The recent Infinite Dial Australia report from Edison Research shared some data points about the position of podcasts in that nation. The audio format was known to 72% of respondents, while 29% of Australians have listened to a podcast. We compare key metrics with the U.S. version of The Infinite Dial, released in March. Continue Reading
Amazon announced that July 11 will be Prime Day, a promotion where the online retailer offers a swath of big discounts. For RAIN readers, the notable deals include cheaper access to some of its subscription services. Continue Reading
Sony Music is opening an in-house vinyl-pressing plant. The new facility could open as soon as March 2018. The announcement marks Sony’s return to vinyl operations after nearly three decades; the label had shuttered its last vinyl operations in 1989. Continue Reading
Bite-sized audio platform Clammr announced that it is closing on July 2. The company shared the decision in a tweet on Wednesday. Clammr offered tools to create 24-second audio clips. “Thank you for all of the creativity and joy that you have shared with the world using Clammr,” the company said. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Stationhead blends playlists and radio. Gig.fm for music livestreaming. MUSO secures financing. Continue Reading
The breakthrough research report on smart speakers, The Smart Audio Report from NPR and Edison Research, is released today after the free webinar presentation yesterday. The research was originally presented at the RAIN Podcast Business Summit on June 21, of which NPR was the presenting sponsor. Continue Reading
Spotify is converting one of its popular playlists into a concert series dubbed RapCaviar Live. The streaming platform’s RapCaviar playlist has more than 7 million followers, and is the second-biggest global playlist on the service. Continue Reading
Pandora’s new interim CEO, Naveen Chopra, who moved into the temporary role from when ex-CEO and founder Time Westergren stepped down two days ago, is quickly in the spotlight. Chopra spoke at the 4th Annual Bernstein Future of Media Summit, and reconfigured Pandora’s strategic priorities. Continue Reading
Radio is the top source of audio consumption for Australians, with 85% listening to either an AM/FM or a DAB+ station in an average week. That’s the update in Edison Research’s new report: The Infinite Dial Australia. Commercial Radio Australia, Southern Cross Austereo, and Triton Digital commissioned the investigation into the digital media consumption of Australians. Continue Reading
Audio app Anchor announced that it now offers distribution to podcast platforms. The burgeoning audio program lets people record short clips onto their phone. Those clips were confined only to the Anchor app, but now users can choose to publish their audio recordings to Apple Podcasts and Google Play Music. Continue Reading
ESPN’s 30 for 30 podcast series (announced in RAIN News in March) launched yesterday, and the company released a sponsor lineup that includes four national brands. The announcement is significant as the podcast economy is at an inflection point, attempting to evolve beyond its reliance on DRM (direct response marketing) advertisers, and draw money from the big marketing budgets of national branding campaigns. Continue Reading
Personalized playlists are one of the big highlight features for streaming services, and the offerings frequently wind up overlapping. Apple Music has a new addition to its playlists called My Chill Mix. This list of 25 tracks will be updated weekly on Sundays. Continue Reading