Tencent is moving forward with plans for an initial public offering of its music branch. Tencent Music and Entertainment has appointment Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to lead the IPO, Financial Times reported. Continue Reading
SoundCloud has made its advertising inventory available for programmatic buys via AppNexus. A new deal between the parties brings buyers access to 15-second and 30-second pre-roll spots and in-feed audio and video spots on SoundCloud. Continue Reading
Google has made a move into programmatic audio advertising. The tech giant announced that audio ads are now available to all customers of its DoubleClick Bid Manager. The demand-side platform is rolling out the audio support with inventory from Google Play Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, and TuneIn. Pandora is slated to be added soon. Continue Reading
Entertainment hub and media player Plex announced that it has rolled out beta support for podcasts. Anyone with the Plex App can access the new feature now. Listening is available for free with a Plex account. Continue Reading
High 5 Media announced that it has acquired a majority interest in Spoke Media, a Dallas-based podcast company focused on branded audio. Spoke Media was founded by award-winning audiobook director Keith Reynolds. The company has created podcasts for Wondery, Midroll Media, Cinestate, The Dallas Morning News, and Busch. Continue Reading
London-based podcast creation/hosting company audioBoom has raised 500,00 GBP in its continuing efforts to secure operational capital, according to a May 25 filing on the London Stock Exchange website. The money comes from existing investor Candy Ventures (Nick Candy, 90% shareholder), and appears to fund audioBoom operations to June 30 at least. Continue Reading
Pandora announced a promotion for Lauren Nagel, a long-time exec with the audio company. Her new title is VP, Executive Creative Director, and in this role, she’ll be responsible for more broadly overseeing creative advertising work. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia is joining the bandwagon of original podcast production. The media conglomerate has inked a deal with Einhorn’s Epic Productions to create an original scripted podcast, the first for iHeartMedia. Continue Reading
A recent entry to the morning news niche of daily podcasting, START HERE from ABC Radio launched on March 28. The 20-minute daily news feature is a highly produced, crisply hosted competitor to Up First (NPR), The Daily (New York Times) and others. We engaged show anchor Brad Mielke in a Q&A over email. Continue Reading
Podtrac has updated its rankings with the top 10 podcast publishers and the top 20 podcasts for April 2018. The publisher ranking found that the U.S. unique monthly audience grew from the previous month for seven of the 10 publishers. The names on both monthly lists showed little change from the March rosters. Continue Reading
Corus Entertainment, one of Canada’s major radio/TV networks, has hired Dila Velazquez as Manager of Content/Audience Development. She will report to the recently appointed Chris “Dunner” Duncombe, who became Director, Streaming & Podcasting in March. Continue Reading
Apple Music has reportedly launched a new division for music publication. According to Music Business Worldwide, the division will work in operations, commercial, publisher relations, and A&R. The unit will be led by Elena Segal, who has been promoted from legal director of iTunes International to Global Director of Music Publishing for Apple Music. Continue Reading