2% from Q3 2015’s $204 million. Continue Reading
Podcasting is in a boom, but the audio format still has a long way to go before achieving mainstream familiarity. Tools like RadioPublic seem designed to be an entry point into podcasting by making the discovery process simpler for a newbie listener. The question is whether this app can succeed in reaching them. Continue Reading
Dash Radio is a platform for free (and ad-free) radio. RAIN talked this week with founder and CEO Scott Keeney, who discussed strategies for making Dash a leader in lean-back listening. Continue Reading
Rubicon Project has entered into a partnership with ad-tech company Adform for programmatic audio advertisements. As a result, Adform’s clients will be able to buy 15- or 30-second ads on Spotify programmatically through Rubicon’s platform. Continue Reading
BPI, the British Phonographic Industry, has created a new initiative focused on bringing technology into its work in new ways. The BPI Innovation Hub will meet quarterly to connect tech companies with record labels. Continue Reading
According to Cowen & Co., Amazon Prime’s U.S. membership is about 49.5 million people. The third-party analysis is based on a panel of 2,500 U.S. consumers, since Amazon has not explicitly shared its Prime data. Continue Reading
Pandora is expanding its options for sponsored listening packages in the lead-up to the holiday season. The new choice is related to the audio streamer’s Pandora Plus mid-priced tier of subscription access, which allows listeners to replay songs and have more opportunities to skip tracks. Pandora’s latest ad addition is sponsored playbacks and replays, where non-Plus listeners can get those features for a limited time in exchange for watching a video ad. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Streaming and writing pop songs. Exploring podcasts for children. Continue Reading